North Texans share story of survival during Vegas shooting
A girl’s night out for two North Texans in Las Vegas quickly unfolded into the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Sharon Carroll and her best friend Marcy Ross decided to celebrate their birthdays together by taking a trip to Las Vegas to attend the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
The women were just feet from the stage and took video of Jason Aldean performing just minutes before Stephen Paddock opened fire and killed 58 people.
“He was basically spraying the crowd constantly,” Carroll recalled. “But we only heard bits and pieces of that because of the way the sound traveled.”
“When you duck, everyone falls on the ground and they're on top of you,” Ross said.
The ladies escaped through a torn down fence and hid underneath an 18-wheeler in a nearby parking lot.
“We remembered having enough time laying on the ground to either pray and think about your family,” Carroll said.
Shooting victims soon followed.
“They're bandaged up — people taking off their shirts and putting them around people's legs,” Ross recalled.
The women eventually ran to the Hooters Casino Hotel. Ross stayed in a bathroom with a group of people. Carroll hid in a janitor’s closet.
Among the injured was 33-year-old Jenna Rushton of Southlake. According to her sister, who was at the concert with her, Rushton was shot in the back. The bullet exited through her chest, narrowly missing her heart.
President Donald Trump met with Rushton and other shooting victims during his visit to the Las Vegas hospital this week.
Back home safe in Howe in Grayson County, Carroll and Ross now have matching bracelets with one word, “blessed.”
“Just kind of a reminder of just how blessed we are,” Carroll said. “Not that there was a horrific event that took place in our lives, just that we survived… we survived it together.”
Rushton's mom says her daughter remains in the hospital in Las Vegas and won't be able to fly home for six weeks. Once she's released her parents will take her to California to stay with relatives until she's healthy enough to return to North Texas.