Midlands Women Living in Las Vegas React to Shooting
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)- ABC Columbia talked to two women who currently work in Las Vegas. One of the ladies was actually on the Vegas Strip as the shooting happened and the other narrowly missed the tragedy by staying in.
Tara Harris-Nelson of Columbia says she does not visit the Vegas Strip often but last night when her sister came to visit, she decided to visit the MGM Grand when havoc erupted at the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort.
“We saw a crowd of people running towards us. We didn’t really understand what was going on. But as we stood there, more and more people started running. We started hearing, ‘There’s someone with a machine gun.” There was so many hundreds of people running that we just started running too,” said Harris-Nelson.
She said that’s when total melee hit the strip. “The scene was just pure chaos. You had older people that were crying. My sister actually saw a lady that had blood splattered on her, she had run in from the event into the parking garage and run into MGM. I got knocked over, I saw a younger lady get knocked over, it was just pure chaos,” said Harris-Nelson.
Meanwhile just minutes away, Natalya Robinson of Blythewood who works at another casino on the strip says she could have been one of last night’s casualties.
“I was supposed to go out over there and I didn’t just because I wasn’t feeling well. I very easily could have been really close to the area and close to the chaos,” said Robinson.
Though she missed the devastation, Robinson is still shocked the incident happened in the area where she works.
“You are always warned that working here can be dangerous, but it’s usually dangers of someone picking your pockets or something. Not a whole mass shooting. It was so close, I could have been there. You never think it’s going to happen right where you are, ten minutes away from where you live,”Robinson said.
Both women said the increased police presence is making everyday tasks a little harder to complete but they describe seeing citizens rallying around each other as the city tries to move forward.
