As a terrifying assault of bullets targeted 22,000 concert-goers in Las Vegas on Sunday night, Kacy Thompson didn’t run.
He was at the country music show with a group of friends and his fiancée, Karen, who headed to the washroom minutes before the gunfire erupted. With no idea of whether his wife-to-be was safe or not, Thompson waited.
“I had no idea where she was,” Thompson told CTV News Channel in an interview on Wednesday from his home in Chino, Calif.
Thompson urged his group to run while he stayed back with two friends. From a room on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel, the shooter – who has since been identified as Stephen Paddock -- continued to unload bullets.
“We stood through four or five rounds, and there was nothing,” he said.
As they stayed put, Thompson saw a woman a few metres in front of him get shot in the head. He ran to help her, but she’d already stopped breathing.
That’s when they decided to run. In a brief window between the gunman’s reloads, Thompson and his friends ran for cover behind a nearby building and worked with the crowd to knock down a fence.
All the while, Thompson’s mind was still on Karen.
“I was so worried about my fiancée,” he said.
Moments later, Thompson’s phone rang. It was his friend, Kyle.
“He said, ‘I have Karen, we’re hiding in the back of a truck. Once he stops firing again, we’re going to run.”
The news that his partner was safe came as a relief. But Thompson said it didn’t motivate him to run for safety. Instead, he headed back toward the stage.
“Once I knew she was safe, that’s when my instincts kicked in and I had to help people,” he said. “I didn’t want to run. I didn’t have the need to run. I wanted to help these people.”
An emergency medical technician by trade, Thompson headed back into the crowd with his two friends. Dozens of bodies lay on the ground, many of them covered in blood.
“It was pitch black, there was gunfire going on, there was people shot from head to toe,” he said. “These pictures and videos do not do it justice at all.”
One by one, Thompson and his friends dragged victims out of the line of fire and away to safety. They brought them to an area behind a police cruiser, leaned them up against a curb and used ripped shirts and belts to tend to their wounds.
When they ran out of available clothing, they popped the trunks of the police cars, found medical kits and continued to treat the wounded.
“I just wanted to help these people. I wanted to get them to a point where they can possibly survive.”
Those brave efforts paid off. Thompson said he’s already been contacted by two people he helped who credited him with saving their lives.
He also heard from the family of one victim who didn’t make it, and they’ve asked him to meet in an attempt to find closure.
Thompson said it’s been a difficult few days since the shooting. He is struggling to sleep and admits that it can be difficult to talk about what happened.
But he credits the support of family and friends for helping him get through the ordeal.
“The community support has been amazing,” he said.
