Las Vegas Survivors Return To Southland
BURBANK (CBSLA) — More than 22,000 people were at the Las Vegas concert when the gunman opened fire in the crowd, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500.
Monday night many of the survivors were back home and telling their stories.
KCAL9/CBS2's Kristine Lazar spoke with people arriving at Hollywood Burbank Airport.
"There were people just 10, 15 feet from us that didn't leave," said Kami Ready of Moorpark.
Ready said she and her husband dropped to the ground when gunfire erupted.
"I then looked up and saw two men carrying a woman that was hit in the abdomen and she wasn't moving," said Ready.
When the gunfire didn't let up, people got up and ran for their lives.
"People are falling all around you and you're running. You don't know if you're going to get a bullet in your back and you just have to run," said survivor Kiley Viramontes.
"I thought I was going to get shot in the back," said survivor Wendy Theroux, who said she was rescued by a passing stranger.
"A guy pulled up in a truck and we jumped in and we all piled on each other and he drove us out about two miles away," she said.
Now back home and safe, their minds turn to the people waiting for them.
"My son's 16th birthday is today. Just lucky. There were a lot of people who weren't so lucky," Theroux said through tears.
They are relieved to be alive but life will never be the same.
"Don't take life for granted," said Viramontes. "You never think it will happen to you until it does."