LAS VEGAS —It started out as a night out with his girlfriend. And it ended up as a terrifying night that Brad Goble will never forget.
Goble, a 2001 graduate of Sidney High School, and his girlfriend, Marirose Naing, were in attendance for two days of the Route 91 Harvest Country Festival on Sept. 30/Oct. 1. They were among the 22,000 festival-goers on Sunday when Stephen Paddock opened fire on the group from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort.
“We never go to concerts,” said Goble. His girlfriend works for Marketteam, a company who contracts with casinos, including Cesar’s Properties, on behalf of alcohol suppliers. Those distributors sometimes offer event tickets to Marketteam employees.
“She got VIP bracelets for the concert,” said Goble. “Because they were suite 4 bracelets, we decided to go to the shows. Having the bracelets allowed us to park in the east parking lot at the concert. The car was parked 50 yards from where we were standing. We had one of 40 cars able to park there. Everyone else came by Uber, walked to the concert or parked somewhere else close by.”
During the show on Saturday night, they stood in the middle of the concert grounds listening to the artists. Sunday night, Goble convinced Naing to go to the suite area to listen to the concert.
“On Saturday night, we were in the area in the middle east side of the stage. This became dead center for the death zone Sunday night,” he said. “Sunday she wanted to stand where we had Saturday night. I wanted to go the suite area which is near the bathrooms. We talked about it, and she agreed to go to the suite area. So were were in the middle east side of the main stage.”
The concert had a main stage and a smaller stage, he said. They began Sunday night’s concert at the smaller stage listening to Luke Combs and Jake Owen.
“We’re big country fans,” said Goble. “Jason Aldean came on stage at 9:35 p.m. (Las Vegas time). He was about 30 minutes into his show when it all started happening.”
But before the shooting started, Goble saw a friend of his standing in the same spot they had been standing Saturday night.
“I went over to talk to him while Jason Aldean started playing,” he recalled. “Around 9:45, I go to gab with Todd and his girlfriend. We talked for about 10 minutes and I told him Mary will be mad at me if I don’t come back.”
So Goble’s friends went back to the area when Gobel and Naing were watching the show.
“There were seven of us talking,” said Goble. “Mary had her iPhone and was using Instagram and recording Aldean on stage. As she was filming, she caught some strobe light on the fourth and fifth floor of the hotel. Some people thought that’s where another shooter was but there were no windows broken out.”
As the concert-goers listened to the show, their world changed at 10:05 p.m. when they heard pops going off. At first, they all thought it was fireworks being set off.
“We just heard a pop, pop, pop,” said Goble. “We thought it was fireworks. During the initial 30 rounds of fire, no one moves. We didn’t realize what it was. Jason was still playing on the stage. No one thought it was gunfire.”
Then the second round of pop, pop, pop began.
“Forty-give seconds later he started firing again,” said Goble. “A girl 15 feet away from us drops. The bullets were hitting all around us.”
As victims began falling and others realized they were being fired at, the crowed began to surge to the area where Goble and his friends were standing.
“The bullets were hitting all round us,” said Goble. “We started running and Mary fell down because she was wearing wedge shoes she wasn’t used to. I didn’t know if she had been hit or not. I started dragging her into the direction where the gunfire was not. All of my seven friends split up. It was a life and death situation, and we were just trying to run to safety.”
Because the concert venue was enclosed by wooden walls, the pair ran due east because Goble thought there was a way out of the venue. Instead they ran into an area where 30 portapotties were set up.
“At this time, no one knew where the gunfire was coming from,” said Goble. “I thought it was someone standing in the middle of the concert and just shooting. As we turned the corner, I realized we were trapped by the portapots. There was a luxury portapot which was on a 30-foot trailer. We shimmed our way behind the portapot and fence.”
They sought safety under the trailer from the gunfire. As they were hiding, others joined them under the trailer. They could hear the bullets hitting the trailer and the fence behind them.
“There was a couple under there with us, and the cowboy kept grabbing my leg saying, ‘We’re going to be OK.’ The whole time there was continuous gunfire going off,” he said. “It was total chaos and the sounds just didn’t stop. There were ping, ping, pings as the bullets hit the metal trailer and hit the portapotty.”
The 10-foot fence behind them, said Goble, suddenly came down. He was told 30 guys knocked it down.
“We were then exposed to the back road where all the causalities were,” said Goble. “A metro officer laid down beside me, and he didn’t know where the firing was coming from. He was as scared as me.
“At 10:13, there was still gunfire. The officer said the sniper was at Mandalay Bay. He said it about 10 to 15 times. He told us to stay under the trailer. ‘You’re safe,’ he said. Then he went off to help others.
“At 10:15, we heard the last of the gunfire. He must have shot off 800 to 1,000 rounds. He smoked the room out because of all the shots fired. He stopped himself from doing any more shooting.
“We were still under the trailer when the gunfire stopped,” Goble said. “I had dropped my phone where everyone was getting shot. Some woman had picked it up, and everyone was trying to call me. She answered the phone and said she didn’t know where he’s at to the people. She told them she would leave my phone at the MGM, and I picked it up the next night.”
The pair decided to make a run for their vehicle before the sniper could begin shooting again.
“It was the worst feeling — getting up from under the trailer and running around the bodies,” he said. “People had surrounded those people who were down.”
As they got to their vehicle, they made the decision to leave the area as fast as they could.
“I have many friends who are veterans and metro police officers. Those guys were running back in there, risking their lives. And I was running like a baby away from it,” Goble said. As they left the concert area, Goble said he’d never seen as many ambulances and police vehicles arriving on the scene.
Goble has nothing but praise for the metro police officers.
“The metro guys are trained so well,” he said. “They have an automatic SWAT unit. That helped get those guys to the scene so fast. I’ve never seen so many ambulances and police cars in my life There were at least 150 police cars driving toward the concert area.”
As they were leaving, Goble called his mom, Shirley Eck, in Sidney, to let her know he was OK.
“It was 10:20 p.m., which was 1:20 a.m. in Ohio,” he said. “I’m a huge mama’s boy. When she answered the phone, I said ‘I’m all right but there’s going to be mass deaths here.”
As the couple was finally safe, Goble’s friend, Todd, was trapped in the Tropicana Hotel, which is on the north side of the venue.
“He called a buddy of his to come get him. As the friend was coming down the street, he sees a girl running down the street. She had been shot in the chest twice.
“Alex calls Todd and tells him he’s taking her to the hospital,” said Goble. “He gave the girl’s friend his card and he’s since met her friends and family.”
Since the shooting, the pair have tried to pull their lives back together.
“I slept about two hours that night. Mary is pretty traumatized. She’s comprehended how close we were to getting hit. All seven of the people we were with made it out safely.
“Las Vegas is a small community,” he said. “I have 10 friends who knew multiple people who were wounded or dead. There were 22,000 people up against the stage listening to Jason Aldean. He (shooter) knew exactly the right time to start firing. We were like fish in a barrel, everyone was contained. The metal fencing around the area hurt the situation because we couldn’t get out.”
As the investigation continues, people are being interviewed, such as the bellmen who took the shooter’s luggage up to his room.
“We’ve been told that he booked multiple rooms last weekend for the Life is Beautiful concert,” Goble said. “He was trying to figure out the best place to commit the most carnage.”
Goble said the incident has changed how he looks at his surroundings.
“When I go in someplace, I now look for every exit the place has,” he said. “If I go to the movie theater, I’m keeping an eye out so if something happens I can get out.”
Goble, who has lived in Las Vegas for 10 years, is the son and stepson of Shirley and Bob Eck and the son of Bruce Goble. He owns a car detailing company and fitness company.
“This was a very intense night, one that I’ll never forget,” he said.
