‘ FIXER UPPER’ STARS CALL IT QUITS

The ‘Fixer Upper’ star on why he and wife Joanna are calling it quits

Stories from survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

A hail of gunfire terrorises 22,000 fans at a music festival in the largest mass shooting in modern US history

For Larry Parra, who was critically ill, seeing Jason Aldean headline the final night of the Route 91 Harvest Festival was a chance to celebrate all the good still in his life. Parra was turning 40 and his best friend, Jason Rogers, flew in from Minnesota with concert tickets as a birthday present. “He was happy,” says Rogers. For Aldean superfan Kelli Wilson, 46, the trip from Lubbock, Texas, was a celebration of her and husband Clay’s 28th-wedding anniversary. And for Brian Claypool, 55, the night of music under the electric stars of the Las Vegas strip was a bit of serendipity: The attorney had impulsively changed his flight home to Pasadena that afternoon after seeing the concert festivities begin to unfold out his window on the 24th floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. “I kept looking at that view—you could see the entire venue,” Claypool says. “So I’m like, ‘Man, when am I ever going to experience this again, right?’ ”

On Oct. 1 they and some 22,000 other music lovers packed the 15-acre concert site on the Las Vegas strip for what Aldean promised, in an interview with People before taking the stage, would be a “give it everything you got” special night. But the country star was just a few songs into his set when a staccato “pop-poppop-pop” stopped the music. From two blown-out windows on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, a man later identified by police as Stephen Paddock, 64 (see side- bar), sprayed the crowd below with at least one fully automatic weapon, raining down terror and chaos before turning the gun on himself. At press time, 59 concertgoers had been killed and another 527 were wounded. The shocking numbers make Vegas the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history—“an act of pure evil,” said President Trump.

Those who survived—and some grieving those who did not—share stories of unthinkable horror and extraordinary heroism.

Darian Hickey, 19, sophomore, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Jason Aldean had just started singing “When She Says Baby.” We were not far from the stage and thinking about getting food and, all of a sudden, I heard this pop. It felt like someone was walking around with a machine gun, I could feel it. Mark Gray, 37, People contributor, Las Vegas Pop, pop, pop. It sounded like a firecracker and one of the girls I was with said ‘That just hit me. My leg stings.’ The girl next to her said, ‘It hit me too.’ [Gray now thinks they were hit by shrapnel.] Whatever it was, it wasn’t strong enough to break the denim of their jeans. The shots just went on forever. It was relentless. You hear the pops and windows shattering. It’s hard to know what to think or do. We kind of realised at the same time, ‘ We’ve got to get out of here.’ Someone said, ‘Go! Go now!’ And we ran. Kristina Ambartsumian, 35, makeup artist, Los Angeles We took a picture at 10:04 pm on the

side of the stage. We were dancing and having a good time and we heard the first round of shots. The shooting started at 10:08pm. We saw a girl get shot right in front of us. We didn’t know where it was coming from. It lasted a good 15 minutes. Shaun Hoff, 32, casting director, Los Angeles My wife and I were right in front of the stage when someone started screaming and we just hit the ground. There was a pause in the shooting and we started running. We were just running through all of these bodies. No-one had any idea this guy was in the hotel because it sounded like the shooting was getting closer and closer. Brian Claypool, 55, attorney, Pasadena, Calif. [Claypool sheltered with 15 or 20 others under the bleachers.] You’re in World War III and with every shot that goes by, I’m waiting to get hit in the head. My visceral reaction was, ‘Keep running!’ but this dude’s like, ‘No, get in here.’ Five or six ladies, probably 20 or 21 years old, were all on their knees—crawled in together and hiding in the corner, crying. Clay Wilson, 48, and wife Kelli, 46, small business owners, Lubbock, Texas [Clay shoved Kelli under some chairs in the VIP section and draped his body over the chairs to shield his wife from the gunshots.] People started dropping, just dropping. We were all terrified. When my wife was underneath the chairs, she called our children to say, ‘ We love you and we don’t know if we will make it out.’ Our children were on the phone and they could hear the gunshots. Jason Rogers, 56, forensic toxicologist from Lakeville, Minnesota, was separated from his friend Larry Parra when the shooting began. He found Parra fatally shot. Larry was getting something to eat when I heard shots. It took me 30 minutes to find him. I saw him and freaked out. It was horri-

ble. I was less than five minutes from him.

Kenneth Zamora, 24, physics student at University of Nevada, Las Vegas I heard the gunfire. We thought it was people setting off fireworks. It was rapid fire. One bullet after another. You go into survival mode and look for your friends and look for cover. You don’t think who is shooting at you. You just want to get out alive. Rob Handley, 34, medical device salesman, Las Vegas It was like we were in a war movie. You could hear the gunfire, then hear the bullets slamming down all around us and breaking apart into shrapnel that was flying everywhere. We were laying in puddles of blood and my girlfriend’s friend was covered in blood. We thought she’d been hit, then we realised that the blood was coming from above us. It was literally seeping down on us from the bleachers above. The people up in the bleachers had been so shot up, that blood was seeping everywhere. As the chaos continued many in the crowd tried to help those who were hurt. Keigh Gale, 50, music manager, Nashville I have no reference for war, but it sure felt like a battlefield. Just a constant pop, pop, pop. We crouched behind a trailer near the stage, and

it was constant, steady firing. People didn’t trample each other and you were in a battle, with no idea where this person was, but people were boosting each other over fences, helping the wounded. Men tore their shirts off to use them to plug wounds.

Karen Gale, 44, publicist, Nashville, Tennessee

I will never forget the sound of that gunfire. There were lost shoes all over the ground, women being carried by boyfriends. If anything, I learned there is still humanity in this world. I saw it last night.

Lindsay Padgett, 29, an entertainer from Las Vegas

We didn’t hear gunshots for a little bit, so we were like, ‘All right, let’s go.’ We got to my truck and we just see all these people all over the road and this guy says, ‘ We need your truck,’ and I said, ‘Put them all in.’ There were four people in my back seat and four more [who were] shot [ lying] in the bed of the truck. People had fingers in their wounds. One guy died; he had been shot in his back. We were trying to get to the nearest hospital and the roads were blocked off. We finally got to the freeway and the ambulance there stopped us.

Damon Schilling, 34, manager for American Medical Response ambulance company, Las

People were doing anything and everything they could. Total strangers. People were letting others pile into vehicles. People were taking off their shirts to help those who were bleeding. Brian Rogers, 53, community ambulance co-owner and paramedic, Las Vegas [I was home in bed.] My daughter was at the event and she called me and said, ‘I’m being shot at. What do I do?’ She called around 10:05. Then I couldn’t get a hold of her. As I’m driving there, I’m coordinating with my personnel. We sent 26 ambulances. I don’t even have words to describe what it was like. It was almost like ... The Walking Dead.

Brad Sugars, 46, business coach, Las Vegas

I stayed with the police and handed out firstaid kits. Batteries were dying. People were helping people. A girl was wrapping a guy’s thumb and another person was bandaging a wounded leg. Everyone was trying to help— off-duty cops, SWAT [teams]. I saw police running towards the bodies. God bless them.

Zach Forner, 30, a sales manager, Redondo Beach, California

Forner hid under the stage before racing with his friends into the street. This guy whose car we jumped into was from China and only in the U.S. for 36 hours. He said, ‘ Wherever you need to go, it’s ok.’ It’s just crazy to see someone who was just in from a whole different country calming us down and very gentle. He was the bright spot of the night.

Heather Gooze, 43, bartender, Las Vegas

The crowd raced towards the bar where Gooze was working to escape the shots. After helping one man who had been shot in the head, she sat with victim Jordan Mclldoon after three men trying to help him brought him over on a maintenance ladder. I held his hand. His fingers were wrapped around mine. Jordan’s cell phone rang. We answered and his friend Conor gave us Jordan’s name. His phone was locked but Facebook Messages kept coming in, so I went on Facebook and found him, sent messages to everyone with the same last name. After we found his family, I promised them I wouldn’t leave him. I was with him when he took his last breath.

By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall. Reporting by KC Baker, Johnny Dodd, Chris Harris, Steve Helling, Diane Herbst, JD Heyman, Megan Johnson, Caitlin Keating, Lindsay Kimble, Christine Pelisek, Melinda Sheckells, Harriet Sokmensuer, Jeff Truesdell and Juliette Vara.

“So many people Vegas stopped to help those hurt” —First Responder Damon Schilling