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Exactly one year ago, more than 22,000 people gathered in an open space in Las Vegas for the third and final day of the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Country star Jason Aldean played the last set of the night and began singing "When She Says Baby" when the first shots were fired – the beginning of what would become the deadliest of the shooting epidemic. mass of modern America.
The hail of bullets lasted more than 10 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring more than 700 others in chaos.
The 64-year-old bandit Stephen Paddock fired on the crowd through two broken windows in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino. Later, while the forces of order threatened him, Paddock was killed by a fatal blow.
In the days following the shooting, PEOPLE spoke with those present. They shared stories of unimaginable horror and extraordinary heroism.
Mark Gray, 37, PEOPLE contributor, Las Vegas
Pop, pop, pop. It sounded like a firecracker … The shooting lasted forever. It was relentless. You hear windows and windows break. It's hard to know what to think or do. At the same time, we realized, "We have to get out of here." Someone said, "Come on! Go now! And we ran.
ASSOCIATED VIDEO: 58 dead and more than 700 wounded at Jason Aldean's Las Vegas concert – The deadliest mass shoot of American history
Shaun Hoff, 32, casting director, Los Angeles
My wife and I were right in front of the stage when someone started screaming, and we just touched the ground. There was a pause in the shooting and we started running. We were just crossing all these bodies. Nobody thought this guy was at the hotel because it sounded like the shooting was getting closer.
Clay Wilson, 48, and his wife Kelli, 46, small business owners, Lubbock, Texas
People started falling, just falling. We were all terrified. … [Kelli] called our kids to say, "We love you and we do not know if we'll get there." Our kids were on the phone and they could hear the shots.
Rob Handley, 34, Medical Device Vendor, Las Vegas
It was like we were in a war movie. You could hear the shots, then hear the bullets fall all around us and break into pieces of shrapnel that were flying everywhere. We were lying in puddles of blood and my girlfriend's friend was covered with blood. We thought she was touched, then we realized that the blood came from above. This literally infiltrated us from the tiers above. The people on the bleachers had been so hurt that blood was flowing everywhere.
David Becker / Getty Images
Keith Gale, 50, manager of country star Jake Owen, Nashville
I have no reference for the war, but it was really a battleground. Just a constant pop, pop, pop. We squatted behind a trailer near the stage and the shot was steady and constant. People were not walking against each other, and you were in a battle, not knowing where this person was, but people were pushing each other over fences, helping the wounded. The men tore their shirts to use them to seal the wounds.
Karen Gale, 44, publicist, Nashville
I will never forget the sound of this shot. There were shoes lost on the floor, women carried by a boyfriend. If anything, I learned that there is still humanity in this world. I saw him last night.
Lindsay Padgett, 29, Performer, Las Vegas
We did not hear any gunshots for a while, so we said, "Okay, let's go." We got to my truck and we see everyone on the road . This guy says, "We need your truck," and I said, "Put them all in there. "There were four people in my back seat and four others [who were] stroke [lying] in the bed of the truck. People had fingers in their wounds. A guy is dead; he had been hit on the back. We were trying to get to the nearest hospital and the roads were blocked. We finally got to the highway and the ambulance stopped us.
Brian Rogers, 53, co-owner of a community ambulance and paramedic, Las Vegas
I was at home in bed. My daughter was at the event and she called me to say, "They shoot me. What am I doing? She called around 10:05. Then I could not take it anymore. As I drive there, I coordinate with my staff. We sent 26 ambulances. I do not even have words to describe how it was. It was almost out of one of these series like The Walking Dead.
Brad Sugars, 46, Business Coach, Las Vegas
I stayed with the police and distributed first aid kits. The batteries were dying. People helped people. A girl was wrapping a guy's thumb and another person was bandaging an injured leg. Everyone was trying to help – police on leave, SWAT [teams]. I saw the police running towards the bodies. God bless them.
ASSOCIATED VIDEO: Shooting victim in Las Vegas saved his wife's life before his assassination
Heather Gooze, 43, bartender, Las Vegas
To escape the gunfire, many people rushed to the bar where Gooze worked. After helping a man who had been shot in the head, she sat down with the fatal victim, Jordan Mclldoon, after three men tried to help him take her on a ladder of maintenance.
I held his hand. His fingers were wrapped around mine. Jordan's cell phone rang. We responded and his friend Conor gave us the name of Jordan. His phone was locked, but the Facebook posts were not coming, so I went on Facebook and I found him, I sent messages to everyone who had the same last name. After finding his family, I promised them not to leave him. I was with him when he took his last breath. Something in me would not let me go. All those who survived were basically on the brink of death.
Dean Weber, 31, paramedic, Las Vegas
Once he was allowed to go to the scene, Weber discovered a desperate scene of wounded who had been labeled according to their wounds – from green (minor) to yellow (not life-threatening ) to red (threatening life) to black (dying). .
We first took the patients labeled red, but it's not always easy. A woman grabbed my ankle and we closed our eyes. All she could say, it was: "Do you like it." She had tears in her eyes. But it was marked in yellow and there were people in red. So I had to say, "I'm really sorry. Someone will be back soon for you. A man marked in yellow said, "I have a new baby. If you like it, save me. "You have to understand that yellow labels can go red very quickly. They all lose blood, they are in pain and are in shock. We went back again and again, maybe 15 times. We were simply trying to save as many lives as possible. The night was endless. When it was over, I just hugged my partner and cried. It's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life and I hope no one has to endure it again. It was a pure hell.
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