Canadians among dead in Las Vegas shooting
Two Canadians, a mother of four and a man just days away from his 24th birthday, were among dozens of people killed in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire from a 32ndfloor hotel room on a large crowd gathered across the road at an outdoor country music festival Sunday night.
Jessica Klymchuk, of Valleyview, Alta., and Jordan McIldoon, 23, of Maple Ridge, B.C., were among the 58 people who died in the horrific attack that also left more than 500 others injured, including an unknown number of Canadians.
Klymchuk was an educational assistant, librarian and bus driver for St. Stephen’s School, said the Holy Family Catholic Regional Division.
“The scope of this tragedy is worldwide and we are feeling its impact here at home,” the division’s superintendent, Betty Turpin, said in a statement.
A post on Klymchuk’s Facebook page says she got engaged in April, and was in Vegas with her fiance.
In British Columbia, a family member confirmed McIldoon was among the dead.
“It’s a terrible thing,” said the relative, who asked his name not be used. “I don’t handle it very well.”
McIldoon would have turned 24 on Friday and was a month shy of completing a course to qualify as a heavy-duty mechanic. His parents travelled to Nevada on Monday to retrieve his body, the relative said.
In a Facebook posting that could not immediately be verified, Heather Gooze of Las Vegas said she was outside the festival grounds when the Canadian passed away.
“I am with a young man who died in my arms! RIP Jordan McIldoon from British Columbia,” Gooze wrote. “I can’t believe this just happened!!!”
Those who were at the outdoor festival when the shooting occurred said it was only when the performer on stage dropped his microphone and ran that the true horror of what was unfolding dawned on the crowd. Their first thoughts as the sound of automatic gunfire resounded through the area turned to fireworks, many said.
“We heard the shots get fired, we saw the smoke,” Ashley Fowler, who was with friends, told the K-Rock radio station in St. John’s, N.L. “Everyone thought it was fireworks at the show until Jason Aldean dropped his mic and ran from the stage, so everyone started to run.”