DENVER — At least three Coloradans were shot during Sunday’s concert in Las Vegas.
Christopher Roybal was killed. His girlfriend said he’d been living in Colorado since earlier this year. Roybal is a Navy veteran and was reportedly at the concert celebrating his birthday.
One of the other Colorado victims is Dustin Burkhardt, a deejay at Stampede, a country music night club in Aurora.
Burkhardt was shot in the leg, but stayed on the scene assisting EMTs.
“The first thing he did after getting shot was call his wife and tell her not to leave the hotel room,” said Richie Law, a friend of Burkhardt’s and a country music singer.
Little did Burkhardt know, their hotel room was on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, just down the hall from the shooter.
“They were in the room and they opened the door to come out and they could hear the fire shooting so they closed the door,” said Lexi Baca, another friend of the family.
Baca and Gina Horcher had tickets to the concert but at the last minute decided not to attend.
“I think it hurts more knowing I was supposed to be there with them at this concert, standing next to them,” Baca said.
Burkhardt was one of two friends who were shot. The other victim’s name is not being released because his friends aren’t sure family has been notified.
“He’s in the hospital now, but we hear he’s going to be OK,” Baca said.
Numerous victims of the shooting arrived home in Colorado on Monday. Jenna Hutchins was among them. She was sitting near the stage when the gunman opened fire.
“In between the gunshots, we would have a couple of seconds that would pass and we would run, and then it would start again and we would go down on the ground,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins and others immediately took off running, even though they didn’t know where they were headed.
“Thankfully, we were close enough to the outside that we were able to find a hole in the fence someone had knocked down,” Hutchins said. “People were getting toppled over and getting stuck.
“There was a gal in front of me that got her boot stuck and she was unable to move and we could only help with that for so long.”