L.A. firefighter in Las Vegas: ‘With 30,000 people ... it was kind of like shooting goldfish.’
More than 50 people were killed and at least 400 others injured after a gunman opened fire Sunday night at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, authorities said.
Firefighters in Los Angeles see a range of human tragedy in their work, from victims of horrible accidents and crimes to casualties of natural disasters.
But the violence that unfolded at a country music festival in the shadow of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday night was like war, said firefighter Robert Hayes.
“I think with 30,000 people ... in the arena area that it was kind of like shooting goldfish, unfortunately,” Hayes told a Fox News reporter. “[The shooter] didn’t have to be good or whatnot. It was just a reckless situation and it’s a sad, sad day.”
Hayes, who attended the final night of the Route 91 Harvest country music festival with his wife and friends, was getting refreshments near the front of the stage a few minutes after 10 p.m. when the first distant pops of gunfire broke through the sound of the live performance on stage.
Like many other witnesses, Hayes said he assumed the pops were part of the show or a speaker malfunction.
“Then all of a sudden people started dropping by the stage area and up front by us,” Hayes said. “It was pretty much like a war scene inside.”
Hayes said his wife and friends ran for shelter but his firefighter training kicked in and he began to help.
“It was hard to see,” said Hayes, a neon “FIRE” vest shielding some of the blood stains on his white T-shirt. “I know I pronounced [dead] 15 to 20 people inside.”
Concertgoers ran out of the venue as SWAT team members ran in, he said. People were using rolling freezers as gurneys to wheel people out to safety.
Hayes identified himself as a firefighter and authorities gave him a vest, he said.
“I was with another medic. It’s just something that we do. I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I wasn’t trying to leave anybody behind,” Hayes said. “In the parking lot, on the back side of Mandalay Bay, I was doing a staging area with some of the bodies I was dragging up the stairs, which was really sad.”
The gunfire came from a room high up in the Mandalay Bay, officials said. Nevada resident Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire from 32nd floor of the hotel and killed at least 50 people in the crowd, according to police. More than 500 others were injured. Police said Paddock fatally shot himself before officers could confront him.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.
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