The man behind a of cowboy boots which were photographed lying abandoned in the street after the Las Vegas massacre on Sunday has revealed how a stranger took them off to bandage his wounded leg as they fled the gunfire.
Stephen Vicelja, 25, from Torrance, California, was at the Route 91 Harvest festival with a large group of friends when Stephen Paddock opened fire on them on Sunday night.
A photograph taken before the shooting shows him wearing them beneath a pair of jeans and a shirt.
He mistook the gunfire for fire crackers, as did thousands of other country music fans, but realized the horror of what was happening when he was shot in the thigh.
Despite his injury, he was able to run out of the venue and find a safe spot nearby near police and other injured concert-goers.
That is where a stranger took off helped him remove his boots and jeans and bandaged his wound.
In the chaos, the boots were left by the curb where he’d been sitting. They were photographed and their image went around the world.
On Wednesday, Stephen revealed the story behind the photograph, telling DailyMail.com that he felt ‘very fortunate’ to be alive.
This photograph of cowboy boots that were abandoned in the street after the Las Vegas massacre on Sunday went viral. Now, their owner tells the story behind his survival
Stephen Vicelja was wearing the boots beneath a pair of jeans and a shirt on Sunday before the shoots began
Stephen ran for his life after realizing he’d been shot. A stranger then removed his boots as he sat on a curb near the venue before he went to hospital
He had been at the concert with a large group of friends when gunfire began but told how they dismissed it as firecrackers.
‘We were on the opposite side of the venue from the hotel about 75-100 yards from the stage. I didn’t realize it was anything more than fireworks till I got shot in the upper thigh.
‘From there I yelled at my friends that I was shot and just took off running away from the direction of the gun shots. I lost my friends immediately,’ he said.
He then hid behind a police car with around 30 others but took off again in fear that the shots were coming closer.
With blood pouring from his leg, he ran to an empty parking lot and found a curb to sit on. A man appeared tied a belt around his wound to stop the bleeding. Then the gunfire started again.
Unable to run at any great pace, he was helped along by a man and his wife who ran with him until they saw a larger group which included police officers and other injured concert-goers.
The man, who gave his name only as Bill, immediately turned to go back into the crowd to save more victims, he said. It was in this second crowd that the man took off his boots and clothes to be bandaged.
The man’s family is now trying to reunite him with the boots so that he can wear them in ‘remembrance’ of the victims
Stephen, a university graduate who now works for a wine and liquor company, said he was ‘very fortunate’ to have escaped with his life
By this time, EMTs and paramedics were on scene. They airlifted Vicelja to hospital.
‘I was lifted from that curb to a car and from there to the triage and then ambulance to the hospital.
‘I’m extremely fortunate to have received injuries that I will recover from, considering all of the victims that I sat with on that curb as well as in the hallway of the hospital, there is no doubt that I was very lucky,’ he said on Wednesday.
He now wants to be reunited with the shoes to wear them ‘in remembrance’ of the people who did not make it out alive.
‘The boots are definitely not a high priority on my thoughts as of now, for I care more about dealing with the loss of so many good American citizens and the lifetime injuries that hundreds sustained.
‘Getting the boots back at some point would just serve as a reminder of how fortunate I was to have Americans like Bill and his wife, the hundreds of off and on duty first responders and police officers, and medic personal there to save me that night and the countless others that they helped protect,’ he said.
He is expected to make a full recovery in a week. While the friends in his group made it out alive, Christina Duarte, who the man attended high school with, was killed.
‘My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of Christiana Duarte who lost her life in the shooting,’ he said.