Acts of heroismemerge in chaos of Las Vegas,
Officials: Scores of lives saved by efforts of others.
RobLedbetter’s LASVEGAS— battlefield instincts kicked in quickly as bullets rained overhead.
The 42-year- old U. S. Army veteran who served as a sniper in Iraq immediately began tending to the wounded, one of several heroes to emerge from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Amid the massacre in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured, there were acts of compassion and countless heroics thatofficials say saved scores of lives.
Therewas a man one survivor knows only as Zach who herded people to a safe place. There was a registered nurse fromTennessee who died shielding his wife.
Like many people in the crowd of some 22,000countrymusic fans Sunday night, Ledbetter heard the poppop-popping noise and figured itwas fireworks. Then he saw people dropping to the ground. When more booms echoed in the night air, he recognized the sound of automatic weapons fire.
The gunman, identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant fromMesquite, Nevada, created his own sniper’s perch inside the 32nd floor roomat theMandalayBaycasino hotel, across from the concert grounds. He appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, and then killed himself before officers stormed in and found 23 firearms.
“The echo, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere and you didn’t know which way to run,” said Ledbetter, who was at the concert with seven people including his brother, who was shot and injured, and his wife. They found cover in a VIP area of the concert. Once out of harm’s way, he turned to injured strangers.
Thanks to a man who took the flannel shirt off his back, Ledbetter says he put a makeshift tourniquet on a woundedteenage girl, whose facewas covered with blood.
“Some randomguy, I said, ‘I need your shirt,’” said Ledbetter, who is now a mortgage broker and a resident of Las Vegas. “He just gave me the flannel off his back.”
Ledbetter said he compressed someone else’s shoulder wound, and he fashioned a bandage for a man whose leg was shot through by a bullet.
“There was a guy that looked likehehad a throughand-through on his leg, that we just put a T-shirt around and just did a bandanna tie,” said Ledbetter, who was outsideUniversityMedical Center on Monday, where his brother wasbeing treated for a gunshot thatwent through his arm and into his chest. He is expected to survive.
Ledbetter and others grabbed the injured man, carried him out to Las Vegas Boulevard, and put him in the back of a utility truck with five to 10 other people that was headed to the hospital.
Ledbetter said he would have helped more people but couldn’t clear the barrage of gunfire.
“I’m saving people, or trying to domy best. But it got to the point, I sawpeople all over, laying where we used to be standing ... just laying there and nobody getting to them and I couldn’t get out there. The shots just kept coming in and bouncing. I would have been in harm’s way,” he said.
Heworries that those unfamiliar with battlefields will suffer what they have survived.
“Everybody there is going to have emotional problems. I knowthat. Therewas blood everywhere I went: Excalibur, Luxor, on the Strip, on the street,” Ledbetter said. “All these people are going to have PTSD. I feel bad for all of them.”