Man who helped people has bullet in his neck
Jonathan Smith is likely to spend the rest of his life with a bullet lodged in the left side of his neck, a neverending reminder of America’s deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
Smith, a 30-year-old copy machine repairman, was shot while trying to help save people after a gunman opened fire on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas. He knows he’s one of the lucky ones, even with his severe injuries.
As the bullets rained down, family was Smith’s top concern. He had driven to Las Vegas from Orange County, California, on Friday to celebrate the 43rd birthday of his brother, Louis Rust, a big country music fan. They had scored seats close to the stage.
When the gunshots started, Smith initially thought they were fireworks. But the bullets kept coming. Then the lights went out.
Rust realised what was really going on and told the entire extended family — all nine of them — to hold hands and run.
Smith was focused on saving his young nieces, but they got separated in the crowd. He says he turned back toward the stage to look for them, he saw people hunched behind a sheriff patrol car at the northwest edge of the concert lawn. Others were so frightened they didn’t know what to do. He kept shouting, “Active shooter, active shooter, let’s go! We have to run”. He grabbed people and told them to follow him towards a handicapped parking area in the direction of the airport, away from Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a large field with several rows of vehicles. Smith and the others crouched down behind one of the last rows of cars.
“I got a few people out of there,” Smith said. A few young girls weren’t fully hidden. He moved towards them to urge them to get on the ground. That’s when a bullet struck him in the neck.
“I couldn’t feel anything in my neck. There was a warm sensation in my arm,” said Smith from the Sunrise Hospital lobby yesterday as he was waiting for his final discharge. He has a fractured collarbone, a cracked rib and a bruised lung. The doctors are leaving the bullet in his neck for now. They worry moving it might cause more damage. “I might have to live with this bullet for the rest of my life,” Smith said, grimacing from the pain. A large white bandage covers the bullet hole.
Smith believes an off-duty San Diego police officer saved his life. The officer tried to stop the bleeding and then flagged down passing cars to try to get Smith a ride. A pickup truck stopped and Smith was put in the back with several other wounded victims.
“I really didn’t want to die,” Smith recalled. The officer kept telling him he would be oka.
Smith later reconnected with his brother and found out that his family made it out safely.— Washington Post