WATCH: Brie and Tracy Jacobson were at the Route 91 Harvest Musical Festival where 58 people were killed. Ceilidh Millar reports.
Brie Jacobson and her mother, Tracy, have been travelling to Las Vegas for the past three years to attend the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.
“Jason Aldean was fantastic,” explained Brie. “I had been waiting years to finally watch him live.”
Brie says she and her friend were near the front of the crowd when the country star took the stage for the final set of the night.
Suddenly, the sound of music was drowned out by loud bangs.
At first, they thought it was firecrackers until a man standing near them was shot.
“I’ll never forget it,” said Brie. “He fell like a tree, like if you cut down a tree in a forest and it just falls.”
Tracy was watching the show from a set of bleachers with her sister.
She describes looking down into the crowd as the gunfire erupted.
“All we could think of was ‘oh my god, Brie and Jess are there,'” explained Tracy. “Please let them be safe.”
Brie was desperately searching for an escape when she dropped her sunglasses, a single decision which she believes saved her life.
“I picked them up and then the girl in front of me got shot,” said Brie. “I think if I hadn’t bent over for those sunglasses that would have been me.”
Brie managed to make it to a nearby coffee shop while Tracy fled to a hotel.
It would be a few hours before they managed to contact each other.
“We’re so grateful” explained Tracy. “We’re lucky to be alive.”
The pair are back home in Saanich preparing for the holiday weekend.
“I bought the biggest Turkey I could find,” said Tracy with a laugh.
They admit they both have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
The incident has also made Brie contemplate a new career path.
“I think politics is where I need to go,” she said.
The University of California graduate has posted an open letter on Facebook about her view of U.S. gun control.
“There are good people and there are bad people,” she writes. “No one, good or bad, should have the capability to murder another person, let alone reign fire upon thousands.”
The 24-year-old said she isn’t letting fear stop her from taking action.
“I think it’s our responsibility to make sure nobody has the power to do that again.”
Ceilidh Millar
