CHICAGO (CBS) — Survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history said they’re “grateful to be alive,” and the images of the massacre in Las Vegas will forever haunt them.
As Chicagoans returned home from Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday, many were coming home forever changed due to what happened at the Route 91 Festival outside the Mandalay Bay Resort late Sunday night.
Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on the country music festival from the 32nd floor of the hotel, killing at least 59 people. At least 520 others were injured.
Thousands of others who were at the concert ran for cover, or simply ducked or laid flat in hopes of surviving the rapid-fire assault.
One of the survivors was Elisha Seng, who was still wearing her three-day pass for the music festival after arriving back home in Chicago. The mother of two said she doesn’t plan on going anywhere for a long time.
Seng said, when the shooting started, like many others she thought it was fireworks. Then she saw a woman right behind her get shot, and drop to the ground bleeding profusely.
She said she and her friends dropped to the ground for what seemed like forever, as bullets continued to fly overhead in rapid-fire succession.
“We saw so many people hurt, and that didn’t make it. The image of the woman who was shot, I mean she was standing right behind us, and she was just gasping for air, and she just collapsed. It was horrible,” Seng said.
When she looked around while lying on the ground, Seng saw more and more people getting hit by bullets. She said the smell of blood filled the air as people laid dying. That’s when she and her friends decided to run for it.
By then, many people already had cleared out of the concert area, so they were able to exit the danger zone fairly quickly.
Now, Seng can hardly believe she survived. She said she’s just looking forward to being able to hug her children again.
“The shots were going. We were down on the floor for like 15 minutes. I mean, at least that’s what I thought it was, and then we finally just, I’m like, ‘We’ve got to make a run.’ There was too many people dropping by us, so we ran, and I just wanted to get home to my kids. So we’re just grateful to be alive,” she said.
Fellow survivor Cindy Lazov said she still feels physically ill over what happened.
“Honestly, I got so sick to my stomach, I threw up. I threw up on the spot. I couldn’t, I couldn’t … it was … I’ve never felt this way. It’s a shock. I’m still shocked. I’m so sad. It’s a different kind of depression, because I’m actually sick to my stomach,” she said.
Lazov said she is still traumatized by what she experienced, and doesn’t know when the feeling will go away. She said she literally could not stop thinking about it as much as she wanted to do just that. She’s one of many Will be living with the trauma with the experience for a long time.
The gunman killed himself as a SWAT team was preparing to storm his hotel room. Police said they found 23 firearms in the room, including two rifles mounted on tripods, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Authorities also found another 19 firearms at his home in Mesquite, Nevada.
As of Tuesday morning, investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the attack, but authorities have said they believe Paddock acted alone. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the FBI has said they have found no evidence of ties to international terrorism.
from CBS Chicago http://ift.tt/2yUMxAk
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