TWO HOURS OF TERROR
Sheila Keele, a Price resident, was so terrorized by the shootings at the Las Vegas country music festival that she found herself paralyzed by fear: looking around corners and over her back the next day. “I realized that I was letting this man (the shooter) take control of me in a negative way. I decided to refuse to dwell on the negative and the hatred. That man has already taken enough from us. He doesn’t feel our hatred- it only hurts us to hold on to that anger.”
Near the stage during the Jason Aldean performance, Keele and her friend, Lori, were on their 4th annual girl’s trip to the concert. “We were 5-6 layers back from the gates in front of the stage on the right-hand side,” she recounted. She heard a “pop, pop, pop sound,” and Keele looked over to where it came from. She saw a flash. Her friend thought the sound was fireworks, but Keele wasn’t convinced,
“Pop, pop, pop, it happened again, then one of the kids behind me was on the ground, and his blood was running everywhere. When I saw that, it started to click what was going on, then the rapid fire started,” she said. Some people were running- others said to get down. A young man pulled Keele the people around them to the ground then shielded them with his body.
Thinking the shooting would be short lived, Keele waited for it all to stop. She soon realized that they were under attack. “Other people were trampling us, running on us,” she said.
When the gunfire stopped, Sheila told her friend Lori that they were going to, “get out of here.” Her friend couldn’t stand up after being smashed down, so bystanders helped her to stand. They ran to the south side of the gate and fell down. People were standing on them, stepping on them. Keele struggled to get free and couldn’t find Lori.
As she struggled to get over the next set of railing by the control booth, a young man who had just climbed over turned around and said, “Come on, I’ll help you.” He grabbed her hand and lifted her over the rail.
“Every time the shooting stopped, I yelled for Lori, I couldn’t see her in all of the confusion,” added Keele. Each time the gunfire began again, Keele ducked down waiting for it to stop. Everywhere there were people down who had been shot. “Each injured person had a pod of people around them, taking care of them. I’d ask if they needed help, and they’d say, ‘we’ve got them taken care of, you run.’” Leaving the concert, Keele ran into the back doors of the Tropicana. Everyone was frightened and didn’t know where the shooters were. Keele was worried that terrorists were in all of the casinos. “People were yelling that there was a shooter in the Tropicana,” she recounted.
Frantically, Keele ran to several places trying to find safety, each time crowds yelled that there were shooters and “run, run.” She called her husband to let him know that she was alive, but there might be shooters continuing to harm people. Because her phone only had 2 percent battery, they hung up and she waited for a call from Lori.
Lori called her and they reunited outside the MGM Casino. “It was three hours of sheer terror,” explained Keele. Finally, around 1 a.m., they called a friend who lives in Las Vegas to come and find them- they returned safely to his home.
Meanwhile, Keele’s husband was in distress, waiting to hear from her. He knew that she was in danger, but he didn’t want to call her phone. He was worried that she might be hiding from a shooter and a phone ring might give up her safe place. “The effects were far reaching. So many people were living in the terror with us- my husband and kids,” she explained.
The memory of strangers caring for each other is what Keele chooses to focus on today. “It reignites my faith in humanity. Even though it was horrible, there is goodness coming from this,” she said. This experience will change her life for the positive.
Most impressed by the young people around here, Keele remembers seeing many acts of kindness and heroism, “There were people running to help each other in bravery. When Lori and I got separated from each other, a young woman she didn’t know stayed with her and helped her.”
Keele is using the tools she has learned in the past 6 years in her substance abuse recovery. She currently works as a part-time manager at Market Express and as a substance abuse counselor through TeleHealth Services.
Now her choice is to give up the anger and pain, “What he did is done and over, he doesn’t deserve any of my time. I’m focusing, with the rest of the nation, on those who were hurt and who need our prayers. I have been teaching people through my job, to focus on the good and that is exactly what I’m going to do,” she said.