Las Vegas Shooting: One Family's Harrowing Tale Of Survival

Deborah Higgins and her husband Grant Higgins Sr., along with their son Grant Jr. and his girlfriend, Jennifer Fluegal, were relieved to be alive as they finally found security in their hotel room at the Hooters Casino Hotel. Sunday's mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas left 59 dead and 527 injured in the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, but through good fortune and quick thinking, the family from the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro, California, survived what amounted to roughly 37 minutes of terror.

In a phone interview Tuesday with International Business Times, Deborah Higgins, who served as a Route 91 Festival volunteer, explained how they escaped the grounds and found an electrical closet at the Hooters Casino Hotel.

More than 36 hours after the shooting, Deborah Higgins had trouble catching her breath when she talked about the incident, saying she is still shaken up and feels as though she is about to hyperventilate.

When asked if she thought she, her family and Fluegal were going to die from gunshots, Deborah Higgins replied: "Yes. Yes. 100 percent."

At first, the Higgins family thought they were hearing firecrackers as singer Jason Aldean performed the final performance of the evening. But as the gunshots continued, and as Aldean walked off the stage, it became clear to her and those around her that they were in danger.

"We heard the pop. It was just a pop-pop-pop," she said.

The family was 50 feet from the stage.

After the shooting sounds paused, a second round of shots was heard, forcing the family to hit the ground and hide behind a trash can. One of Deborah Higgins' first instincts while lying on the ground was to call her other son, Travis, who wasn't present at the concert but lives in Las Vegas, to tell him her feelings in what could have been her final moments.

After the third set of shots, the gravity of the situation set in, prompting them to overrule the urge to stay down and hide behind bleachers. Instead, they sprinted to the Hooters Casino Hotel amid cries and chaos from the thousands in attendance.

"He's coming. He's coming," were the yells the family heard as they fled gunfire. Deborah Higgins said it was hard to understand how many shots were fired.

While it was unclear to the festival goers where the shots were coming from, [Grant Jr.] was certain the bullets were coming from the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Grant Sr. and Deborah, who were staying at the nearby Luxor Hotel, followed the advice of Grant Jr. and made their way in a different direction towards the Hooters Casino Hotel.

"I don't know how my son knew that [the shots were] coming from Mandalay Bay Hotel, but he knew," Deborah Higgins said.

She credited her husband and son for keeping their cool and guiding the group to keep running. Grant Jr dialed 9-1-1 but the calls did not go through.

At the Hooters Casino Hotel, they huddled in an electrical closet with two other concertgoers whom they had not previously met. While in the electrical closet, Grant Higgins Jr. received text messages from his cousin that "there were more active shooters" — information that turned out to be false but, at the time, heightened the family's fears.

Worried about additional gunmen, the Higgins family barricaded the closet with a tool box and a crowbar, while closely listening for about 45 minutes for gunshot sounds and awaiting news updates.

Deborah Higgins explained that the entire ordeal, and the efforts for survival, were all based on instincts.

"It was a free-for-all," she said.

Although deeply shaken, the Higgins family is aware of their good fortune. "I know my story isn't as horrific as other people's but it was pretty bad for us," Deborah Higgins said. "I am thankful we got out safe."

One family friend, Steve Keys, an emergency medical technician, performed CPR on a woman and was one of the hundreds hit by alleged shooter Stephen Craig Paddock. Keys, who had enjoyed the concert with the Higgins family but was a few feet away from them when the attack took place, texted them after being separated in the immediate aftermath: "Please tell me you guys are O.K."

Keys' Facebook posting, which has over 11,000 views, revealed a bullet wound that grazed his ribcage.

"Prayers needed. Lot of people hit. A lot killed. Was doing CPR on a woman in the concert when I got grazed. I'm ok. But a lot of people aren't. I am lucky. Stayed behind on the street to help people. Worked along side a lot of f---ing heroic men and women. Please, please, please say prayers," Keys posted on Sunday at 11:41 p.m. local time.