LAS VEGAS (WHDH) — Those at the outdoor music festival on the Las Vegas Strip when Sunday night’s mass shooting occurred are describing the terrifying moments the gun shots rang out and how they ran for their lives.
RELATED: At least 50 killed, more than 400 injured as gunman opens fire at Las Vegas concert
Fifty people were killed and over 400 wounded after police say Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street. Nearly 30,000 concertgoers watching Jason Aldean on stage were forced to make a last second, life-changing decision as the horror unfolded.
“I don’t think it will ever sink in to the depth of what you’re seeing now the amount of people but when we heard ten rounds of 100 bullets going off, you know that people were getting shot and dying,” said Andrew Akiyoshi, who witnessed the shooting.
“When we were coming out, we heard it and it sounded like fire crackers at first; I don’t know, maybe there was a fire work show. But it didn’t sound normal it sounded like machine guns,” one of the witnesses said. “It was like several rounds, hundreds of rounds. Then it stopped and it sounded like different guns shooting. Then it stopped a minute and then it started again.”
Some other witnesses said people were laying on top of each other and hiding under cars and bleachers to dodge the bullets and get out of the line of fire. Others said they were told to run as fast as they can to get away.
“There were people hiding underneath my car for cover,” one concertgoer said. “I had like six people in my car. There were people running without shoes to get away.”
“Everyone said ‘hit the floor’ so everyone was literally laying on top of each other. We were trying to get out of the way and the shots just kept coming so we were going down, and when we got down there was a man shot right there, they were trying to take him out. He was all bloody and unconscious and one of my friends was helping him out,” one concert goer emotionally explained.
Others described the shots sounding like fireworks and say they couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from. Some described it as a killing field.
“It was literally five minutes of shooting. Five feet from me you can see a guy with a bullet hole in his neck. People just kept dropping like flies,” one man said.
Many used their own cars to transport victims to area hospitals.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)