Woman stays with dying stranger for hours at Las Vegas massacre
One of the 59 confirmed deaths from Sunday night’s mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music concert was 23-year-old Jordan McIldoon. His final minutes were spent in the arms of a total stranger who never left his side, reports CBS News’ Adriana Diaz.
“It’s what you see on TV and it’s never going to be you. It’s never going to happen to you. And it was happening,” said Heather Gooze. She was working as a bartender at the concert and escaped the gunfire. But McIldoon who, according to his Facebook page, lived in Canada and worked in construction, did not. He was among the seriously wounded Gooze held.
“His fingers were kind of wrapped on my hand. His hand kind of squeezed a little bit, and then just, like, went loose,” Gooze said. Gooze was able to call McIldoon’s girlfriend, who was sheltering in place nearby.
“She said, ‘Be honest with me, like, what’s going on?’ And I said ‘He didn’t make it.’ She said to me, ‘You know, he’s the love of my life, like, are you sure?’ I said, ‘Yes.'”
There were dozens of stories like McIldoon’s Sunday night. People with little in common except for being caught in the crosshairs of a killer. Sonny Melton of Tennessee reportedly was running with his wife to safety when he was shot and killed. Charleston Hartfield was a 34-year-old Las Vegas police officer off-duty at the time of the shooting. Angela Gomez was a cheerleader from California
Slide 1 of 26: Victim of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Jordan McIldon, is seen in this undated social media photo obtained by Reuters October 3, 2017.
Rachel Parker worked for the police department in Manhattan Beach, California. Teacher Sandy Casey was remembered by her partner as a woman who, “lived life to the fullest and made me the happiest man in the world.”
Gooze says she’s not a hero — those are the people who ran in to save lives. While she may not have saved a life, she did save a family from the agony of waiting hours to find out their loved one’s fate.
