US Politics | Vegas massacre EMT tells of the smell of burning flesh, looking into eyes of the dying & the words that still haunt him
AN EMT who responded to the Las Vegas massacre has recounted the horrors he witnessed during the senseless rampage at a country music festival that left 58 dead and hundreds more hurt. Glen Simpson, 37, an advanced EMT with Community Ambulance, was minutes away from finishing his shift at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on October 1, 2017, when he received a call over the radio. 
Glen SimpsonGlen Simpson, an advanced EMT, was at the festival when the shooting began '/ ' 
Getty58 people were killed on Oct. 1, 2017, and hundreds more were injured '/ ' 
AP:Associated PressThe sick culprit behind the senseless massacre, Stephen Paddock, took his own life at the scene '/ ' Moments after headline performer Jason Aldean took to the stage, Simpson was summoned to assist with an intoxicated guest and her fiancé at Gate 2A who were feuding and wanted to leave the event. With a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers, Simpson helped to hail a cab for the drunken pair. But as the car pulled away, Simpson heard what he characterized as a loud ...crackling... sound fizz out. ...It sounded like the crackling of a power line,... Simpson told The U.S. Sun. ...But there were no power lines around us, and as everyone was kind of looking around confused, that's when we heard the first burst of shots.... Read More on Crime 
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SAD LAST CHAT Grandma of Lori Vallow's son reveals heartbreaking final words Simpson and the group of officers ducked behind a vehicle barricade for cover as they attempted to locate the source of gunfire, which, unbeknown to them at the time, was raining down on them from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. Gunman Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old avid gambler, had barricaded himself inside his room with 23 firearms and a cache of ammunition with only one sick aim: to claim as many innocent lives as possible. The shooting continued for almost 11 minutes, and more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition were fired at concert-goers before Paddock turned the gun on himself. ...At that moment we realized this was a mass shooting,... said Simpson. Most read in The US Sun STILL SILENT Vegas shooter's girlfriend 'is healing' as she's pictured near luxury home ON EDGE Serial killer fears after 43 murders in same area show chilling pattern DECOR WAR Teen Mom fans think Vee's new house is better than Kailyn's 'tacky McMansion' UNIMPRESSED WITH DRESS Teen Mom fans divided over Cheyenne's racy wedding dress NOT BEING CHEY! Teen Mom Cheyenne shows off her butt in see-through catsuit at wedding VLAD'S Z DAY Putin vows to use 'any means' to defend stolen Ukraine regions in nuke threat ...A quick series of thoughts started going through my brain, and I told myself, ...Oh s**t, this is it. This is the real thing.' ...And then secondly I realized there was going to be a lot of patients in there in a very short period of time, and I knew I had to get as many resources as I could and regroup with my colleagues.... As Simpson crouched behind a barricade, an officer next to him was grazed by a bullet on his neck. During a brief pause in the gunfire, Simpson, dressed only in a polo shirt and combat pants, decided to make a break for it. He ran back inside the venue which, by that time, resembled something closer to a war zone than the laid-back music festival it had been just minutes earlier. This was not war zone \- this was beyond a war zone. Glen SimpsonEMT Simpson's priority was to get to the event's main medical tent on the opposite side of the grounds. As he sprinted across the festival he heard the sickening thud of bodies collapsing on the concrete and a cacophony of gut-wrenching screams as bullets whizzed overhead, clacking as they collided with metal barricades and fences. There was also an unsettling smell beginning to permeate the air, a smell Simpson has grown all too familiar with during his 18-year career as an EMT. ...You heard shots hitting the ground, you heard shots hitting the metal barricades, and then you started to smell burning flesh where people had been shot,... he said. ...It's a smell that I've smelt before unfortunately, you know from working on burn patients. ...There were so many people down and not moving, and there were people stopping to help those people. ...But I had to get back to the tent to find my colleagues, because if they weren't safe then we couldn't be effective at our job.... ...BEYOND A WAR ZONE' In the week preceding the festival, Simpson had played an active role in the safety planning for the event, including mapping out what to do in the event of a mass casualty incident. That conversation, specifically discussions about a potential mass shooting, continue to sit uneasily with Simpson today. But no amount of planning could've prepared him and his team for the horrors they were confronted with on the final night of the Route 91 festival. ...It was chaos, there was a lot of confusion and obviously panic,... Simpson said. ...At that moment I just tried to focus on the job I needed to do and not get too caught up thinking about getting hurt, because if I lost my s**t then I'd be of no use to anybody. ...I thought if I get shot, it's no big deal. You've seen people shot in the arm and the leg and they were fine, I just didn't let my mind think I could take a shot to the head or chest and lose my life.... 
APA body is covered with a sheet after the mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017 '/ ' 
GettyThe horrifying event cast a dark shadow over the bright lights of Sin City's iconic strip '/ ' 
GettyA man shields a woman from gunfire as other festival attendees flee '/ ' 
AFP or licensorsStephen Paddock's rampage was conducted from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino '/ ' As he made his way across the event's grounds, stepping over discarded bags, shoes, items of clothing and dropped phones ringing unanswered on the ground, Simpson said you could ...hear a pin drop... between the brief pauses in gunfire, with the sheltering crowd holding a collective breath of hope that the worst may finally be over. But as quickly as the shooting stopped it would start back up again, bringing with it a din of screams as concert-goers desperately clamored for cover in a spot they hoped would shield them from harm. ...I've never been in a war zone, and I don't know what being in one is like aside from what I've seen on TV or in movies,... Simpson said. ...But that particular night, one of our personnel was a retired combat medic ... and something he said that' always stuck with me is that this wasn't a war zone. ...He'd served two tours in Iraq at the height of the war, and he said in a war zone I have a weapon, I have protection, but we have none of that here. ...This was not war zone \- this was beyond a war zone.... HARROWING ENCOUNTERS On the night of the shooting, Simpson was supervising a team of 17 Community Ambulance personnel. When he eventually arrived at the medical tent he found all of them were unharmed and already busy attending to patients, separating victims by levels of severity with color-coded tags. Four other Community Ambulance personnel who had been off-duty but at the festival when the shooting had started were also busy at work. Inside the 20×20-foot tent, bodies were everywhere. A quick series of thoughts started going through my brain, and I told myself, ...Oh s**t, this is it. This is the real thing.' Glen Simpson Following the principles of disaster triage, Simpson and his team had to make the harrowing decision to refuse to perform CPR on any patients whose hearts had stopped and prioritize helping as many of those who still had a pulse as they could. They had to stick to that principle, even when family members and loved ones of the recently deceased begged them for help, holding a lifeless body in their arms. ...I'll never forget this was one guy looking at me and telling me, he was holding a patient, and said, ...I need you to start doing CPR on this person,' and me looking at that person straight in the eye and saying ...No, we're not going to do that.' ...That's how we train for mass casualty events, because our goal is to get our hands on as many patients as possible, and CPR is an incredibly time-consuming measure,... Simpson explained. ...But I don't think you can train to tell someone that, but I just had to move on.... Simpson said he recalled seeing the man attempt to perform CPR on the victim himself but to no avail. The faces of a number of other victims he crossed paths with that night still remain fresh in his mind five years later. Among them was a young girl who approached Simpson complaining of a headache, unaware that she'd been severely grazed by a bullet on the top of her head. He also spoke to another man who had been shot and was on the verge of death. ...I remember a kid \- I call him a kid as he looked quite young \- and I didn't know where he'd been shot but you could tell by the color of his skin that he was very sick. ...You looked at this kid and you knew he was going to die very soon.... 
Glen SimpsonGlen Simpson has worked as an EMT for the last 18 years. The effects of that fateful night five years ago haunt him still '/ ' 
Glen SimpsonThe heroic Community Ambulance crew who were at the festival saving lives on the night of Paddock's massacre are all pictured above '/ ' A PERSONAL LOSS Simpson cannot remember when the gunfire stopped. He worked for 17 hours that night, alongside his band of Community Ambulance colleagues, before finally returning home to rest and regather himself. When he awoke later on October 2, his mind went immediately to his college friend Cameron, who had flown in from Utah to attend Route 91. Simpson had been in contact with his old friend across the weekend. They made several attempts to meet up during the festival, though each time they tried Simpson was either busy with a patient, or Cameron had returned to his hotel room to top up his drink. He texted Cameron that morning asking, ...are you okay?... but received no response. His heart sank when he logged into social media to see a flurry of posts with the words ...Rest in Peace, Cameron... displayed across the timeline. ...We never had that chance to reconnect,... Simpson solemnly reflected. ...And what do you say to that? This is someone that I wanted to meet up and say hello to.... He added: ...The only reassurance I had was that Cameron died in the hospital, that at least he had a chance and someone was able to get to him and be there for him in those last moments. ...It took me a while to process what happened to him, and everyone else. ...About a month ago I was scrolling through my text messages and I looked at that last conversation I had with Cameron on October 2, 2017, where I asked if he was okay. ...Obviously I didn't get a response, and I think it kind of affected me in a different way this year than it really has ever before.... ...I'D DO IT AGAIN' Cameron was among 58 people who were killed in Las Vegas at the hands of Stephen Paddock and more than 500 other people were hurt. Two other victims of Paddock's gunfire would die weeks after the event, eventually bringing to death toll up to 60. 
AP:Associated PressSome of the guns Paddock used in the shooter are soon sprawled out across his hotel room '/ ' 
APMore than 500 people were injured in the shooting. Two more died weeks after '/ ' 
Getty - ContributorThe area near The Fabulous Las Vegas Sign became a memorial for the victims after the mass shooting '/ ' For Simpson, he was relieved that all his colleagues at Community Ambulance escaped physically unharmed, though the mental scars of that night may take time to heal yet. Despite the horrors and the dangers Simpson and his crew were confronted with, he said he wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again if necessary. ...EMTs are trained to hold short in situations like these, or to hold back until there's no longer a threat,... Simpson said. ...But we were already there, we knew no more help was coming while the shooting was still going on so we had to get to work, we didn't retreat or hold short. Read More on The US Sun 
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TIGHT SQUEEZE I'm a Hooters girl - hack I use to get my tight work shirt on every day ...And I think if you asked us all if we had the opportunity to retreat when we were there, a big part of me that believes that not a single one of us would've taken it \- we all would have stayed. ...And while I don't wish this night on anyone, I would do it over again if we had to....
Glen SimpsonGlen Simpson, an advanced EMT, was at the festival when the shooting began '/ ' Getty58 people were killed on Oct. 1, 2017, and hundreds more were injured '/ ' AP:Associated PressThe sick culprit behind the senseless massacre, Stephen Paddock, took his own life at the scene '/ ' Moments after headline performer Jason Aldean took to the stage, Simpson was summoned to assist with an intoxicated guest and her fiancé at Gate 2A who were feuding and wanted to leave the event. With a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers, Simpson helped to hail a cab for the drunken pair. But as the car pulled away, Simpson heard what he characterized as a loud ...crackling... sound fizz out. ...It sounded like the crackling of a power line,... Simpson told The U.S. Sun. ...But there were no power lines around us, and as everyone was kind of looking around confused, that's when we heard the first burst of shots.... Read More on Crime MASSACRE Shooter's chilling internet searches revealed as doc recounts horror killing spree SAD LAST CHAT Grandma of Lori Vallow's son reveals heartbreaking final words Simpson and the group of officers ducked behind a vehicle barricade for cover as they attempted to locate the source of gunfire, which, unbeknown to them at the time, was raining down on them from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. Gunman Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old avid gambler, had barricaded himself inside his room with 23 firearms and a cache of ammunition with only one sick aim: to claim as many innocent lives as possible. The shooting continued for almost 11 minutes, and more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition were fired at concert-goers before Paddock turned the gun on himself. ...At that moment we realized this was a mass shooting,... said Simpson. Most read in The US Sun STILL SILENT Vegas shooter's girlfriend 'is healing' as she's pictured near luxury home ON EDGE Serial killer fears after 43 murders in same area show chilling pattern DECOR WAR Teen Mom fans think Vee's new house is better than Kailyn's 'tacky McMansion' UNIMPRESSED WITH DRESS Teen Mom fans divided over Cheyenne's racy wedding dress NOT BEING CHEY! Teen Mom Cheyenne shows off her butt in see-through catsuit at wedding VLAD'S Z DAY Putin vows to use 'any means' to defend stolen Ukraine regions in nuke threat ...A quick series of thoughts started going through my brain, and I told myself, ...Oh s**t, this is it. This is the real thing.' ...And then secondly I realized there was going to be a lot of patients in there in a very short period of time, and I knew I had to get as many resources as I could and regroup with my colleagues.... As Simpson crouched behind a barricade, an officer next to him was grazed by a bullet on his neck. During a brief pause in the gunfire, Simpson, dressed only in a polo shirt and combat pants, decided to make a break for it. He ran back inside the venue which, by that time, resembled something closer to a war zone than the laid-back music festival it had been just minutes earlier. This was not war zone \- this was beyond a war zone. Glen SimpsonEMT Simpson's priority was to get to the event's main medical tent on the opposite side of the grounds. As he sprinted across the festival he heard the sickening thud of bodies collapsing on the concrete and a cacophony of gut-wrenching screams as bullets whizzed overhead, clacking as they collided with metal barricades and fences. There was also an unsettling smell beginning to permeate the air, a smell Simpson has grown all too familiar with during his 18-year career as an EMT. ...You heard shots hitting the ground, you heard shots hitting the metal barricades, and then you started to smell burning flesh where people had been shot,... he said. ...It's a smell that I've smelt before unfortunately, you know from working on burn patients. ...There were so many people down and not moving, and there were people stopping to help those people. ...But I had to get back to the tent to find my colleagues, because if they weren't safe then we couldn't be effective at our job.... ...BEYOND A WAR ZONE' In the week preceding the festival, Simpson had played an active role in the safety planning for the event, including mapping out what to do in the event of a mass casualty incident. That conversation, specifically discussions about a potential mass shooting, continue to sit uneasily with Simpson today. But no amount of planning could've prepared him and his team for the horrors they were confronted with on the final night of the Route 91 festival. ...It was chaos, there was a lot of confusion and obviously panic,... Simpson said. ...At that moment I just tried to focus on the job I needed to do and not get too caught up thinking about getting hurt, because if I lost my s**t then I'd be of no use to anybody. ...I thought if I get shot, it's no big deal. You've seen people shot in the arm and the leg and they were fine, I just didn't let my mind think I could take a shot to the head or chest and lose my life.... APA body is covered with a sheet after the mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017 '/ ' GettyThe horrifying event cast a dark shadow over the bright lights of Sin City's iconic strip '/ ' GettyA man shields a woman from gunfire as other festival attendees flee '/ ' AFP or licensorsStephen Paddock's rampage was conducted from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino '/ ' As he made his way across the event's grounds, stepping over discarded bags, shoes, items of clothing and dropped phones ringing unanswered on the ground, Simpson said you could ...hear a pin drop... between the brief pauses in gunfire, with the sheltering crowd holding a collective breath of hope that the worst may finally be over. But as quickly as the shooting stopped it would start back up again, bringing with it a din of screams as concert-goers desperately clamored for cover in a spot they hoped would shield them from harm. ...I've never been in a war zone, and I don't know what being in one is like aside from what I've seen on TV or in movies,... Simpson said. ...But that particular night, one of our personnel was a retired combat medic ... and something he said that' always stuck with me is that this wasn't a war zone. ...He'd served two tours in Iraq at the height of the war, and he said in a war zone I have a weapon, I have protection, but we have none of that here. ...This was not war zone \- this was beyond a war zone.... HARROWING ENCOUNTERS On the night of the shooting, Simpson was supervising a team of 17 Community Ambulance personnel. When he eventually arrived at the medical tent he found all of them were unharmed and already busy attending to patients, separating victims by levels of severity with color-coded tags. Four other Community Ambulance personnel who had been off-duty but at the festival when the shooting had started were also busy at work. Inside the 20×20-foot tent, bodies were everywhere. A quick series of thoughts started going through my brain, and I told myself, ...Oh s**t, this is it. This is the real thing.' Glen Simpson Following the principles of disaster triage, Simpson and his team had to make the harrowing decision to refuse to perform CPR on any patients whose hearts had stopped and prioritize helping as many of those who still had a pulse as they could. They had to stick to that principle, even when family members and loved ones of the recently deceased begged them for help, holding a lifeless body in their arms. ...I'll never forget this was one guy looking at me and telling me, he was holding a patient, and said, ...I need you to start doing CPR on this person,' and me looking at that person straight in the eye and saying ...No, we're not going to do that.' ...That's how we train for mass casualty events, because our goal is to get our hands on as many patients as possible, and CPR is an incredibly time-consuming measure,... Simpson explained. ...But I don't think you can train to tell someone that, but I just had to move on.... Simpson said he recalled seeing the man attempt to perform CPR on the victim himself but to no avail. The faces of a number of other victims he crossed paths with that night still remain fresh in his mind five years later. Among them was a young girl who approached Simpson complaining of a headache, unaware that she'd been severely grazed by a bullet on the top of her head. He also spoke to another man who had been shot and was on the verge of death. ...I remember a kid \- I call him a kid as he looked quite young \- and I didn't know where he'd been shot but you could tell by the color of his skin that he was very sick. ...You looked at this kid and you knew he was going to die very soon.... Glen SimpsonGlen Simpson has worked as an EMT for the last 18 years. The effects of that fateful night five years ago haunt him still '/ ' Glen SimpsonThe heroic Community Ambulance crew who were at the festival saving lives on the night of Paddock's massacre are all pictured above '/ ' A PERSONAL LOSS Simpson cannot remember when the gunfire stopped. He worked for 17 hours that night, alongside his band of Community Ambulance colleagues, before finally returning home to rest and regather himself. When he awoke later on October 2, his mind went immediately to his college friend Cameron, who had flown in from Utah to attend Route 91. Simpson had been in contact with his old friend across the weekend. They made several attempts to meet up during the festival, though each time they tried Simpson was either busy with a patient, or Cameron had returned to his hotel room to top up his drink. He texted Cameron that morning asking, ...are you okay?... but received no response. His heart sank when he logged into social media to see a flurry of posts with the words ...Rest in Peace, Cameron... displayed across the timeline. ...We never had that chance to reconnect,... Simpson solemnly reflected. ...And what do you say to that? This is someone that I wanted to meet up and say hello to.... He added: ...The only reassurance I had was that Cameron died in the hospital, that at least he had a chance and someone was able to get to him and be there for him in those last moments. ...It took me a while to process what happened to him, and everyone else. ...About a month ago I was scrolling through my text messages and I looked at that last conversation I had with Cameron on October 2, 2017, where I asked if he was okay. ...Obviously I didn't get a response, and I think it kind of affected me in a different way this year than it really has ever before.... ...I'D DO IT AGAIN' Cameron was among 58 people who were killed in Las Vegas at the hands of Stephen Paddock and more than 500 other people were hurt. Two other victims of Paddock's gunfire would die weeks after the event, eventually bringing to death toll up to 60. AP:Associated PressSome of the guns Paddock used in the shooter are soon sprawled out across his hotel room '/ ' APMore than 500 people were injured in the shooting. Two more died weeks after '/ ' Getty - ContributorThe area near The Fabulous Las Vegas Sign became a memorial for the victims after the mass shooting '/ ' For Simpson, he was relieved that all his colleagues at Community Ambulance escaped physically unharmed, though the mental scars of that night may take time to heal yet. Despite the horrors and the dangers Simpson and his crew were confronted with, he said he wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again if necessary. ...EMTs are trained to hold short in situations like these, or to hold back until there's no longer a threat,... Simpson said. ...But we were already there, we knew no more help was coming while the shooting was still going on so we had to get to work, we didn't retreat or hold short. Read More on The US Sun 'SHE SNAPPED' Shocking details revealed after girl, 7, stabbed to death by mom TIGHT SQUEEZE I'm a Hooters girl - hack I use to get my tight work shirt on every day ...And I think if you asked us all if we had the opportunity to retreat when we were there, a big part of me that believes that not a single one of us would've taken it \- we all would have stayed. ...And while I don't wish this night on anyone, I would do it over again if we had to....
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