152: Kami ran from a mass shooting

On the night of October 1, 2017, 64 year old Stephen Paddock opened fire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. He was able to fire over 1100 rounds in just 10 minutes time, from 10:05 pm to 10:15 pm. His target was the crowd of 22,000 people in the open field below his room. These people were attending the final night of the 3-day Route 91 Harvest Music festival. Country singer Jason Aldean was performing when the shooting began. In the end, 851 people were injured, and 58 people died. This incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the history of the country. The shooter also shot and killed himself, so the motive for the killing will probably never be known. But this story isn’t about the cowardly killer. It’s about a young lady named Kami. Kami lives in California, about 4 hours away from Las Vegas, and she was at the Harvest Festival with her parents, and her husband Eli. She was there when the shooting began. She saw the terror on people’s faces as they ran for safety, and she saw the unfortunate ones that didn’t make it. And here’s another critical fact that will be an important part of Kami’s story. She was at the festival for all three days. Day 3 is when the shooting took place. On day 1, she learned that she was pregnant. This episode is the first one in a new series called Flashback episodes. Kami first came on the podcast and told this story 5 years ago. And I get requests from listeners sometimes to follow up with the past guests and see how they’re doing now. So today you’ll hear Kami’s story about escaping from the Las Vegas shooting, and after that, a brief conversation I had with her just recently about what’s new in her life and her family. My goal is to always bring you the content and stories you tell me you want to hear, and the Flashback episodes are a part of that. We’ll probably do one of these each month, in between the regular new episodes, so please, let me know what you think. Full show notes and pictures (including a recent picture of Kami and family) for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/152 Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Sponsor deals: Head to factormeals.com/wwtl50 and use code wwtl50 to get 50% off! What Was That Like is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/whatwas for 10% off your first month. For a limited time, save $10 on your first StoryWorth purchase when you go to StoryWorth.com/what Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code WHAT and receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices