SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Seattle resident survives Vegas shooting, shares story
Oct 2, 2017, 1:37 PM | Updated: 3:11 pm
Drapes billow out of a broken window at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino Monday on the Las Vegas Strip following a deadly shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas. The gunman was found dead inside a hotel room. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)
(AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)
Blanca Ruiz-Gutierrez, of Seattle, says the three-day long Route 91 Harvest Festival went from an all-around great time to tragedy in an instant.
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“It was so quick,” she told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.
Ruiz-Gutierrez was with friends among a crowd of more than 20,000 when Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on Sunday. She and her friends ducked for cover and moved whenever the shooting would momentarily stop. They began seeing people dragging bodies.
“It seemed like an eternity,” she said.
Ruiz-Gutierrez locked arms with her friends. Then they moved their way out of the festival grounds adjacent to South Las Vegas Boulevard.
“We had one thing in mind, just get out,” she said.
Once they made it out of the festival, she said all she could think about is whether they were in the safest place. There were so many rounds fired that they believed there were multiple shooters.
Listen to the entire interview here.
Police say Paddock killed at least 59 people. More than 500 others were wounded. He reportedly had a cache of weapons with him.
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