LAS VEGAS (WHDH) — People onstage at the country concert on the Vegas Strip called loved ones when they realized the popping sounds they heard were bullets.
“I called my mom, my dad, my wife and told them this could be it. And you can hear the gunfire, rapid fire,” said Edward Villanueva, a drummer for the Josh Abbott Band.
Ashley Mitts said she received a phone call from her husband, singer Jason Aldean’s guitar tech.
“I just get a phone call and my husband says, ‘I don’t want you to wake up in the morning and see this on the news without me telling you but there is what sounds like machine guns going off and we heard running and I don’t know where anybody else is but I wanted to call and tell you that I love you and that, just to pray. Please pray,” said Mitts.
Mitts said as her husband was about to hang up, she heard gunshots going off in the background and they sounded like they were getting louder. Her husband managed to make it to safety.
Photographer Brandon O’Neal was onstage when the gunfire started. He said he first thought it was a technical problem until he looked into the audience.
“People are just climbing all over the fences trying to get out and people are screaming again and you just hear, ‘pop pop’ and it sounded like 50-plus rounds going off,” said O’Neal.
O’Neal said he hid behind a police car and saw people screaming as they ran by, covered in blood. As he left the scene, his friend helped get an unconscious woman into the police car.
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