Former marine Taylor Winston showed true heroism and quick thinking during the Las Vegas shooting.
The 29-year-old saw an empty truck with keys left inside – he drove the truck back to the venue while the attack was still ongoing and used it to load people into the back.
He was able to use the truck to transport injured victims to the hospital and even went back for a second trip to rescue more wounded individuals.
Listen to Taylor’s story here:
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Three days after the mass murder, the owner of the truck contacted Taylor, who has since shared their text message conversation.
The truck owner made the following enquiry:
Hey Taylor told you might have the keys to my truck??
All I won’t [sic] is the key. Other then that it’s all water under the bridge to me and hows the people you hauled doing?
Taylor, who served as a sergeant between 2006 and 2011, replied:
I have em for ya. When do you want to meet for em? We’re at the Monte Carlo.
I took about 30 critically injured to the hospital. Your truck was extremely important saving those peoples lives.
I don’t know if they all made it.
Another marine, Brendan Kelly, also helped to save lives.
A young woman has recounted Brendan, who she’d only met hours before, saved her life on the night of the Las Vegas mass shooting.
At 10:30pm on Sunday October 1, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, Nevada, fired gunshots into the Route 91 Harvest festival crowds, as they watched Jason Aldean perform on stage, killing 59 innocent people and injuring more than 500.
Two hours before the horrific events Renee Cesario met Brendan Kelly, a Marine who would save her life during the massacre, the deadliest in modern American history, sadly surpassing the Orlando shootings of June 2016, where 49 people were killed.
Renee recounted the incredible encounter, beginning:
Brendan and I met only two hours before the Jason Aldean show. I left my friends so we could go up super close to the front for the end of the night.
We were just dancing and having fun and then all of the sudden there were loud noises that sounded like fireworks, but no lights were going off.
It stopped, and Jason Aldean kept playing but then the shots fired again and he ran off the stage.
Renee continued to recall the horror and Brendan’s bravery:
Before I knew what was going on, Brendan tackled me down to the ground and covered me from the fire. It stopped again and he looked around to see what was happening and then it just kept going.
He looked at me and said: ‘We have to get out of here. We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.’
Then he pulled my arm up to get me out of the piles of people. We had no idea who was dead or who was alive. We just started to run.
People like Taylor and Brendan are proof there’s still goodness in the world, even in the midst of grief and violence.
Our thoughts are with the families of those who were injured or killed in 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.