They say that a photo is worth a thousand words, I see about a million in this one.
In this photo you can see the confusion, you can almost feel the chaos, without a doubt you know there’s danger. What you don’t know is the man laying on the ground holding a shot-gun securing the perimeter is off-duty Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Garrett Eggert, his colleague Brandon Mundy is the shirtless man crouching on the left. Though they attended the Route 91 Concert separately, they came together while assisting LVMPD. The photo also doesn’t tell how Eggert got his friends to safety then ran back to the venue to help, and it doesn’t say that Mundy is missing his shirt because a man next to him was shot in the neck and Mundy used his shirt to apply pressure to the wound. #heroes
Something else you don’t know about this photo is this is the police car I sat behind while a make-shift tourniquet was applied to my leg. You don’t know that the white sandal behind the rear of the car is mine, the other one was lost when I got shot. You don’t know that belt used as a tourniquet fell off as soon as we started running again and can be seen on the bottom edge of this photo. #thisphotomadeitreal
The photo also doesn’t tell the story of what took place in the Mandalay Bay. It doesn’t show the 20 suitcases transporting 24 firearms to the 32nd floor, you can’t see the over 1,100 rounds fired 490 yards into the crowd of 22,000.
Thankfully, you can’t see the 851 people injured that night, 422 by gunfire. The 58 lives lost that night aren‘t pictured.
Unfortunately, you can’t see all the heroes who saved lives by hemorrhage control. The off-duty law enforcement, medical providers, and military personnel who immediately put their training into action. You can’t see the ordinary, turned extraordinary fellow concert goers who did what they saw on Grey’s Anatomy and saved their loved ones, friends, and even strangers lives.
Thank you to all of the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for us everyday, here in the U.S. and abroad. And thank you for those who devote their lives to helping people when we can’t help ourselves.
Simply put... there aren't enough words.