Cabby ‘not really a hero’
Las Vegan who drove five to safety says others should be praised for work
A Las Vegas taxi driver who drove five passengers to safety the night of the mass shooting on the Strip is tired of being framed as a hero.
“There were so many other people who put themselves in harm’s way,” Cori Langdon said. “I just stumbled upon it.”
Langdon, 58, a taxi driver for about seven of the 12 years she has lived in Las Vegas, sat at a desk at Desert Cab headquarters on Sunday, her first day back at work since the night of the shooting, and retold her version of events as they unfolded on Oct. 1. the Route 91 Harvest festival, to see what was happening.
“I wasn’t thinking I could warn anybody or anything. It just wasn’t in my mind,” Langdon said.
Langdon drove her cab across Las Vegas Boulevard and saw police officers crouched beneath their cars with rifles. That’s when she saw people begin to crawl over the festival’s fence and pour into the street.
She said she couldn’t believe that the shooter could be someone armed with a gun equipped to spray bullets like a machine gun into a crowd. “I just didn’t even fathom that it could be anything like that.”
One man was shouting “broken leg” as he helped a woman walk toward Langdon’s cab, and Langdon told them to get in. Not seeing any blood, she thought maybe the bleachers had collapsed.
Three more people jumped into the cab from the opposite side, and her cab filled with shouts about an active shooter, telling Langdon to drive as far away as possible. Two passengers offered Langdon $100 to take them to New York-new York, but she refused to drive toward the Strip.
“They were kind of mean, to be honest with you,” Langdon said. “But I have to give them a pass, because they had just experienced the most horrific thing they’d ever seen.”
She dropped the first couple off at a Vons and drove the other passengers to their Airbnb rental.
“I’m very sad for all the victims … and I’m so happy that all the real heroes are being interviewed,” Langdon said of the first responders, including paramedics, police officers and firefighters, There were so many other people who put themselves in harm’s way. I just stumbled upon it. who responded to the Strip.
Langdon also commended the Uber drivers who helped people flee, despite reports that there were more shooters at the Hooters Hotel, Excalibur, Bellagio and New Yorknew York.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t have gone back anyway, so that shows I’m not really a hero,” she said. “If I had to choose one word to say how I felt for a few minutes while it was happening, I was just clueless … and dumbfounded and in disbelief. Three words.”
Langdon has a strong affinity for the place she calls home and said she believes it will rebound from the shooting.
“I love this city. I really do,” she said. “I feel like, as a taxi driver, I’m an ambassador to the city, and I’m the first person (people) see when they come out of the airport.
“I just hope they continue to come back.”
Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @lauxkimber on Twitter.