The boyfriend of a 28-year-old woman shot dead in Las Vegas had been planning to propose to her right after the Route 91 festival.
Andrea Castilla, of Huntington Beach, California, was celebrating her 28th birthday at the festival when she was fatally shot in the head.
She was holding hands with her younger sister Athena, who lives in Las Vegas, when the gunfire rang out and someone started yelling for everyone to duck.
Andrea was protecting her sister when she was struck by a bullet and collapsed on the ground.
Derek Miller, the boyfriend of Andrea Castilla, a 28-year-old woman shot dead in the Las Vegas massacre, had been planning to propose to her right after the Route 91 festival
Her boyfriend Derek Miller, her sister and Athena’s boyfriend, Shane Armstrong, immediately grabbed her and shielded her as bullets rang out around them.
They managed to carry her over a fence and got her to the highway where they flagged down a passing motorist who took them to a hospital in the back of his truck.
Her loved ones waited for seven hours in the emergency room thinking Andrea was in surgery.
But they tragically learned that hospital staff had confused her with someone else and that she had died soon after arriving.
It was then that her boyfriend Derek revealed his marriage proposal plans.
Andrea, who lived in Huntington Beach, California, was protecting her younger sister when she was struck by a bullet and collapsed on the ground
The couple, who lived together in California, were at Route 91 to celebrate her 28th birthday with her younger sister and her fiance
‘He told me after she had passed,’ Athena told People. ‘They were planning on staying on until Thursday in our guest room. He told me, ‘I was planning on asking her this weekend with you guys… We talked about spending the rest of our lives together.’
Their brother Adam added: ‘They had promise rings, and they always talked about it. Derek had asked my dad’s permission. He wanted to start a family with her.’
Andrea, whose mother died of cancer when she was a teenager, worked at Sephora as a makeup artist. Her siblings say she was inspired by her mother’s battle to make cancer patients feel beautiful.
‘With an infectious smile Andrea was a free spirit that always had a positive outlook on life. She will be missed but never forgotten,’ a GoFundMe page set up in her honor said.
Andrea, whose mother died of cancer when she was a teenager, worked at Sephora as a makeup artist