By JAY REEVES and DON BABWIN Associated Press Through tearful stories of last moments together and in heart-wrenching tributes, relatives and friends are remembering the…
Through tearful stories of last moments together and in heart-wrenching tributes, relatives and friends are remembering the dozens of people killed in the shooting massacre on the Las Vegas strip.
A woman recalled how her husband shielded her from gunfire only to die himself on their anniversary. Siblings absorbed the news that their beloved big brother was gone. Co-workers gazed silently into flickering candles at a vigil for one victim, a former cheerleader who loved country music.
Relatives of another victim waited for hours before getting the worst news imaginable – that a mother of two who was initially listed as missing had died. A man who loved the outdoors was recalled for his smile – wide and freely given.
Here’s a glimpse at some of the people who died after a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of a hotel onto a crowd of more than 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.
HUSBAND PROTECTED WIFE ON ANNIVERSARY
Laurie Beaton was at the festival with her husband Jack celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary when they heard what sounded like firecrackers. Like everyone around her, she was looking around to see who was lighting them when she felt something like air rush past her arm.
“I’ve never experienced gunshots but when I felt air go right past my arm I told my husband, ‘I don’t think that’s fireworks,'” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Bakersfield, California.
“He told me, ‘Get down, get down, get down,'” and put his own body on top of hers for protection, she said. “He told me, ‘I love you, Laurie’ and his arms were around me and his body just went heavy on me.”
Suddenly, she knew her husband had been shot. “I screamed his name and he wasn’t answering me, there was a lot of blood,” she said.
Another man, someone who told her he was a nurse and an EMT, ran up and told her to put her husband on his side. Helping, she saw blood and heard her husband struggling to breathe.
As quickly as the shooting stopped it started again and now, with lights on, the man told one of the husband’s friends who attended the festival with them to take the women to safety.
“So we ran,” she said.
Later, friends told Laurie Beaton wasn’t on the ground anymore. “He had been moved so we were optimistic that he’d received help,’ she said.
Calls to hospitals in search of Jack Beaton turned up nothing. Eventually she called the coroner’s office, which said her husband was among the dead.
On Tuesday morning she was back home, trying both to comfort a 20-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter who had just lost their father and be comforted by them.
Beaton said her husband, a 54-year-old construction worker, wouldn’t want much said publicly about his death. But she wanted people to hear how he had protected her, just as he always had done.
“I knew every day that he would protect me and take care of me and love me unconditionally, and what he did is no surprise to me, and he is my hero,” she said.
NEVADA OUTDOORSMAN: ‘THE KID WAS LOVED BY EVERYONE’
Quinton Robbins was the big brother who coached his little brother’s flag football team, the prom king who was nice to everyone regardless of their high school social standing, an outdoorsman who loved to fish and boat around the lake.
“The kid was loved by everyone,” said his uncle, Mike Wells. “He was popular in high school, but would walk up to the kid who wasn’t so popular and befriend him and make him feel good.”
Robbins, 20, was among the people killed Sunday in Las Vegas. He died moments after a bullet struck his chest and exited through his lower back.
Robbins was up on his knees, looking for a spot to take his girlfriend for shelter, when he was hit, said Wells, recounting Robbins’ girlfriend’s account of the terrifying moments.
“I think I got shot,” Robbins looked at her and said before collapsing.
“He died probably within seconds after the bullet hit him,” Wells said.
His parents sat beside Robbins, who had already died, until about 5 or 6 in the morning, Wells said, before rushing home to make sure they could tell his 11-year-old brother the news themselves.
Robbins was an active member of the Mormon church and had hoped to go on a mission before he was diagnosed with diabetes several years ago, Wells said. He worked for the athletic department in his home city of Henderson, Nevada.
“The positive impact he had on everyone was huge,” Wells said.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CONCERT DATE ENDS IN TRAGEDY
Heather Warino Alvarado made the three-hour drive from her southern Utah home to Las Vegas to get away for the weekend and take her daughter to a country music festival.
Her daughter was unharmed in the Sunday night shooting, but the 35-year-old Warino Alvarado was one of at least 59 people killed when a gunman opened fire at the concert-goers.
Friends and family received confirmation she had died Monday night from Las Vegas police, according to a news release Tuesday from the Cedar City Fire Department, where her husband was a firefighter.
Warino Alvarado ran an in-home day care center in Cedar City, Utah, and was a devoted wife and mother of three children who was always willing to help others, said longtime friend Megan Jackson Gadd.
“She has made huge impacts on those around her with even the smallest gestures,” Jackson Gadd said in a Facebook messenger conversation. “A person like her will never be replaced or forgotten and will be missed dearly every day for the rest of our lives.”
‘HE’S OUR ONLY SON’: A WISCONSIN FATHER MOURNS
Steven Berger, of Shorewood, Minnesota, traveled to Las Vegas as he had many times before with his friends, but this time they would celebrate his 44th birthday.
A fan of country music, Berger and his roommate along with four others were enjoying the Jason Aldean show near the Las Vegas strip when the rain of bullets began from the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel.
Mary Berger, 72, of Brookfield, Wisconsin, said her son’s roommate called hours later to tell them Steven had been hit by gunfire and collapsed to the ground.
“He tried to go to him but they were trying to get people out of the way,” Berger said. He wasn’t sure where Steven wound up, she added.
Steven’s father, Richard Berger, said the family was notified by the coroner’s office in Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon that he had died.
“He’s our only son,” Berger said choking up. “It’s terrible. At least now we know. Now we got busy things to do with three grandchildren.”
Mary Berger described her son, a father of three, as fun-loving with a serious side and a hard worker. He played basketball in high school and college before he started his career as a financial adviser after graduating from St. Olaf College in 1995.
CALIFORNIA WOMAN REMEMBERED AS ‘THE PERKY ONE’
A one-time high school cheerleader who loved country music, Bailey Schweitzer of Bakersfield, California, went to the Route 91 Harvest Festival to see some of her favorite acts.
A day after the 20-year-old’s death, co-workers at the software company where she worked held a vigil. Friends and colleagues gazed at white candles lit in her memory Monday night.
“No one could possibly have a bad day when Bailey was around,” said a statement by Fred Brakeman, chief executive officer of Infinity Communications and Consulting, Inc., where Schweitzer was a receptionist.
“If you have ever called or visited our office, she was the perky one that helped direct you to the staff member you needed,” he said.
Schweitzer graduated in 2015 from Centennial High School, where she was a member of the cheerleading squad. On social media she often posted photos from Bakersfield Speedway, a dirt auto-racing track that her family owns.
‘EVERYBODY STARTED RUNNING FOR COVER AND THE GUY KEPT SHOOTING’
Thomas Day Jr. was a big country music fan, so there was no doubt he’d go to the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, and that he’d take his whole family with him.
Day, 54, of Corona, California, was one of 59 people killed by a gunman who sprayed the concert with bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
“He was just a fun-loving boy, a great family man who loved to spend time with his family,” said Thomas Day Sr. who spoke on the phone, surrounded by his son’s four grown children at his Las Vegas area home.
The elder Day, who lives near Las Vegas, said he was at home Sunday night when he received a frantic telephone call from his grandson and a granddaughter.
“They were standing right there and they said he and another young man there both took a bullet in the head,” said Day, 75. “Everybody started running for cover and the guy kept shooting.”
Day said none of his grandchildren were struck by bullets, but his son was. A friend rushed Thomas Day Jr. to a hospital but there was nothing doctors could do.
Struggling to speak, Day said his son loved his three daughters and son and his two grandchildren. The whole group jumped at the chance to drive to Las Vegas for the show.
“We always had fun together,” he said.
A GRUELING SEARCH FOR A MISSING WOMAN, AND THEN THE WORST
Stacee Etcheber of Novato, California, was listed as missing for hours before her family found got the worst possible news: The mother of two was dead.
At the concert, her husband told her to hide, then to run, as he helped a concertgoer next to him who had been shot, said Al Etcheber, her brother-in-law.
Her husband, Vincent Etcheber, is a San Francisco police officer, and his training kicked in immediately when shots rang out, Al Etcheber said.
He told Stacee and the couple’s three friends to protect themselves behind a nearby barrier. Then he told them to run, just before the second round of shots rang out, Al Etcheber said.
He has not heard from Stacee since, and she was not carrying an ID.
“It’s been a grueling 15 hours with no information,” Al Etcheber said Monday. On Tuesday morning, he posted on Facebook that the worst fears had been realized – she was dead.
Stacee, 50, worked as a hairdresser. Al Etcheber called her a loving wife and great mother who was “tough as nails and just the salt of the earth.”
‘I CAN HEAR HER LAUGH … RIGHT NOW’
Neysa Tonks’ employer remembered her as a “great mother, colleague and friend.”
The 46-year-old mother of three boys worked for the Las Vegas office of Technologent Inc., which offers technology solutions to companies. She was killed in the shooting rampage at the concert.
“Neysa has brought so much joy, fun and laughter to Technologent – she will be greatly missed by all!” said a statement posted by the California-based company.
The company has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to help her family.
Tonks grew up in Utah. Her brother, AJ Yerage, told the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City that he felt “lucky” that Tonks was a part of his life and that she loved making jokes.
“I can hear her laugh, her voice in my head and my heart right now,” Yerage told KUTV.
