Array
It was the final night of the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.
Country superstar Jason Alden just finished a Facebook Live with my crew from SiriusXM behind the main stage before he would perform — and was the final artist of the three-day festival.
A few songs into his set, a lone gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino across the street, killing 58 people and wounding 869 — the worst mass shooting in US history.
Hundreds of us who were there are still scarred from that Oct. 1, 2017, massacre.
As the 11 minutes of bloodshed unfolded, Mandalay Bay went on lockdown. Brave officers faced the gunman on the 32nd floor while their heroic fellow cops tried to save festival goers on the ground — knowing they may not come out alive.
Gamblers in the hotel’s casino ran for their lives, and so did two of our SiriusXM colleagues.
Meanwhile, wild reports of more shooters caused chaos at other hotels along the Strip and triggered stampedes out of casinos and onto Las Vegas Boulevard.
Every little decision my SiriusXM colleagues and I made that night changed our lives forever.
I was on the fifth floor of the Mandalay Bay, trapped in my room and feeling caged as the shooter was on a rampage a few floors above. I had no idea if my SiriusXM colleagues were alive. To be honest, it may be that weed saved my life that night.
After we finished the final Facebook Live with Aldean, me and a few of my SiriusXM buddies smoked a joint to celebrate the end of our festival coverage before we started breaking down the set.
Normally we would be in the lounge for the artists, or backstage, or even on stage. But the marijuana slowed me down after three 15-hour days of Vegas heat and covering a music festival.
My SiriusXM colleagues who were on the ground with me — and are now mass shooting survivors — will forever hold a dear place in my heart. We all helped each other that night and the days, months and years afterward.
