I am a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas. I was standing stage left, about 10 rows from the stage in what later became known as the “kill zone.” Before everyone knew what was going on and before the music stopped, I saw a young lady behind me get shot in the chest. I saw the blood stain grow, right over her heart and watched her fall to the ground.
The scariest thing about the shooting was knowing that my family that was with me was in harms way. I was determined to stay alive to make sure they were safe. I was also scared for my mom to possibly lose one of her two kids, as we were both there. IDK if she could have handled that, so I knew I had to stay safe and find my brother.
I called my mom during the shooting. I didn’t think the call went through, but it did. She listened to the chaos and gunfire (because I dropped my phone) until my fiancé called her to tell her they didn’t know where I was. She said that was the worst call of her life.
As I ran out of the venue, I ran by bodies, jumped over bodies and I even took cover lying right next to a beautiful lady in a white dress with a fatal gunshot to the head when the gunshots rang out again. One thousand one hundred rounds where shot at us that night. Fifty-eight people died, and there where hundreds of injuries, I believe nearly 500 gunshot wounds. I had blood splatters on my leg, on my shoes and on my shorts and on the backpack I was carrying.
I wore my concert wristband for a couple of months after the concert and then decided to tattoo my concert wristband on my wrist because Route 91 is with me everyday. I am thankful to be alive today. I am thankful to all of the heroes from that day. My life has been forever altered by gun violence, and I wouldn’t wish this kind of trauma on my worst enemy. To me, one innocent life due to gun violence is one too many. This is the short version of my gun violence story!