SAN ANGELO, TX — Mark Bethune of San Angelo was caught in the middle of the mass murder on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night. He was there with his wife Sherrell enjoying the Route 91 Music Festival at Mandalay Bay.
“At first we thought it was fireworks. When Jason Aldean ran off stage, the music stopped and it started to click that it was automatic gunfire,” Bethune said in an interview this morning.
The hail of gunfire was so intense, Bethune initially thought it was coming from multiple gunmen.
“Some people hit the ground for protection. Others ran. We ran,” he said.
Physically, Bethune and his wife only suffered minor injuries. Bethune hurt his knee after a hard landing after jumping a wall. Sherrell bruised her hip jumping the wall.
Emotionally, Bethune said it would take some time to recover from the experience. After escaping the scene, Bethune and his wife took refuge in their 8th floor hotel room with full view of the pandemonium where the concert was. It gave them time to collect their thoughts.
His first post back in safety on Facebook, "I thought it was fireworks until people hit the ground. We ran. I'm not going to die on the ground. I put Sherrell in front of me, away from the fire. Pushed her over 2 walls. A few hundred rounds, I believe."
“I don’t understand how ALL combat veterans don’t have PTSD,” he said. As it became clear he was being targeted by gunfire, he said, "It was dreamlike. Nightmarishly surreal."
Bethune is the Executive Director of the Concho Valley Community Action Agency (CVCAA). He said he and his wife are flying back to San Angelo tonight from Las Vegas.
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