From my notes: “FBI stats show that only three crimes using an automatic weapon have been committed since 1934.”
A retired Reno police officer is one of the many off-duty and former first responders who immediately sprang into action to help save strangers in Las Vegas Sunday night. The Army National Guard flight medic and longtime Reno police officer Derek Cecil explains what happened when the gunfire began and after he escorted [his friend’s] to a safe location.
“‘You guys go to safety in the aid station, I’m going back in. Do not come back with me.’ And that’s all I said. I turned around and I went back in.
“We were getting splash of glass and metal flakes from the bullets hitting and ricocheting off the trailer, hitting us in the face, hitting us in the arms. There were people on the ground screaming for help and bleeding. There were people on the ground not moving at all.
When the shooting finally stopped, Cecil thought he’d avoided the bullets, until he pulled out his phone. Two bullet fragments had shattered the glass on his cellphone.
“One of them…could’ve possibly penetrated into my lower abdomen on the left side had the phone not stopped it from going through.
“Other people come before me and I’ll do anything I can to help someone in need. Whatever that may be.”
He suffered only minor injuries in his right arm from bullet fragments. Cecil survived a crash in June 1991, that left him in coma for nearly a week, after he struck a vehicle during a motocycle pursuit.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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