LAS VEGAS — Claire Wick, 14, of Redmond survived the shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night. The Redmond High School freshman was at the music festival with her mom, Tracy Wick.
The pair was near the front of the stage when the gunfire started. They told KIRO-7 news at first they thought the sound was people stepping on beer cans.
That quickly changed when a man next to them was hit.
"I realized it was a shooting when a guy two over from us yelled 'I've been shot' and he got shot in the leg and he dropped to the floor."
Claire and her mom tried to take cover, but it was so crowded they couldn't move.
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"I definitely remember all the places we went down, I was like 'oh my God please keep us safe, please keep us safe," remembered Tracy Wick.
They ran and hid under an awning, but they still weren't safe. They could hear bullets hitting the roof and see them.
"I could see the bullets hitting the concrete next to me, on either side of me, and as I was running I could see a couple of them hitting other people as they were running," Claire said.
"I was just like preparing myself for getting shot, and I thought either we'd stay there and get shot and killed, or we'd run and get shot and killed."
They ran towards the airport. Claire lost a shoe in the chaos and still urged her mom to keep going.
"She was going 'Mom, you have to run'. I was going 'I don't think I can' and she was like 'No, you run!'", Tracy said. "She was amazing, in control, way calmer than I was."
The pair ran past other people who had been shot, who were clearly already dead.
"Every time I close my eyes I picture all the people I saw lying in their own blood, bleeding to death," Claire said.
When they got to the airport, someone broke a window at a hangar. Claire was barefoot so a man carried her over the glass and helped her in the window. They hid in a break room in the hangar, with the lights off.
They were eventually evacuated to the the University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball arena. That's where they were interviewed by detectives. Claire was wrapped in a blanket that belonged to the arena. As she left, a volunteer asked for it back. When she saw Claire was in shorts and a tank top, the woman took off her own coat and gave it to Claire.
The Wicks got home on Monday. They are finding comfort in the family and friends. They know they are lucky to have survived.
Claire told KIRO 7 she worried her mom would get shot, "If she got shot I don't think I could have helped her in any way. That was my greatest fear, that she would get shot and she would die because I didn't know what to do," Claire said.
"We made it out safe and I'm so thankful. I love this kid so much but my heart breaks for all those people who lost family members. We were just there to have fun," Tracy said.
Cox Media Group
