Last night at 10:08pm Jason Aldean was onstage playing “When She Says Baby” at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas when tragedy struck. A lone gunman, whose name doesn’t deserve mention, opened fire with an automatic rifle on a crowd of 22,000 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. Bullets ripped into a sea of people as they scrambled to get to safety. “It was like shooting fish in a barrel” said one spectator. After 5 horrifying minutes and 200-300 bullets, 58 people lay dead and over 500 injured.
I spoke to Jake Owen and Josh Abbott right before they took the stage last night. In fact, it was the last thing I did last evening before I went to bed, only to wake up to this horrific news. I just talked to Jake, who was on the stage when the shooting started, “Bullets were ringing off the road cases on stage. Nobody knew what was going on. Then I saw people literally being shot.”
Jake, Josh, and their crews are ok, thank God. I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves here but this was a country music festival, our core. With a body count this high we are already aware we have lost Chivers.
Families of victims can reach out to us for help at chivenation@thechive.com and we will field requests accordingly. As we receive more information, I will provide updates on theCHIVE, and no doubt our community will be called into action again.
These mass killings are happening too frequently these days, and the streets of heaven are far too crowded with angels today. Jake Owen wanted me to share this thought after the deadliest mass shooting in American history, “This isn’t what America is supposed to be like. Us performers, we will continue to bring people up, but we have to fix this.”
Families of victims who may need our help, contact us at chivenation@thechive.com. Thanks and God Bless.
KCCO,
John n’ Leo
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