Iowa City Principal Among Survivors Of Route 91 Festival Shooting

The principal of Iowa City's Liberty High School was in attendance at the festival with his wife Sunday night when the shooting broke out.

Speaking to The Gazette on Monday from Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, Scott Kibby said he and his wife visited Las Vegas to celebrate their 30-year anniversary. The couple were seated in the venue’s bleachers “about a football field away” from the stage when the attack began.

“That’s the north side of the venue,” Kibby said. “We were about as far away as we possibly could have been.”

When the shooting started, Kibby’s wife Kari was seated at the end of their bleacher row and pulled him to his feet. Kibby said they ran north, running between food vendor trucks to escape the venue. They then ran inside the MGM Grand hotel, about a mile away.

“We hid behind a marble counter,” Kibby said. “We didn’t know if someone was following us.”

Soon, the hotel was put on lockdown. But when an alarm sounded, it jolted the couple, and they continued to scramble for new places to hide. Eventually, they found safety in a conference room.

Reportedly 30,000 people who attended the three-day country music festival on the Las Vegas over the weekend. The shooting started late Sunday during a performance by Jason Aldean. As of Monday night, 59 had been reported dead and more than 500 were injured. Read more HERE.