‘My hero was shot in the back as he dragged me to safety’
Heartbreaking tales of tragedy and selflessness emerge as survivors tell of bravery amid the gunfire
‘I’m in complete ... despair. Sonny was the most kindhearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his’
A GRIEVING widow has described how her husband dragged her to safety before he was shot dead by the gunman at the Las Vegas music festival.
Countless tales of heroism are emerging amid the details of Stephen Paddock’s deadly assault. They include off-duty police officers who risked their lives to help people to safety and three British soldiers who administered first aid to the wounded.
Sonny Melton, a 29-year-old nurse, was among the 22,000-strong crowd at the Route 91 Harvest festival with his wife, Heather. They had been married for just a year.
She said she would have died if it were not for his quick actions when bullets started flying through the air at the packed concert. “He saved my life. He grabbed me and started running. I felt him get shot in the back,” she told a radio station in Tennessee.
“I want everyone to know what a kind-hearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.”
In a Facebook post she said she had lost her “true love and knight in shining armour”. “At this point, I’m in com- plete disbelief and despair,” she wrote. “I don’t know what to say. Sonny was the most kind-hearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his.”
His was just one tale of the extraordinary bravery on display during the most deadly shooting in America’s modern history.
Dozens of heroes rushed into action even as shots continued to ring out from Paddock’s 32nd-floor vantage point. Among the crowd were hundreds of off-duty police officers and military personnel who immediately began treating wounds and directing people to safety with no thought for their own well-being.
They included three British soldiers on leave. The unnamed soldiers from 1st Btn The Queen’s Dragoon Guards treated casualties and helped emergency services in the aftermath of the massacre, defence sources said.
The soldiers are believed to have been in Las Vegas on leave after their cavalry unit spent the summer carrying out exercises and training in the Californian desert.
It quickly emerged that officers from at least three police forces in California had travelled to Las Vegas for the event. Several were injured and at least one off-duty officer is believed to have died.
The names of the dead emerged gradually last night.
They included Quinton Robbins, 20, who worked for the local authority in his home town of Henderson, Nevada, and coached his younger brother’s American football team.
Kilee Wells Sanders, his aunt, confirmed his death on Facebook.
“Everyone who met him loved him. His contagious laugh and smile,” she wrote. “He was truly an amazing person. He will be missed by so many, he is loved by so many.”
Tyce Jones, who has known the Robbins family for 14 years, told Newsweek: “Quinton was a pay-it-forward kinda guy. Always had a smile on his face and was a nice guy. He loved his family and loved to coach his little brother’s flag football team. He will be missed.”
Another victim was named as Lisa Romero, a school secretary from Gallup, New Mexico, described as a “good lady” and a “wonderful woman” by friends and colleagues.
Krystal Montano, a family friend, wrote on Facebook: “Our friend was killed in the Las Vegas shooting, so, so sad my heart is heavy.” Gallup Sun Publishing wrote online: “Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Lisa Romero. Our thoughts and prayers also go out to her co-workers and the students of Miyamura High School during this difficult time. Lisa died last night during the mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV.”
Adrian Murfitt, 35, was from Anchorage, Alaska. His friend Brian Mackinnon, said “sadly, he died in my arms”.
“He is one of the happiest people I know,” Mr Mackinnon told a local television station. “Always in a good mood, and was nothing less than my brother. The wrong person died.”
The carnage turned bystanders into heroes. Lindsay Padgett, 29, said she knew exactly what to do when the shooting stopped. She rushed to get her pick-up truck. “We realised there were people everywhere that needed help and on stretchers,” she said. “People saw that we had a truck, so we said, ‘Fine, yeah,’ and started to pack everyone in.” She raced towards a hospital but stopped when she saw an ambulance at the side of the road. Paramedics transferred the most badly injured to their vehicle, including one person who had died from a shot to the back.
“The ambulance told us to follow them to the hospital with the rest of the injured people,” she said.
A stream of tributes were paid to Mr Murfitt online.
Angel Gonzalez, a friend, wrote: “Can’t believe you went to Vegas to have a good time and your life was taken too short. RIP my friend it was my pleasure to have known you.”
The dead also included Sandy Casey, 35, a special education teacher from Vermont, who was at the concert with her fiancé; Bailey Schweitzer, 20, from Bakersfield, California and Angie Gomez, also from California, who left school in 2015, and was remembered for a “warm heart and loving spirit”.