Security Guard Revisits the Moment He Was Shot in Las Vegas Massacre

Jesus Campos recalls getting shot in the hallways as shooter Stephen Paddock fired from behind a door

By Samantha Schnurr Oct 18, 2017 3:51 PMTags

Nearly three weeks since Stephen Paddock opened fire on a Las Vegas crowd, one of the first people to encounter the shooter—Jesus Campos—is sharing his side of the horrifying story. 

The Mandalay Bay security guard sat down with Ellen DeGeneres for his first interview since the massacre, alongside fellow victim and hotel maintenance engineer Stephen Schuck. Campos' appearance also marks his first public one since he cancelled media interviews last week, sparking concern and curiosity over his whereabouts. 

Appearing melancholy and quiet, Campos revisited the night in question for DeGeneres' daytime audience. "I'm doing better each day, slowly but surely, just healing physically and mentally," he assured everyone watching. 

According to Campos, he had been sent to check on an open door on the 32nd floor, but when he took the stairs from the floor below to come up, the stairwell door was blocked. As he got on the floor from the elevator, he found that there was a metal bracket on the door and heard what he thought were drilling sounds. Meanwhile, he had called the security team, which dispatched someone from engineering to figure out why there was a bracket on the door. 

While walking back down the hallway, Campos remembered hearing rapid fire. "I took cover. I felt a burning sensation. I went to go lift my pant leg up and I saw the blood," he recalled. "That's when I called it in on my radio that shots had been fired."

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Around the same time, Schuck was making his way to the floor from a service elevator to check on the door. However, he started to hear what he thought was a jackhammer, which struck him as strange because he didn't think they would be doing work on the floor so late. Campos saw his colleague and warned him to take cover as well as another woman who was staying on the floor and had come out from her room. 

"I want to thank first responders and people on the ground of the show helping each other out," Schuck said. "I think the acts of humanity were major that night."

As he continued, "I want to thank Jesus again from my family and all my friends and everybody for saving my life."

In honor of their acts of heroism and in lieu of money, DeGeneres helped gift Schuck with a visit to meet his favorite team, the Indianapolis Colts. As for Campos, he went home with season tickets for his favorite team, the Oakland Raiders. 

Finally, Shutterfly donated $25,000 in their name to GoFundMe's Las Vegas Victims' Fund.