A Freeport couple is back home after narrowly surviving the deadly mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert.

Nikki Goodheart tells WGME-TV she was recording video of country star Jason Aldean’s performance Sunday night when gunshots rang out.

Nikki Goodheart of Freeport was taking video of Jason Aldean’s performance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival was the shooting began.

Goodheart says her husband, Ron, jumped on top of her as she watched people getting shot and falling to the ground.

The couple made their way to a fence near the stage and jumped over while the shots still continued. Nikki Goodheart says they helped five other women over the fence before getting out of the area.

She says she had called her sisters and her daughter that night to say goodbye.

AUGUSTA PAIR SAFE

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Tressa Loiko and Matthew Swan of Augusta were also in Las Vegas Sunday after opting to vacation there when plans for a trip to St. Marten fell through.

On Sunday, Loiko, 23, and Swan, 22, were heading back to their room at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, after dinner and a tour of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas casino Sunday around 10 p.m., when someone selling discount show tickets on the Strip starting yelling that an active shooter was on the street.

Loiko, a nurse at MaineGeneral Medical Center, and Swan, who owns an independent insurance agency in Brunswick, had been hearing the start of rumors from tourists and employees for several minutes already.

“At that point, we didn’t know what was happening so we decided to walk slowly back to our hotel,” she said, “but we were hesitant about it.”

In the next few minutes, it was clear they should not continue. They had seen people running from the south — the direction of their hotel — toward them, and they decided to move back into the Paris Casino.

Swan called the Las Vegas Police Department and was told to stay off the Strip. They were able to rent a room for the night at the Westin Las Vegas Hotel & Spa and call family to let them know they were safe.

“I don’t even think we realized how big this event actually was,” Loiko said. “The more we see on TV and the more people reach out … we’re kind of in shock.”


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