PORTLAND, Ore. — A husband and wife from Marion County stood their ground to help the victims in the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
“It had nothing to do with being a hero,” said Dawn-Marie Gray.
Dawn-Marie and her husband, Kevin, won tickets to the country music festival through a Portland radio station. They were enjoying the Jason Aldean concert Sunday night when bullets rained down from the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
“It didn’t stop,” said Dawn-Marie. “People started running.”
The Grays took cover inside a VIP area. They stayed there until the gunfire stopped.
“When we came out it was horrific,” she said. “A field of bodies.”
Having worked as a paramedic for almost seven years, Dawn-Marie knew the local paramedics could not move in until it was safe to do so. She and her husband turned their attention to the injured.
“Providing CPR, providing tourniquets, holding pressure,” she said.
More: What gun was used in Las Vegas shooting?
The Grays were not alone. They were joined by other off-duty doctors and nurses who happened to be at the concert.
“You just saw bodies,” said Kevin Gray. “You’re checking pulses, breathing, people doing CPR.”
The Grays recall loading victims into waiting cars. Sometimes as many as six people went into one vehicle. Others were put into ambulances.
“There’s a mother, the last one I put into an ambulance,” remembered Dawn-Marie. “She was shot in the arm and leg and unfortunately it got both major arteries and she’s fighting for her life.”
What the Grays and many others did is nothing short of remarkable, but they will tell you they are not heroes.
“That’s being a human being,” said Dawn-Marie. “That’s doing our job.”
It is a lesson the Grays hope to pass down to their children and others.
“The only way this stops is if more people like us do something about it.”
