A Londoner on vacation in Las Vegas says her travel companions had to lie down on the floor of a bus as shots rang out not far from where they were.
Sue McKittrick was in Las Vegas with a group of friends celebrating the 50th birthdays of several members of the group. She says, on Sunday evening, some of her friends went out to gamble while she and a few others went to the Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey game. The remaining members of the group went to see the Chris Angel show at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, which is across the street from the Mandalay Bay and Casino. Las Vegas police say the shots were fired from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
McKittrick had been to the hockey game and was back at her hotel on Freemont St. when the shooting started.
That's when she started contacting her friends that had been at the show at the Luxor.
"That group of friends ended up on the street, while the shooting started, waiting for a bus," she said in a phone interview from Las Vegas on Monday morning. "The bus driver yelled and got them onto the bus. They had to lie down and stay quiet. They could hear the shooting, really close."
Naturally, there was a considerable amount of confusion and uncertainty about what was happening in the initial moments after the shots were fired. McKittrick says that added to the fear her friends on the bus were experiencing.
"They were terrified. They were texting us. It hadn't hit any news anywhere yet," she said. "We were back downtown on Freemont at that point. Our friends were texting us saying, 'we're on a bus, there's some guy with an AK47. It's ridiculous. We're lying down, please tell us what's happening.'"
McKittrick says it wasn't long before there was a huge police presence throughout the area. She says Freemont St. was locked down and police were guarding the streets.
Eventually, her friends on the bus were allowed to return to their hotel and the group of friends were re-united.
They were to fly home on Monday.