Describing it as total chaos, Red Deer’s Jason Beisick recounts the terrifying moments of last night’s shooting in Las Vegas - the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Beisick was in Las Vegas over the weekend for the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music festival. Last night in front of a crowd of more than 22,000, Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire, ultimately killing 58 people. Another 515 people were injured. Paddock was found dead after reportedly killing himself in the Mandalay Bay hotel room from where he was shooting.
“We were just enjoying some good country music when some quick shots erupted, which we originally thought were firecrackers,” he said. “That was followed by a hail of shots and everybody hit the deck and ducked down. Once we realized it was some pretty heavy fire, we got up and ran.”
Beisick added he and a group of people ran from the concert, scaled a chain link fence, ran across a parking lot, weaving in between buildings in the area before seeking safety in a motel nearby.
“Once we arrived at the place where we barricaded ourselves in, one of the people in our party had blood all over him - we’re not sure where from and one of the girls that was running with us had been shot. She didn’t even know it until we got to the other hotel where we barricaded ourselves.
“She had been shot in the back. She had laid down in front of the motel we had stopped at. Once we all went back inside I think the security that was on site tended to her and took her to the hospital.
“Today it’s finally registering (what happened) and we are processing it,” he said. “It is unbelievable. It is definitely a scary situation, at the time you don’t realize because your adrenaline has kicked in and all kinds of things are happening - you don’t have time to process it. Now looking back, it’s crazy. Over 50 people lost their lives and it could have easily been one of us.”