In his first and only interview, Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday to discuss the night of the shooting and how he’s been coping since.
It’s a difficult video to watch given the evident pain emoting out of Campos as he’s questioned under the bright stage lights, but its ultimately worth it, as heroic stories like Jesus’ are the ones that need to be heard, revered, and celebrated.
Campos, who was the first to respond to shooter’s room, describes in the pre-recorded interview how he was wounded by the perpetrator of the deadliest mass shooting in United State history. He said he tried to access the floor from a stairwell next to gunman Stephen Paddock’s hotel room but was blocked by a bolted emergency exit door.
Mandalay Bay engineer Stephen Schuck, who went to the 32nd floor to look at the door Campos had called about, also appeared in the interview, telling Ellen that he initially thought the sound of gunshots was a jackhammer
In true hero fashion, both Campos and Schuck adamantly refused money from Ellen, but you know she wasn’t about to let them leave unrewarded, so she hooked them up with all sorts of NFL perks.
While the Las Vegas shooting was one of the most tragic nights in our nation’s history, its stories like these that need to be told to remind us the spirit and courage of the average American.