27 days after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, support and commemoration efforts for the victims are still going strong.
Out of the 58 people killed and over 500 injured on the first day of October, 15 were Santa Clarita residents, including SCV man John Phippen who was killed.
The community endured the heat on Saturday to further aid the victims and their families at the Route 66 Bar and Grill in Canyon Country.
Over 100 locals arrived at the benefit to either place their bids at the silent auction, buy t-shirts and wristbands that read “Vegas Strong”, or just show support for the cause by being in attendance, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting.
The event was set to the sounds of Rebel Heart’s live set and a fly-over of World War Two aircraft from the Condor Squadron blazed through the sky.
After Councilman Bob Kellar read aloud the list of Santa Clarita residents who were injured in the shooting, the crowd then fell silent when Sergeant Andrew Dahring, of the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Department, took the stage.
Dahring was shot twice during the Las Vegas shooting and, still wearing a sling, told his story to the audience.
“We all ran. Thousands of us ran,” said Dahring in a chilling recount of the events.
The SCV Sergeant was shot twice when he used his body to shield his wife Nancy from the gunfire.
“The bullet entered my shoulder just a couple inches from my neck,” he said while holding back tears.
“While laying there, I asked a man I had never met to put his hand on my shoulder and push. I didn’t know how bad it was but I needed the bleeding to stop. He did it without hesitation,” said Dahring.
He bled for two hours until finally reaching the hospital that night and spent two and a half days there when his wife decided to take him to a Pasadena hospital.
It was there that doctors found a blood clot in his lung that the doctors in Las Vegas had missed.
Dahring thanked his wife for saving his life and thanked the audience for all of their support.
“The support like this, it’s just very genuine and you feel the compassion,” said Dahring in an interview with the Signal.
“I can never put in words what it meant to have people calling or texting or doing something like this to support.”
After his speech, SCV politicians like Congressman Steve Knight, Assemblyman Dante Acosta, and Senator Scott Wilk, took the stage to give small words of encouragement and to thank the community for supporting the fundraiser.
