A Collier County woman is speaking out about her experience at the Las Vegas concert in early October, when a gunman killed dozens of people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern history.
Tracy Ramsay and her husband Gregg were enjoying the Jason Aldean concert in Vegas on October 1, when the sound of gunfire drowned out the music.
"It just wasn't a normal sound for the venue," Ramsay said Monday.
She immediately looked for an exit - and a weapon.
"I had my pen, and thankfully as a nurse, I know where to put that to do the most injury," she said.
Ramsay had taken active shooter scenario training in March from Sgt. Neal Bohannon with the Collier County Sheriff's Office, and knew it was better to be moving than to stay in one place. But that night, the crowd around her was staying put - making it impossible to move.
"We were saying 'we're sitting targets here, we need to keep moving, we're just sitting ducks," Ramsay said. "We couldn't move anywhere."
They finally made it to a safe area, but she said Bohannon's training made her feel more in control.
"I was looking at everybody's hands as we were going out, to make sure I didn't see something that shouldn't have been there," Ramsay said, who met with Bohannon on Monday for thew first time since the training in March.
"She made note of little things," Bohannon said. "And if nothing else, those little things made her more calm."
58 people were killed that night by the gunman, Stephen Paddock. But Ramsay said she and her husband won't let the ordeal keep them from returning to Vegas.
"We can't let it define us," she said. "We can't let it run our life."
To schedule training for your workplace or community, email Sgt. Bohannon at neal.bohannon@colliersheriff.org or call 239-252-0018.
