A Florida physician said he and his fiancée hid in a closet at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with two dozen other individuals for nearly an hour after reports of an active shooter spread through the hotel and caused a widespread panic Sunday evening, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Sijo Parekattil, MD, a urologist and co-director of the PUR clinic at Clermont, Fla.-based South Lake Hospital, told the Orlando Sentinel during a phone interview Monday he had taken his fiancée to Las Vegas for her birthday. The couple reportedly entered the Bellagio Sunday evening after a show and saw "a wave of people" running toward them, the report states.
Minutes earlier, Stephen Paddock, 64, had fired at a crowd of 22,000-plus concertgoers from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. The Bellagio is a roughly 30 minute walk from the Mandalay Bay hotel and the concert site.
Dr. Parekattil said he and his fiancée proceeded to hide in a closet at the back of a store in the hotel to escape the chaos.
"It was very scary, because we didn't know what was happening outside. You're just hoping that it's not coming to you. We were thinking about how to barricade the door. We were looking around the closet to see if there was anything that could be turned into a weapon," he said.
Both Dr. Parekattil and his fiancée were unharmed in the incident and plan to return to Florida Wednesday, the report states.