Professional poker player Dan Bilzerian received heavy criticism after footage emerged of him running away from the Las Vegas massacre.
However, it appears Dan has been judged much too harshly and his full actions of the night have not yet been discussed.
New footage has since emerged which shows Dan, who is well known for his love of guns, begging police officers to let him help take down the murderer.
Dan can be heard pleading with officers to hand him a gun, however they refuse and appear insulted a seemingly random man would ask them to use a weapon.
In the footage, Dan can be seen getting his wallet out, apparently to show the police he has the right to use a gun – he can also be heard shouting ‘Give me a gun!’
A police officer replies to the offer of help with anger, saying ‘no, get the f*** away from me right now’.
Check out the new footage of Dan below:
As gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest open-air country music festival, he killed 59 civilians and injured a further 500+ concert-goers.
Dan Bilzerian took to Snapchat, sharing the horror of the night by posting a disturbing video through the popular social media site.
Gunshots can be heard in the background as the 38-year-old – who’s previously suffered two heart attacks – ran from the chaos.
The footage, which has been uploaded to Twitter, shows the macho poker player running from the attack saying he saw a ‘girl get shot in the face’:
In the video, he can be heard shouting:
Holy f***, this girl just got shot in the f****** head.
In the video, he then gives the following horrific details:
This is so f****** crazy. I had to go grab a gun, I’m f***** heading back.
It’s so crazy, some kind of mass shooting. Guy had a heavy calibre weapon for sure.
Saw some girl get shot in the face right next to me, her brains f****** hanging out.
War hero Dakota Meyer, who was awarded a Medal of Honor, described the initial video as ‘disgusting’.
Meyer responded to Bilzerian’s reactions to the attacks on his Instagram account, writing:
This is why children shouldn’t classify heroes by their followers or their photos.
@danbilzerian this is what kills me about people like you. Always playing ‘operator dress up’ and so so tough when the cameras are on.
However, Dan announced he would return to the horror once he’d picked up his gun and despite early reports, he did go back to the scene, but was still criticised for appearing to offer help at a stage where it was too late to do anything.
It’s clear Dan desperately wanted to help and hasn’t deserved the hate he’s received over the last few days on social media.
This just goes to show we shouldn’t be so quick to judge the actions of others, especially when they’ve been through a traumatic event such as this.
Our thoughts are with those affected by the Las Vegas shooting.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.