Social Media Helps Woman Find Stranger Who Saved Her Life In Las Vegas Shooting
BOSTON (CBS) –Tewksbury resident Barbara Langone survived the deadly shooting at a Las Vegas music festival. And thanks to social media, she was reconnected with the stranger she says saved her life.
Langone says she met the man a half hour before the shooting started and even though they just met, that man laid on top of her, shielding her from the gunfire.
That was the last she saw or heard from him - until Tuesday afternoon.
Langone had been searching social media for the last two days. Posting a plea on Facebook for help to find her hero.
"He was a hero to me. We were there, the front of the stage when it all started to unfolded. He reacted. I don't know what I would have done," Langone explained.
Langone described the moment she heard the gun shots and the two got on the ground.
"We went down and he just laid on top of me and said stay still. There were people who were around us who were hurt, which he was letting me know so I would know how serious the situation was," she said.
Though time seemed to stop, Langone says the bullets kept coming.
"He just covered me and was talking to me and every time the guns would go off I just clung to him because I didn't know what to do," she recalled.
When the two were finally able to get up and run, they got separated and were initially unable to reconnect.
From her Facebook post about the man she only knew as "John," Langone received countless emails and messages along with pictures of hundreds of other Johns until one matched her memory.
"Is this the John? Is this him? Is this him? And time after time it wasn't. Then I saw the one and as soon as I saw his face I knew it was him," Langone said.
Langone finally received the phone call, on the other end of the phone was the John she'd been searching for.
"All I can is thank you. I mean I don't even know. There's no way how to repay him. What he did was such a selfless act. I am blown away by it," she said.
Langone praised the power of social media for helping her get in touch with the man she says saved her life.
While her thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, Langone is still in disbelief everyone she was with made it home safe - including her hero.
