A prison sergeant who was shot three times but carried on giving first aid to victims in Las Vegas on Sunday night has given a gripping account of his ordeal exclusively to DailyMail.com
Todd Wienke, 48, acted as a human shield for his girlfriend and others in the crowd, and helped two victims who were shot in the head get to the hospital despite taking three bullets to his back, arm and left side.
But Wienke, a sergeant at California City Correctional Facility, said he is ‘haunted’ that he had to leave others behind on the ground.
The father-of-two stood with his girlfriend, Oshia Collins-Waters, 40 yards from the stage at the Route 91 music festival when the firing started.
He recognized the sound of gunfire, but thought the police had got in a gunfight on the boulevard outside the festival.
Todd Wienke, 48, acted as a human shield for his girlfriend Oshia Collins-Waters when they were caught in the midst of the Las Vegas massacre on Sunday. The California prison sergeant was shot three times in the carnage but managed to escape and save his girlfriend (pictured)
The father-of-two also managed to rescue two other women who were grazed by bullets that were flying past their heads in the horrific attack, escorting them to safety and an ambulance
‘Because of how rapid the firing was I didn’t dream it came from one firearm,’ said Wienke. ‘I was more concerned about people panicking and trampling each other so I said that it was fireworks. The country artist kept playing.
‘Seconds later, then it rang out. It was much more rapid, much longer. It was obvious that it was automatic gunfire,’ he said. ‘And at that point I pulled my girlfriend down to the ground, I lay on top of her and I pulled people around us down.
‘I was telling everybody, “stay down”. As I was on top of her, I felt a gunshot to my back. It felt like if you took a lit match and shoved it into your skin. It was a sharp, burning pain.
‘But with the adrenaline and being focused on surviving the situation it didn’t effect what I did. I was more focused with trying to get to safety, trying to help other people if I could.
‘That’s the kind of training I get in the department I work for. And I thank God for that training because it works.
‘I told my girlfriend, “look I’ve been hit but I’m okay.” I felt for an exit wound, because then she would be hit, and I checked her.
‘I told her “we are staying right here. People are going to get up, they’re going to panic, they’re going to leave. We’re staying here.”‘
Wienke said he is ‘haunted’ that he had to leave others behind on the ground, not able to save everyone he came across
In the carnage, Wienke was shot three times – in his back, arm, and left side while he was trying to protect his girlfriend and others
Wienke continued: ‘There was another pause and we stayed. A large group of people started to run cross-stage, which was in the direct path of the gunfire.
‘I kept cover over on Oshia and when a good portion of the crowd cleared and I was sure that we could get up without being trampled I said “we’re gonna run, and you’re going to stay with me.”‘
Wienke said he was shot again as they were running, but he kept going.
‘I wanted to get cover for us so we went back behind the vending booths and I picked a spot for Oshia to be,’ he said. The couple ran into three police officers with their weapons drawn.
Despite being shot multiple times and bleeding profusely, Wienke offered to help, but the officers told him that he needed to get out of there.
‘There were two women close to me that had been shot in the head,’ said Wienke. ‘They were graze wounds but they were bleeding terribly. So I grabbed my girlfriend and them.’
He rounded up others who were walking wounded and took them to the nearest casino, Hooters. Once inside, Wienke took off his blood-soaked shirt and began working with off-duty medics, bandaging others’ wounds and triaging victims.
Stephen Paddock, 64, is the multi-millionaire gambler who is responsible for killing 59 and injuring 489 in the horrific attack
Paddock stayed at the Mandalay Bay and brought in more than 10 firearms into the room
‘It just so happened that I was the only one with multiple gunshot wounds, so I got into one ambulance with those two women that had the head wounds,’ he said.
Doctors at Henderson hospital found shrapnel and bullet fragments in Wienke’s body and recommended he stayed, but instead he gave up his bed for other shooting victims.
‘I have one gunshot wound under my armpit a couple of inches, I have one on my left side by the rib area, and I have one at the waist line on the left side of my back,’ he said.
‘They were going to hold me for observation. I didn’t feel comfortable with that, I wanted to free up the bed for somebody else. So I stayed in Vegas for a couple of days and self-monitored. I just got home.
‘I am so grateful to have been able to walk away, and for Oshia to be able to walk away. There were so many people helping other people, bandaging other people, shielding other people.
‘It’s a true testament to the American spirit and how we come together in times of adversity. It was just countless selfless acts, and if there’s a silver lining in that cloud, it was that people come together.’
Wienke said that having to leave some wounded people behind was ‘haunting’ him.
Doctors at Henderson hospital found shrapnel and bullet fragments in Wienke’s body and recommended he stayed, but instead he gave up his bed for other shooting victims
His girlfriend posted on Facebook Monday: ‘I will be at his side as soon as I can and will not be leaving it again!!!! Everyone that knows us knows that this man is my world and my whole life’
He added: ‘We passed people that were deceased as we were exiting out of that main area. But the ones that bother me are the ones that were down that I was not able to stop and help.’
His daughter, Amanda, said the ordeal had emotionally affected her father.
‘He was starting to tear up over the phone,’ she said. ‘But he cracked a joke about having a new story to tell at parties. I think humor is his way to get through this emotional time’
Wienke said when he worked as a security guard at a grocery store in the 1990s a shoplifter shot at him, but he had never had bullet wounds before.
He said he is now scheduled for surgery to remove the shrapnel from his body.
Thanks to his selfless act, Wienke’s girlfriend, a clinical medical assistant at Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District, came away with only ‘a busted knee and a black eye’, Amanda said.
Oshia posted on Facebook Monday: ‘I will be at his side as soon as I can and will not be leaving it again!!!! Everyone that knows us knows that this man is my world and my whole life.’