Las Vegas shooting: Airmont man recalls 'scary' scene
More than 50 people were killed and more than 500 injured.
Matt SpillanePaul Rothstein and Blythe Mendelsohn-Rothstein of Airmont were outside Caesars Palace when a cousin texted them about the carnage unfolding a mile and a half away in Las Vegas, where the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was taking place.
The Rockland couple was taking in the Absinthe show on Sunday night when they learned about a shooter who ended up killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 500 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
After a night of being on lockdown, walking past SWAT teams and hearing helicopters overhead, Rothstein described the "scary" scene.
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"Everybody was kind of in a state of shock," he said today from Las Vegas. "It's a pretty somber mood. All we can think about are those poor people.
"When you're in the town where we are, it's just in the air. You can feel the heaviness here."
Rothstein, who runs PCR Marketing in Airmont, said he and his wife are in Las Vegas for vacation and a trade show that he is attending this week. He said they were taking in the Absinthe show in an outdoor tent around 10:30 p.m. when a friend from California texted them about the shooting taking place down the road.
"Your mind is not even thinking about what's going on in the show," Rothstein said.
Rothstein said by the time the show ended around 11:30 p.m., many people knew what had happened down the road and they could hear helicopters overhead. The show's organizers told the crowd that police had requested that nobody leave the space outside Caesars Palace until further notice, he said, so the crowd stayed put on lockdown until about 2 a.m.
"We ended up walking about a mile and a half back to our hotel," Rothstein said, adding that taxis and Ubers were nowhere to be found. "We were trying to get to a safe place."
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Rothstein said he and his wife walked past SWAT teams and police officers on almost every street corner who were carrying assault weapons and asking people to return home and get off the streets.
"It was empty. You never see that on the Vegas strip," he said.
When they returned to their hotel, he said, the staff checked IDs and room keys before allowing people in. Though they were a mile and a half from the shooting, Rothstein said, it was still "too close for comfort for sure."
When he and his wife went to sleep, Rothstein said, they had heard there were a couple of people killed.
"We woke up this morning to the more devastating news," he said of the more than 50 people who had died. "My heart just goes out to all these people and their families. It's gut-wrenching."
Twitter: @MattSpillane