SEGUIN, Texas – It’s been a week since Seguin Deputy Chief of Police Bruce Ure returned from Las Vegas, but he says his mind always wanders back to the haunting memories of the worst mass murder in modern U.S. history.
Ure was on the music festival stage when the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, opened fire, killing 58 people and then himself while wounding another 500-plus.
Ure said a 35-second video he took on his phone had one purpose as he ran amid the chaos. To show he at least gave it everything he had.
"That's why I turned it on. I decided that I didn't think I was gonna' make it out of here," said Ure. "Doesn't mean you're not going to try."
This is now a snapshot Ure carries of the nine minute of hell he and 22,000-plus country music fans endured last Sunday.
With backstage access to Route 91 Harvest Festival, it was supposed to be a birthday week with his best friend to remember, but not like this.
"I heard a one girl scream 'I'm shot, I'm hit,’ and that's a sound that, you know that you, you never will forget," said Ure.
Ure was injured, but not badly.
In the direct line of sight of Paddock from his high rise Mandalay Bay hotel room. Ure said he could hear the shots get closer and closer.
He saw a man in a pool of blood. He and another man dragged him as the gunfire continued. Ure also saw a fellow police officer down.
"That was the hardest thing in the world that I've ever had to do, was to not set my patient down to go help that other officer,” said Ure.
People brought two other victims to them. A man stopped and gave them a ride to a trauma center.
All three victims under his care survived.
"I saw the worst evil to me that's existed in the world," said Ure. "It doesn't balance it out, but it helps me sleep at night knowing that good was there."
