Twelve off-duty firefighters were shot in Sunday night’s massacre at a country music festival, including two who were performing CPR on victims when they
were hit.
Another off-duty first responder at the concert had to tell people to leave their dead loved ones behind and get to safety.
Those harrowing details emerged Tuesday at a news conference held by the Professional Fire Fighters of Nevada at the Las Vegas Fire Fighters Union Hall, where uninjured firefighters described what they did when the shooting began.
Las Vegas paramedic and firefighter Benjamin Kole described the moment when bullets began to rain down on the crowd of thousands of concertgoers.
Kole said his friend, who is a corrections officer, knocked him to the ground and shielded him from the barrage.
Seconds later, the two took cover.
“At that time, I realized that my daughter was still there,” Kole told a room of reporters.
Kole’s 20-year-old daughter Rachel was working the event for an ambulance company. The gunfire continued for several minutes, but Kole said he never heard another shot as he searched for his daughter.
“We embraced each other, shed a few tears, looked at each other and said, ‘It’s time to get to work,’” Kole said.
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