ABC-7 speaks with attendee of Las Vegas concert that ended in 58 dead
Editor’s note: This story incorrectly reported when Lopez’s friend was shot. It has been corrected.
Sunday night Angie Lopez and best friend attended the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.
The two managed to get good seats to enjoy the entertainment.
“I was sitting in what they call the chair lounge area … roughly 100 feet from the main stage,” Lopez said.
Authorities say shortly after 10 p.m. Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on a crowd of about 22,000 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, several hundred feet southwest of the concert grounds.
Lopez said she did hear the gunshots.
“We thought ok, last day, last performer, they are going to shoot off fireworks,” Lopez said.
Lopez said it wasn’t until the music was cut off that she knew something was wrong.
“He ran off the stage and everybody started running towards us,” Lopez said.
Lopez said she told her friend, who asked not to be identified, to get her stuff so they could go but when someone yelled to get down on the ground, they did. That’s when Lopez realized how bad things were.
“She screamed she was hit and she asked for me to help her,” Lopez said.
Her friend was shot twice. Once in the leg and once in the arm.
“The scariest part was not knowing how bad it was,” Lopez told ABC-7.
Lopez said looking back, the hardest part of the incident was not knowing where to go.
She said all the fencing and barriers that were used to keep people out is what restricted people from escaping the shooting.
“People trampled over stuff just to get out of the way,” Lopez said.
After all the chaos Lopez eventually caught up with her friend who was in a medical tent as she was being treated for her wounds.
Lopez says her friend is currently in the hospital recovering. She says doctors need to make sure she will not lose the feeling in her arm.
As for Lopez, she says she still hears the gunshots and yelling from the victims.
“It’s as if you still walk around thinking you have a target on your back and that’s really hard to get past,” Lopez said.
