Kelowna couple feels lucky to be alive after man shot at Las Vegas concert

It was a trip to help Perry Ruhr celebrate his 50th birthday.

“Perry turned 50 this year and it was part of his gift to go to the ‘Route 91 Harvest Festival’,” Tami Ruhr said.

“We’ve had friends that have gone years prior and they said it was amazing. And we love country so we thought we would do that as part of our birthday gift.”

But what was supposed to be a celebratory night turned tragic when gunfire erupted during the three-day festival’s last concert Sunday night.

“It’s the scariest thing I have ever been through.” Perry Ruhr said.

The Kelowna couple was among the thousands of people forced to flee for their lives when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel.

“It was almost like a war show. Bulllets are flying all over the place,” Perry Ruhr said.

“The fellow behind me got shot in the neck and I saw him drop. And I seen other people getting shot in the back and they are just falling. I grabbed my wife’s hand and said, ‘run.’”

As the pair tried to escape the hail of bullets, Perry ended up being shot in his left arm.

“I just kept waiting for the next one.” he said.

Bleeding, the couple kept running through the midst of chaos.

“You are just bulldozing your way through people, doing what you need to do to get out of there,” Perry Rurh said.

Tami said a random concert-goer saw Perry bleeding and took off his shirt so that he could tie it around his arm. The pair eventually made it back to their hotel, which was put on lockdown.

“We told them at the front desk he had been shot and they set up a little triage in the lobby,” Tami Ruhr said.

“Then there was another scare that there was a shooter on the strip and in the hotel, so we were then shuffled behind the concierge desk and in the back hallways and we were held back there for a couple of hours.”

Perry Ruhr was eventually transported to hospital and treated for his gunshot wound, but because the bullet had gone in and out of his arm, no surgery was required. He was released from hospital just a few hours later.

The couple is relieved to come back to the Okanagan and is feeling lucky to be alive.

“Very lucky, yup, very lucky,” an emotional Perry Ruhr said.

While the couple admitted they are having a hard time not re-playing the tragic event in their heads, they said they are overwhelmed with love and support from friends and family.

“There are so many people worse than us,” Tami Ruhr said. “We are very fortunate, the love and support from all of our friends and family is amazing, we feel lucky, very loved.”

The couple, who have two teenaged daughters, said they will likely never attend an outdoor concert again and plan to stay close to home for a while.

As for his left arm, Perry Ruhr said that aside from some numbness he has full mobility, and it appears fine.

He will, however, be seeing a doctor on Thursday to have it looked at closer.