A Millbrook, Ont., woman and her boyfriend from Newmarket say they’re fortunate but are still coming to grips with the shooting in Las Vegas.
“First and foremost our thoughts are with the people that didn’t get out of there,” said Elizabeth Heaton.
She and John Munroe were in the crowd for the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip when a gunman opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel. At first, Heaton wasn’t sure what the sound was, but Munroe reacted instantly.
“It was John who knew instantly that it wasn’t OK and we just dropped our drinks and we started running,” said Heaton who spoke with CHEX News on Tuesday at her home.
“We didn’t want to run into the massive crowd; people were falling down and we didn’t know what was happening. You just know you have to go.”
Fifty-nine people were killed and more than 500 injured in the worst mass shooting in American history. But Heaton and Munroe managed to get out of the chaos relatively unscathed.
However, Heaton bruised some ribs when Munroe helped her over a three-metre fence. They dashed into the chaos-filled street to try to make their way back to their hotel.
“We came across a girl — she was just in hysterics,” said Heaton. “She’d just lost all of her friends. She couldn’t find anybody. She was going back to the venue but we grabbed her and took her with us, then hung onto her until we found her friends.”
She says it took them three hours to reach their hotel instead of the usual 20-minute walk. Heaton says out of an evil act arose endless acts of compassion and humanity.
“I’m not about to understand for a second or pretend to know what can possess somebody to do what this individual did,” said Heaton.
“But the instant something starts to happen you’re around thousands and thousands of people you’ve never met before and everybody starts to grab each others’ hands and do what it takes.
“We’re going to be OK. It’s just going to take some time but Thanksgiving is going to have a whole kind of new meaning this week coming.”
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