Las Vegas shooting victim: Melissa Fierro, Whittier, California
California resident Melissa Fierro purchased three-day tickets to the Route 91 Harvest Festival to celebrate her 40th birthday with a friend. She remembers dancing and having a good time as Jason Aldean performed on stage when suddenly she heard “pop, pop, pop.”
“We thought it was fireworks,” Fierro told the Review-Journal Tuesday. “I remember thinking, that’s not funny — you don’t make gunshot noises in a crowd like this.”
As the noises started picking up speed she heard someone shout, “get down.”
“I laid on the ground with my friend and I kept saying over and over this is not happening,” Fierro said.
At 10:09 p.m. she texted her husband Anton: “Gunshots. I love you.”
Fierro and her friend Amber Brown quickly ran toward the exit when she felt a bullet hit her left shoulder. She ducked near a food stand where a man helped her apply pressure to the gunshot wound.
That night Fierro became one of more than 500 people injured during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history Sunday night.
The Good Samaritan safely led her to the ambulance before running back to help more victims, she said.
Fierro spent the night at Sunrise Hospital Medical Center and went back to her Whittier home with a bullet, which doctors say will do more harm than good if they were to take it out.
The mother of two boys, ages 20 and 16, said she is thankful to be alive.
Anton — who drove to Las Vegas as soon as he heard about what happened — said he is also grateful to have his wife back.
“We love each other so much,” he said.
Fierro added that the tragic incident wouldn’t stop her from going to concerts.
“Concerts are my happy place,” Fierro said. “I’m going to keep going, but I will be more wary this time. If I hear loud noises like that ever again I’m going to hit the deck right away. I’d rather look paranoid than get shot.”
Contact Sandy Lopez at slopez@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4686. Follow @JournalismSandy on Twitter.
