Taylor Winston, Marine Veteran Stole Truck To Transport Las Vegas Shooting Victims

A 29-year-old Marine veteran rescued over a dozen critically injured victims during the Las Vegas shooting attack Sunday by driving them to the hospital in a pickup truck he had stolen in order to transport them.

Taylor Winston, a Marine veteran from San Diego, was among friends at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night when the gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, opened fire on the audience from a nearby hotel room. Winston stole a utility pickup truck he found on the concert grounds and took victims to the hospital before ambulances arrived at the scene.

Winston told CBS This Morning that he was dancing with his girlfriend and friends just moments before the attacker began firing from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Once Jason Aldean stopped playing and the stage went dark, he realized that the popping sounds he first thought to be fireworks were actually rapid-fire bursts of gunfire. Paddock killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500 in what was one of the most horrific mass shootings in the U.S.

Winston said it was his military background that helped him to act immediately in assisting the victims at the concert.

He found the keys inside of a truck, a white Chevrolet Silverado parked in a lot. He then piled some of the injured concertgoers into the truck and sped to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center about five miles away.

“I started looking for people to take to the hospital,” Winston said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” “There was just too many and it was overwhelming how much blood was everywhere.”

Winston, who was said to have joined the Marines when he was 17 years old, served two tours in Iraq. He said "People started scattering and screaming and that’s when we knew something real was happening," the New York Post reported.

That’s when his military experience came handy in helping the victims.

“The shots got louder and louder, closer to us and saw people getting hit, it was like we could be hit at any second,” he recalled. “Once we got to the fence, I helped throw a bunch of people over and got myself over. It was a mini war zone but we couldn’t fight back.”

Winston, who was honorably discharged in 2011 as a sergeant, estimated that he likely transported “20 to 30 people” to the hospital at the night of the shooting.

“Once we dropped them off, we were like well, let’s go back for round two and go get some more,” he said.

“I think a lot of my training in the military helped me in the situation,” he added. “We needed to get them out of there regardless of our safety.”

Winston said he returned the truck’s keys to the owner on Monday night and said he does not want to be praised for his actions as he did the right thing to do at that moment.

“There was a lot of bravery and courageous people out there,” he said. “I’m glad that I could call them my countryfolk.”

He also said that he was 100 percent lucky to have survived and not been injured. He was not aware which of his passengers survived but said that he was confident that he made a difference that night.

“I can’t be for certain," he said. "There’s a few that I don’t think probably made it. They were pretty limp when we were pulling them out of the truck, but they still had a pulse, so I’m hoping for the best," he said, according to the Independent.