The crowds spooked her, however, and they left. Police in tactical gear were everywhere.Ī week after that shooting, nobody could go back into the building, so Castruita and Monticone decided to go to Disneyland. She remembered the terror of knowing people had been shot and killed at the site where she worked. She remembered driving to the Inland Regional Center on Dec. That day in 2015 hung over her and haunted her. It was crowded, though, and ever since her experience with the San Bernardino shooting, Castruita had been skittish in large crowds. Her aunt and cousin moved off to the left of the stage and even considered going to the pit area. The tickets were VIP, but after a late night of partying Saturday, they had arrived later than planned and missed out on nabbing seats in the outdoor arena. She’d seen her favorite country act, Sam Hunt, Saturday night and was excited to see Aldean’s set. I will find you.Ĭastruita had been celebrating her 34th birthday, and this was the second Route 91 Harvest festival she attended. He told Castruita that he was helping someone and that he would find her. “The hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life,” he said. He handed the phone to his friend and tried to help the man. Monticone, a 36-year-old paramedic with the South Pasadena Fire Department, carried the young man to a bench with his friend, who had caught up with him after his sprint. The woman said that he was her son and that his friend had been shot next to him. Monticone thought some shrapnel had hit him, but wasn’t sure. “They’re just rubber bullets,” the man told Monticone in a rote, dazed voice.īlood stained the young man’s shirt and pants. “I’m so scared!! Do you hear that? They took jason Aldean’s off stage,” she texted to Monticone. She, her aunt and her cousin had been singing along with country star Jason Aldean when bullets came pouring down from the 32nd flood of Mandalay Bay some 500 yards away. How could these two worlds exist simultaneously?Ĭastruita was crouched down in the VIP area near the stage across the street from Luxor when she texted Monticone. It contradicted everything he knew in his head at that moment. He ran past people gambling and drinking as if the world were normal. 2, 2015, when Melissa Castruita was working in San Bernardino at the Inland Regional Center. It was the same two words he’d heard from her on Dec. Monticone had just gotten a text message from his fiancee Sunday night. He was running, lungs burning, across the casino floor of the Luxor - leaving his friends behind in a mad, desperate sprint toward the massacre.

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