A heroic veteran Marine stole a truck to rescue dozens of people during the Las Vegas massacre.
Country music fan Taylor Winston, 29, was close to the stage at the Route 91 Harvest festival, Sunday, when a gunman open fire from his hotel room window, raining bullets down on the crowd below.
Winston, and his friend Jenn Lewis, immediately sprung into action to try and save lives during the shooting.
Taylor Winston, 29, (left in his Marine uniform, and right, on Facebook) stole a truck to rescue dozens of people during the Las Vegas massacre
As the tens of thousands of festival goers tried to flee, the Iraq veteran helped people scale the perimeter fence, before tearing down the fence altogether to let people escape the gunfire.
‘The shots got louder and louder, closer to us and saw people getting hit, it was like we could be hit at any second,’ he told CBS News. Once we got to the fence, I helped throw a bunch of people over, and got myself over.
‘It was a mini war zone but we couldn’t fight back.’
Seeing the hundreds of festival goers around him with gunshot wounds, and a limited number of ambulances, the former Marine Corps sergeant decided to help transport the injured to hospital.
Winston and Lewis found an unattended truck near the venue with keys still inside and used it to transport victims to the hospital.
The van was left covered in blood after Winston rushed seriously injured festival goers to hospital
Winston found this unattended truck near the venue with keys still inside and used it to transport victims to the hospital
The keys of the blood splattered truck have since been returned to its owner
‘Jenn and I luckily found a truck with keys in it and started transporting priority victims to the hospital and made a couple trips and tried to help out the best we could until more ambulances could arrive,’ Winston told The Daily Beast.
Winston said picking people to to take to hospital was made difficult by the sheer volume of people that needed help.
‘There was just too many and it was overwhelming how much blood was everywhere.’
In two trips, Winston and Lewis were able to transport approximately two dozen people to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center.
Now a designer for the Country Rebel social network, Winston was able to recall his military training and told his passengers to keep pressure on their wounds.
Some were in a bad way, including one woman who had been shot in the neck and chest.
People diving for cover at Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Hundreds of rounds of automatic gunfire were reported by witnesses on the scene; one woman in the Mandalay Bay said that there was a shooter on the 32nd floor, and that they had killed a security guard
First responders and bystanders carry an injured person to an emergency station located at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave – one block north of the shooting
People assist a wounded woman at the Tropicana hotel, which is located close to where the Route 91 festival was being held
Winston still doesn’t know which of his passengers survived.
‘I can’t be for certain. There’s a few that I don’t think probably made it. They were pretty limp when we were pulling them out of the truck, but they still had a pulse, so I’m hoping for the best.’
But he does know that he saved the life of his friend’s sister – who he hadn’t recognized at the time due to the blood and chaos.
The friends were able to flag down a squad car while en route to the hospital, and the officer turned on the vehicle’s flashers to escort them through traffic.
Winston, who joined the Marines at 17 and served two tours in Iraq before leaving in 2011, said he was grateful his military training had kicked in.
Describing the massacre as a ‘mini war zone’ he said he realized ‘we needed to get them out of there regardless of our safety.’
The keys of the blood splattered truck have since been returned to its owner.
Many people have praised Winston as a hero for risking his life to save dozens of people.
Describing the massacre as a ‘mini war zone’ he said he realized ‘we needed to get them out of there regardless of our safety’
Winston, who joined the Marines at 17 and served two tours in Iraq (pictured on tour) before leaving in 2011, said he was grateful his military training had kicked in
Winston (left and right) brushed off the ‘hero’ label, praising all the other brave souls who he saw risking their lives to save others at the worst mass shooting in American history
Jeff Johnson wrote on Facebook: ‘Taylor Winston, your bravery is heroic and I’m blessed to call you my brother!! God bless you!’
‘Bless your heart for doing what you did last night and putting your life on the line for strangers,’ added friend Nikki O’Farrell.
While Kevin Blue said: ‘Proud of Taylor Winston, Jenn Lewis, and all those who selflessly put their own lives in danger to get others to the hospital in this horrific situation. May we all unite to help those injured and less fortunate rebound as quickly as possible.’
But Winston brushed off the ‘hero’ label, praising all the other brave souls who he saw risking their lives to save others at the worst mass shooting in American history.
Police confirmed that 59 people were killed, and 527 were wounded when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, a resident of nearby Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Village from a room across the street in the Mandalay Bay Hotel shortly after 10pm.
Medical teams at a local hospital confirmed that they had more than a dozen patients in critical condition, while two people died shortly after arrival.