Sunday night’s Las Vegas shooting took 59 lives, leaving more than 500 people injured after a gunman fired on a festival crowd. But one concertgoer saved at least 30 people, sacrificing his own well-being for the sake of others’ safety.
Jonathan Smith, 30, was in Las Vegas with his family for the weekend, celebrating his brother’s birthday with front-row seats to see Jason Aldean. Then the gunfire started.
Smith jumped into action, first helping his three nieces find shelter. But after he was separated from them, Smith began helping other people in the audience get to safety.
“I got a few people out of there,” Smith told the Washington Post. “You couldn’t hear the shots. It sounded like it was coming from all over Las Vegas Boulevard.”
Jonathan Smith, 30, saved ~30 people last night before he was shot in the neck. He might live w/the bullet for rest of his life. #vegasstrip pic.twitter.com/6hLujXWe51
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) October 2, 2017
But in the process, Smith suffered an injury of his own. He says a bullet struck him in the neck while he was helping several young women hide from the shooter. The bullet ultimately fractured his collarbone, cracked a rib, and bruised one of his lungs. An off-duty San Diego police officer saved him, he claims, by treating the wound and getting him into a car with other wounded victims.
“I couldn’t feel anything in my neck,” he said, Bustle reports. “There was a warm sensation in my arm.”
It’s estimated Smith saved around 30 people from being wounded or killed. A GoFundMe page has since gone live to help pay for Smith’s medical bills, with the page reaching over $6,400 of its $7,000 goal. Donations also go to Smith’s living expenses for his three children while he remains on leave from his job as a copy machine repairman to heal.
“Our family is so blessed to have someone so heroic and selfless putting the lives of others before his own,” his sister-in-law Tiffany Jones wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Please, if you can, help and share the message.”
Smith’s story has since gone viral, too, with many praising him as a hero who put others first before himself.
https://twitter.com/155thMed/status/914991234942300161
Hero: https://t.co/2xTu44mdJX
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) October 2, 2017