Jason Hartman discusses the Las Vegas shooting that took place at the Route 91 Christian Music Festival. A deranged gunman fired at a crowd that ended with over 50 people dying. Jason talks about what he witnessed from his hotel while attending a meeting. The morning after he reflected on what had just occurred. He chats with one other meeting participant, Larry, as they both go into the experience of witnessing the shooting.
Jason Hartman 0:01
Hey, it’s Jason Hartman and I wanted to do this special little segment here of the podcast, because I actually witnessed the Las Vegas shooting last night that changed my life forever. I’m sure it’ll, I’ll just never forget that. And it was horrific, for sure. But it was nothing for me compared to the people that were obviously the victims and the people that were on the ground that were close to it. Here’s what happened. And what I saw, and I got some video and the media has been calling me all day. And you know, that video has been shared, many, many times now. I was at a business meeting, hearing about a real estate deal that Grant Cardone was talking about you might have heard of Grant Cardone he’s an author, a real estate investor. I was there with several of my friends. We were at the foundation room at the top of the Mandalay Bay hotel as we were leaving around 930 or so 9:30pm on Sunday evening, we walked through The main foundation room area, which is the foundation rooms like a private club that’s part of the House of Blues. It’s at the top of the Mandalay Bay hotel. We walked out onto the balcony and heard what we now know was a lot of gunshots, automatic weapons, a lot of gunshots. It was very, very loud the way it echoed through the building. At first, we didn’t know what it was people were talking about. We’re saying what’s that noise is that? You know, is that a jackhammer? Is it fireworks? Is it sound effects, and then we looked down onto the Christian country music concert route 91 harvest festival that was below us. And the movement was odd, you know, it was far away. So at least with my eyes, I couldn’t see it extremely well, but I turned on my iPhone and started capturing video and I use the iPhone to actually zoom in to see it better. And it looked like people were laying on the ground. And turns out they were. And so people were leaving the event. And what made us realize that there was really a problem here that this tragedy was actually unfolding is that it was only about 930. And, you know, anybody knows that the concert probably wouldn’t end until 11pm or so. Why is everybody leaving, more shots rang out, more shots rang out, and then we realized these really are gunshots. They were incredibly loud. It echoed through all the tall buildings there in Las Vegas. And we got in the elevator and left and went downstairs. And it was kind of a strange scene downstairs. Some people had no idea what was going on. Some people were starting to look like they were, you know, really exiting fast. People were looking around, but it hadn’t really occurred to basically most people in the lobby and then the lobby of the Mandalay Bay in the attached Four Seasons Hotel. They’re working Police running through the lobby not with just the sidearm and their uniform. But with machine guns. They were heavily armed cops. They weren’t like SWAT team cops, but they were heavily armed police or some kind of security people. I think they were, you know, Metro type police. We got out, got the car started on the way home and you could just see police cars coming from every direction. They were blocking roads. They were barricaded, forming a perimeter, maybe the suspect is trying to get away. So you know, they needed to control the scene. They were closing bridges that were just police everywhere, 90 miles an hour, 100 miles an hour, driving down the other side of the freeway, and then the ambulances there were just, you know, ambulance after ambulance coming toward that scene as we were going away from it. You know, I saw a lot of this from upstairs at the Mandalay Bay hotel as well. And just just tragic, terrible event. These disgusting terrorists call the Yeah, ISIS claimed responsibility for the event. The media’s sort of half reporting that half not it seems like, you know, there’s all this agenda and political correctness. You can never get the truth about anything anymore. It seems like but who knows what, you know, nobody really knows yet. It’s just too early to tell what really happened here, but it’s just at this point. I think the fatality toll is like 58 people, and over 500 people did some pretty seriously I’m sure. So I’m at a charity event right now. called Monday’s dark, where people have been dropping off supplies, water, paper, towels, diapers, you know, medical supplies, personal hygiene supplies, everything, you know, juice cups for the blood banks. They tried to get a blood bank here, and the blood banks are super busy. So that’s good news. People are people are donating blood. Thankfully, and they couldn’t get the blood bank to come here the mobile bloodmobile but wow, this is just I just never in my life thought I would witness some terrible tragedy like this and, and you know, many people have been reaching out since I posted that video the media friends of course, saying, you know, are you okay? You must be shaken up. Well, yeah, I’m shaking up about it. I don’t know that I’ve really processed it yet. But it was no big deal for me. I mean, I I saw it. But I saw it from a distance. There were people on the ground that saw people bloody dead. Must have just been awful. And then of course, there are the actual victims. zillion times worse. So What a sad day the biggest terrorist attack in the US since 911. And it is of great concern that the next one will try it out, do it and make it worse. You know, whatever. Terrible method these disgusting, psychos yours. So I want to get the story for you from one of my friends here. Several of my friends did not leave as early as I did from the Mandalay Bay hotel. I got out. They were in lockdown all night in the hotel. They left at 730 in the morning 8am you know, they had to stay there and they weren’t guests of the hotel. Mind you, they were just at a meeting at the same meeting I was at. But the police came and locked them in and said you can’t leave. And you know, they have to screen people because obviously there could be a suspect in there, you know, mixing in with the general population to try and hide. So I’m gonna see if I can get a little clip a little soundbite from one of my friends who was there who didn’t leave till about 8am. So my friend Larrywas actually in lockdown at the Mandalay Bay hotel. He was a essentially a prisoner required to stay there. He wasn’t a hotel guests. He was just there for business meeting, as were many of them. My other friends, and what happened?
Larry 7:03
So we were in the same room as where the real estate investor meeting with grant went down. From there. I want to say, at some point, someone received a text. Maybe there was a video, someone had received a video. Someone could have actually taken a video on their phone. I don’t remember which one. But at that point, we realized there was an active shooting situation. So many of us went on Twitter trying to find fox news to see what’s going on. There was kind of conflicting reports, but like on Twitter, you know, it talked about there was something going down at the Lux or there was something going on New York, New York. They mentioned a couple other places, multiple shooters, so we thought inside,
Jason Hartman 7:44
it seems like a grand attack like
Larry 7:46
a really a terrorist attack, highly coordinated. And at that point, I just remember there’s probably about 20 of us left in the one room, and the room was probably closed at that point and probably within about 10 Maybe 15 minutes from that point, as we’re just all trying to figure it all out. It got really quiet. And I remember someone yelling, you know, listen to what they have to say. And like, there’s just all this commotion and literally at that point and they was the police. That’s why I didn’t want it. There was someone in our room that said, Hey, listen, you listen up. Then it was just all this commotion like outside, you could hear the commotion. And at that point, we knew there was an active shooter in Mandalay Bay. Initially they said 32nd floor, and now we’re I don’t know if we’re in the 46th floor or the 64th or the 64th.
Jason Hartman 8:33
We were was up
Larry 8:36
at the top of the Mandalay Bay. Oh, yeah.
Larry 8:37
But at that point, we didn’t know if it was like the actual shooter that was coming in. And so we thought whoever’s out there is breaking down the door to get in where we’re at. And everyone starts like, running off like a bat out of hell. Like I jumped behind. Like, there was a, I jumped into the corner. There was a couple couches, guys were moving couches around to try to hide underneath them, people. Trying to get in the closets. Yeah, it was because you didn’t know what the hell was coming. You had no idea they said multiple shooters but
Jason Hartman 9:06
but who is gay? You keep saying they who was that just said another attendee there or staff person.
Larry 9:11
There was just people in our you know, there was no I don’t remember if there was tape back there was somebody from the foundation room that must have communicated to us at some point. And that’s when you know, the door closed. But then like I said, there’s all this commotion going on. And now we don’t know holy. Is this the shooter? And that’s when everyone’s like, took off. I’ll get a better to help. You just freaked out.
Jason Hartman 9:37
My friend Ben who was there with you. He said at one point, people were really screaming and yelling and freaking out and some
Larry 9:45
of the women were totally freaking out. I mean, Hell, even the guy Listen, if you came face to face with them, some might freak out machine gun, you’re gonna freak out to or not knowing what’s on the other side of the door, knowing that there’s all these people getting shot. So It was a crazy and then then they put us in another bigger room with the foundation room. And then by that point, there’s probably 60 or 80 people and in my mind, then they had the sweep of the the SWAT guys, you know
Jason Hartman 10:12
they’re coming in. So when you say they now it was just now until the SWAT team SWAT team
Larry 10:17
is there and saying they’re like now the SWAT teams in charge. Yeah, listen up, you know, hands up, let’s move, move move. And it was just like, very you know, and they moved you the SWAT team, they moved on from one room into this other room. And you know, the SWAT team to their defense. I mean, they don’t know could either do they
Larry 10:35
don’t know they’re gonna be you could be the bad guy.
Larry 10:37
It could be the bad guy hiding so it was a high stress situation. And in my mind, I’m thinking then eventually the SWAT team leaves and I didn’t know are there armed guards, you know, outside of our room. And I’m thinking myself, Well, how many elevators Is it possible to get up to this? where we’re at? For a while it was a high stress situation because you just don’t know. Because right outside down, you know, down the stairs down the street, people getting bogged down.
Jason Hartman 11:04
Incredibly. So I’m guessing that the time you’re describing now is maybe 10:30pm. It’s like an hour later,
Larry 11:14
my responses gotta be, I wasn’t checking the time, but I’m gonna say we’re probably in that 1020 to 1030. So,
Jason Hartman 11:23
take us through then what happened? Did people sort of mellow out and calm down? Or and then we
Larry 11:27
were in the bigger room, you know, it’s like anything else. There’s some people that are, you know, leaders and other people going to stress the hell out. Some people gonna get emotional and you really find
Jason Hartman 11:38
out who’s who under stress for sure. Yeah.
Larry 11:40
And now listen, some people use you know, I tend to be a funny person. And so I tried, you know, I was trying to make light of certain things. This is definitely not a funny situation. I get it, but I try to make other people laugh. Yeah, right. Other people, you know, they’re very emotional. And so there you saw the range of the human emotion in that room. For sure.
Jason Hartman 12:00
And it’s about 6080 people you were within
Larry 12:03
60 or 80 people and then we basically there the whole night, but we got locked down, let go probably about 745 in the morning.
Jason Hartman 12:09
Wow. Wow. Okay, so tell me what the night was like, you know, just starving our listeners. My listeners are totally curious, like people are
Larry 12:17
talking, you know, some people try to sleep uncomfortably, you know, and by
Jason Hartman 12:22
the, by the way, just interrupt for a moment. If you can hear the background noise there’s a little music we’re in a fundraiser a charity event where Monday’s dark in organization here in Las Vegas, they got tons of supplies here. It’s awesome what they’ve done. We just took a little break from the third loading this huge semi truck now loading it with water and and every supply you can imagine that the blood banks need and just, you know victims and victims families need so
Larry 12:47
yeah, it’s amazing what you know.
Jason Hartman 12:49
And then so quickly, I can’t believe how quick they organized is. It’s
Larry 12:51
amazing. We saw the worst of human humanity yesterday. I would say you’re seeing today is the best of humanity, man. It’s really a wet one. I remember where I was at 911 I’m sure most others do, too. I’m sure most people might remember 1020 years from today where they may have been when this happened. I know I will for always remember this changed me forever. Yeah. And, you know, I do think despite our differences with so many issues, you know, the Democrats, the Republicans, I mean, I think that there are certain things we can all agree on that humanity
Jason Hartman 13:25
Yeah, basic humanity. Absolutely. This is awesome. Okay, so just want to hear and have the listeners hear about your night there. What was it like? So, you know, at some point, I mean, maybe an hour later, two hours later, I just had a curiosity was the foundation room providing drinks and food or anything or they did
Larry 13:41
provide water and then in the middle, like late in the middle of night, like in the three o’clock rains,
Jason Hartman 13:49
they three o’clock in the morning,
Larry 13:50
probably there was some ships, maybe some they brought some little chips or so I didn’t have any
Jason Hartman 13:56
Okay, and they brought in some table cloths and people use
Larry 14:00
For us noses, blankets, and I use that as a blanket towards the end of the night.
Jason Hartman 14:03
So did people fall asleep? Did people stay up?
Larry 14:06
I said some people probably stayed up the whole night. Other people attempted to get some sleep. I attempted to get a little sleep. Not very successfully, but I attempted
Jason Hartman 14:14
and yeah, and you just slept on the floor on the wood floor, right? Pretty much. Yeah. Wow. What else can you tell us? What else do you want people to know?
Larry 14:21
Oh, no, you know, listen, I mean, what we went through is it’s nothing. My friend Brad sugars. He was at the concert. You know, people are getting shot right next to him. bullets are going over his head. I one guy that I met yesterday, lost his 20 year old nephew was a security guards. You what we went through is nothing. It’s nothing comparison to what some of these people have been impacted. So I think it’s just terrible. I think that they’ve got to change these gun laws, too. You know, no one needs an automatic weapon. No one. Well, if you can tell me how to
Jason Hartman 14:53
get a hold of all the weapons out there already.
Larry 14:57
And I’ll listen to you. I don’t know what the answer is. But
Larry 14:59
you know what? Whatever you know what the problem is? Yeah, I know we know the problem is and the problems not getting solved somehow mental illness there’s some issues and it keeps on radicals radical
Jason Hartman 15:08
religion, okay. That’s the problem. Yeah. So okay so in the morning you said it like 745 they released you. So what happened was the police came in and said everybody can go now. Do they screen you? Do they interview you? Do they ask you?
Larry 15:22
You know in the middle of the night, if you want to go to the bathroom at first in the early part of the evening, they would only let four people go at a time for men. And then for women and then then after everyone had went then if you wanted to ask go to the bathroom, they let you go to the bathroom. Who
Jason Hartman 15:35
was there? It was there security at the hotel security was security. Yeah, the foundation room security. Okay. So who told you you could go in the morning? Yeah, you didn’t have to do
Larry 15:44
Who? Whoever so oversaw the foundation room, okay. Their head of security, okay. You know, they did a great job. And on the way out, he says, You know, I would encourage all of you when you get home, to hug your kids, call your loved ones. You This unit is all about family.
Jason Hartman 16:02
Good stuff.
Larry 16:03
So he just said
Jason Hartman 16:04
you can go like he got a call from the police or something. And
Larry 16:08
they said, that’s it. You can just leave pretty much and they walked us down.
Larry 16:13
There was some of their in house security and then we just kind of left. Wait for
Jason Hartman 16:19
Larry, thank you so much for sharing that story.
Larry16:21
Yeah, we all like jumped in my 1314.
Jason Hartman 16:25
All right. Thank you and everybody. God bless. Be well, and I’ll talk to you later.