Vegas shooting victim died shielding wife from bullets on 23rd wedding anniversary
A man is being hailed a “true hero” after shielding his wife from bullets in the Las Vegas shooting which has claimed the lives of 59 people and left more than 500 injured.
Jack Beaton, a 54-year-old construction worker from California, was celebrating his 23rd wedding anniversary with his wife Laurie at the 91 Harvest country music festival.
Mrs Beaton said the pair were enjoying themselves when they heard what sounded like fireworks.
Like everyone around her, she was looking around to see who was lighting them when she felt something like air rush past her arm.
“I’ve never experienced gunshots but when I felt air go right past my arm I told my husband, ‘I don’t think that’s fireworks,’” she said.
“He told me, ‘Get down, get down, get down’.”
Mr Beaton protected his wife, lying on top of her to shield the love of his life from the gunfire.
“He told me, ‘I love you, Laurie’ and his arms were around me and his body just went heavy on me,” she said.
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Suddenly, Mr Beaton’s body weight completely hit her and she realised he’d been shot.
“I screamed his name and he wasn’t answering me, there was a lot of blood,” Mrs Beaton said.
Another man, someone who told her he was a nurse and an EMT, ran up and told her to put her husband on his side. Helping, she saw blood and heard her husband struggling to breathe.
As quickly as the shooting stopped it started again and now, with lights on, the man told one of the husband’s friends who attended the festival with them to take the women to safety.
“So we ran,” she said.
Mrs Beaton said friends told her Mr Beaton wasn’t on the ground anymore.
“He had been moved so we were optimistic that he’d received help,” she said.
She spent the next few hours ringing hospitals, desperately trying to find her husband. She eventually called the coroner’s office, which confirmed her husband had been killed.
Mrs Beaton said her family, including her 18-year-old daughter and 20-year-old, is still reeling over the death of a husband and father.
“I knew every day that he would protect me and take care of me and love me unconditionally, and what he did is no surprise to me, and he is my hero,” she said.
Mr Beaton’s friend Bob Hedrick posted a tribute to the father-of-two on Facebook with a photo of the couple together at the festival.
“We lost a true hero as Jack has passed away and far too soon,” the post reads.
One user commented and referred to Mr Beaton as a “brave and wonderful man”.
