Las Vegas concertgoers describe a 'heartbreaking' and 'unreal' scene of chaos and heroism


When the sound of pops rang out Sunday night during the last concert of the last day of the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival, concertgoers thought they would see fireworks.
"We were watching the concert having a great time," one witness told the Las Vegas Sun, "then we hear what sounded like firecrackers."
"But then you realized that's not what it is because people are crouched and they're screaming," another witness told the Las Vegas Sun. "We just wanted to stay together so we held hands and ran together. Then every time we would hear shooting we would duck and keep running."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel, suspected gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd of thousands. At least 50 people were killed and 400 injured in what is one of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
As the shooting rang out, concertgoers dropped to the ground. People hid behind fences and under seats, bleachers, and cars. One woman reportedly took cover in a sewer.
"It just kept coming," one witness told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"My sister, being as noble as she is, threw herself on top of me and said, 'I love you Taylor,'" concertgoer Taylor Benge told CNN.
"I looked over to my right where this girl had been standing right beside me," attendee Gail Davis told CBS This Morning. "First, she stood there and she grabbed her stomach and she looked at her hands and her hands were bloody, and she just kind of screams, and she just fell back."
Davis and her husband urged the girl to run and the three were corralled into a tented area by a police officer. "The officer actually covered up to protect me from being shot because I couldn't get out all the way," she said. The scene, Davis said, was "heartbreaking" and "unreal."
Amid the chaos and the sea of bodies, people were seen holding the injured, covering their wounds, and piling people into cars headed to the hospital.
"I saw police officers, while everyone else was crouching, police officers standing up as targets, just trying to direct people to tell them where to go," one witness told Today. "The amount of bravery I saw, words can't describe what it was like."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
-
Team Trump brings the MAGA playbook to Albania's elections
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The architects of the president's 2024 victory are looking east to extend their populist reach
-
Narco subs are helping fuel a global cocaine surge
The Explainer Drug smugglers are increasingly relying on underwater travel to hide from law enforcement
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
-
Giant schnauzer wins top prize at Westminster show
Speed Read Monty won best in show at the 149th Westminster Kennel Club dog show
-
Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar take top Grammys
Speed Read Beyoncé took home album of the year for 'Cowboy Carter' and Kendrick Lamar's diss track 'Not Like Us' won five awards
-
The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own room
Speed Read The world's most-visited art museum is getting a major renovation
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talks
Speed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tour
Speed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamation
Speed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia