As of now, at least 59 people are reported dead and another 527 injured after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival on the Las Vegas strip last night. Though the victims have not yet been confirmed, accounts from those who survived the shooting have been pouring in all morning.
"One guy ended up dying in my arms"
“It sounded like some fireworks going off. All of a sudden, my buddy was like ‘I got hit.’ He got hit three times. People started diving toward the ground and it just continued. It was pretty chaotic, lots of people got hit.
We had to get [my friend] over the fence, and [we were] hiding under the stage for awhile to be safe. Finally [we] had to move him because he had three chest wounds — and [we] got him out here [with four other people] in the back of a truck... We finally got an ambulance right across the street here and we got two of the guys in. Basically, the one guy ended up dying in my arms because he was bleeding.” — a concert-goer told ABC News.
"I thought someone was being a jerk and popping firecrackers"
"I thought someone was being a jerk and popping firecrackers, because the music kept playing. But then all of a sudden the lights flickered and someone started yelling, 'Get down! It's a shooter!' There was mass chaos — we were laying flat on the ground listening to the pops of the gun, wondering if we were going to die. Then we ran — we ran as fast as we could. We couldn't tell which direction the shots were coming from, but I was just like, We have to get out of here." — Jamie Vazquez told Marie Claire.
"My husband said, 'That's not firecrackers. That sounds like a semi-automatic rifle'"
"We went there to see Jason Aldean. He came on, he sang about five songs, and all of a sudden we heard about three or four little pop, pop, pops. Everybody looked around and said, 'Oh, it's just firecrackers.' And it just kept going and going, and my husband said, "That's not firecrackers. That sounds like a semi-automatic rifle.' Then everybody started screaming and started to run. I looked over to my right where this girl had been standing right beside me — she stood there and she grabbed her stomach and she looked at her hands and her hands were all bloody, and she was wearing a little crop top and blue jean shorts and cowboy boots, and she looked at her hands and her hands were bloody, and she just kind of screamed and she just fell back." – Gail Davis told CBS.
"People just started dropping around us"
"People just started dropping around us and everybody tried to stay down. Every time a group would get up to try to run away, [the shooting would start] again. [The shots] were getting closer and people were going, 'There's someone shooting right there!' [There were] a lot of dead bodies, a lot of people were just piling on top of whoever even if they're bleeding or not. People holding people's wounds down. Girls were in shock and wouldn't even move." — a concert-goer told CBS (via ABC News).
"Our children were on the phone and they could hear the gunshots.”
“People started dropping, just dropping. I got my wife under the chair she was in and I laid on top of the chairs to shield her. In my head I just wanted to save my wife... When my wife was underneath the chairs, she called our children. She called our children to say, ‘We love you and we don’t know if we will make it out.’ Our children were on the phone and they could hear the gunshots.” — Clay Wilson told PEOPLE.
"I was just calling my mom to tell her that I loved her and goodbye"
"We're just all sitting there, looking at each other thinking that we're gonna die. A security guard got shot right in front of us. Another guy got shot right next to me. We just thought we were gonna die, so I called my mom to be honest with you. I was just calling my mom to tell her that I loved her and goodbye." – a concert-goer told ABC News.
"There were people hiding underneath my car for cover"
"My husband and I ran out toward our car, and there were people hiding underneath my car for cover. There was a gentleman who was shot and he said, 'Can you help me?' And so I put him in my car. I had like six people in my car, people without shoes, running, just to get away." – a concert-goer told CNN affiliate KLAS.
"Everybody just started yelling, 'Get down!' So I put my baby on the ground and got on top of her"
"Thankfully we were toward the back of everything; we heard what we thought were fireworks. It took a couple of seconds to realize it wasn't and that's when everybody started yelling, 'Get down!' So I put my baby on the ground and got on top of her and when we heard a little break, we ran to the bleachers that were just behind us. Then we kind of realized that that maybe wasn't the best idea either, so we took off to the Tropicana Hotel, which was just next door and there was quite a crowd getting there." – Carly Krygier told CNN.
"A girl running alongside me was shot in the neck... I don't know what happened to her."
"[My friend and ] had just walked backstage when I heard what I assumed was firecrackers going off. 'That’s really stupid. Why is someone lighting up fireworks in a crowd like this'? I thought to myself. It even smelled like fireworks. But then I realized that the smell was actually gunpowder.
Bullets ricocheted off of metal equipment. We fled, seeking cover behind a nearby tour bus. A man running towards me fell to the ground just five feet away. I thought he had tripped, but then I saw the blood: he had been shot in the leg. Someone called for a belt to use as a tourniquet. I took mine off and I threw it in their direction. We kept running... A girl running alongside me was shot in the neck. She fell to the ground. I don't know what happened to her. I ducked underneath another bus, waiting for the gunfire to stop. But it kept coming. It went on for about 20 minutes in all. It didn’t even sound real — it sounded like a videotape." — Michaela Gallo told Refinery29.
"There was an [injured] girl in a wheelbarrow and she wasn’t moving"
"When we were leaving we realized there were people everywhere that needed help and in stretchers – there was an [injured] girl in a wheelbarrow and she wasn’t moving. We didn’t know where the hospital was so we were like, 'Where do we go, where do we go,' and the ambulance told us to follow them to the hospital with the rest of the injured people. I’m surprised, I really am, that no one I know was injured – I thought for sure we were all going to die.” — concert-goer Lindsey Padgett told ABC News.
"You could not stop to help anyone because the gunshots were still going"
“My wife and I were right in front of the stage when someone started screaming, ‘Everybody down, get down,’ and we just hit the ground. At that point, the music stopped and at the same time, the shooting stopped, but [only] for about a minute. There were bodies all over the place…we were just running through all of these bodies. It was nuts. There were people bleeding all over the place and you could not stop to help anyone because the gunshots were still going. No one had any idea this guy was in the hotel, because it actually sounded like the shooting was getting closer and closer.” -concert-goer Shaun Hoff told PEOPLE.
"We jumped walls, climbed [over] cars, ran for our lives"
"The news said it all. We were there enjoying our time, and it was very obvious it was gunfire coming down into the crowd. It was hysteria. There were people trampled. We jumped walls, climbed [over] cars, ran for our lives. I’ve never run that hard or been that scared in my whole life." —concert-goer Jackie Hoffing told The Guardian.
"One of my former students was next to me and he says, 'I've been hit.'"
"I looked over and I didn't see any blood on him. [I was] just trying to check him. And, you know, a couple of girls, we covered them. The one next to us was bleeding. They said to everyone, 'Move down to the bleachers' ... Everybody shut their phones off and waited out ... You were just trying to get everybody out. People were going crazy. —concert-goer Ty De Trinidad told Billboard.
"It sounded like it was on top of us"
"We had a sinking feeling that maybe he's shooting an automatic weapon from the top of the Mandalay Bay. It's kind of what everyone was thinking. Everybody got down, and we tried to get as low to the ground as possible. I turned around to find my aunt, and I'll never forget her face. We made eye contact, and it was that look like 'Are we about to die?' You could hear the bullets hitting, ricocheting, and it's kind of one of those moments where you don't know what to do, but you try to get out of there." —concert-goer Bubba Derby told MLB.com.
Tess Koman covers breaking (food) news, opinion pieces, and features on larger happenings in the food world. She oversees editorial content on Delish. Her work has appeared on Cosmopolitan.com, Elle.com, and Esquire.com.
