WATCH: One year after 58 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Las Vegas mass shooting, a Victoria man who was among the injured is now fully recovered. April Lawrence reports.
White crosses were placed in front of the Las Vegas welcome sign Monday to commemorate the one year anniversary of a mass shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured.
It was Oct. 1, 2017, when gunfire rained down on the Route 91 country music festival. In the crowd that night was Victoria resident Sheldon Mack — he was shot twice.
“When I collapsed I could have swore that was it, staring at the Vegas sky,” said 22-year-old Mack in a video recently released by Desert Springs Hospital, where he was treated.
“Sheldon had a gunshot wound to his abdomen so we knew at that point he’d have to go to the OR,” Dr. Peter Caravella said.
Mack spent 10 days in the hospital before being flown back to Canada where he spent another week at Victoria General Hospital.
After a year of ups and downs, Mack has fully recovered both physically and emotionally.
“It feels good to get back to normal life, living my life again, ya thankful every day,” said Mack.
One year after the shooting the memories of that night still haunt his family.
“For about six hours that night, we didn’t know where he was, we couldn’t contact him we didn’t know how badly hurt he was, if he had survived,” said Sheldon’s father Hudson Mack.
But he had survived, largely thanks to an off-duty paramedic named Jimmy Grovom. Grovom came to Victoria with his brother this summer to visit Sheldon and his family.
“They’ve made lifelong friends and from an act of pure evil something good came of it in that regard,” said Hudson.
In the chaos of the shooting scene, Mack lost his beloved Arizona Diamondbacks baseball hat. But that was recently returned to him thanks to the FBI.
“As he looked at this hat and held it, and put it back on his head for the first time since he’d been shot, he got kind of quiet and he posted a thoughtful piece on Instagram about who would have thought a hat could mean so much – it’s a symbol for him and one that will be a keepsake,” said his dad.
Sheldon Mack and his family are grateful they get the chance to celebrate on this sombre anniversary when there are so many families grieving.
“We just want to say thank you to everybody and we know how fortunate we are and let’s spare a thought for the others,” said Hudson.
April Lawrence
