What seemed to be the perfect weekend in Las Vegas turned out to be a nightmare for a southeast Missouri couple. Kent Sisco and his girlfriend Mallorie Shriver of Piedmont in Wayne County attended the popular country music festival to celebrate Shriver’s birthday. They were having the time of their lives on the Vegas Strip Sunday night – until gunfire broke out.
Photo by James Walsh
“We were thinking about leaving. About that time, we heard pop, pop….pop, pop, pop. I said ‘What was that?’ She said it sounded like fireworks. I said ‘Why would they shoot off fireworks right in the middle of a song?’ After we thought it was fireworks, she said ‘Is that a helicopter?’ It was so loud and so fast. I said ‘No. That’s not a helicopter,’” said Sisco.
Then it dawned on them. The sound was clearly not fireworks.
“I was looking in one direction. She was looking toward the stage,” said Sisco. “We kind of turned around at the same time and were looking at each other. Her eyes were huge. She said ‘Run!’ That’s when everything just unloaded. There were people falling and just mass chaos.”
The couple was not hurt. At least 59 people have died and 527 people were injured from the mass shooting. Police said the gunman shot and killed himself before a SWAT team could break into his nearby hotel room.
If the festival is held again next year, Sisco said he will go because he refuses to let the shooter win.
Luke Turnbough of Missourinet affiliate KREI Radio in Farmington contributed to this story.