A Richmond resident has been telling of his shock at being close to the scene of America’s latest mass shooting.
Brandon Woo was with a group of friends at the Gorge Amphitheater, about two hours east of Seattle, on Saturday night along with thousands of other revellers for the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival.
At around 8:30 p.m. however, a gunman started unloading into the busy campground about half a mile or so from the festival.
Two people were killed and three others were injured after the shooter began firing “randomly,” according to police, into a crowd at the Washington state campground.
The bloodshed took place about 150 feet from Woo’s tent, but thankfully he and most of his group were inside the festival at the time.
One of his friends, however, had gone back to the tent to get a sweater, just at the time the shooting kicked off.
“She was told to run, to get out of the area by security,” recalled Woo.
“I was kind of freaked out. But by the time she got back to us, I think he had been arrested.
“But my thought turned to, ‘is there another shooter?’”
I kept think about there being a second shooter: Woo
Woo said things calmed down somewhat with a large police and security presence and the festival was allowed to continue, as organizers and police apparently didn’t want a panic on their hands.
“We went back to main stage to forget about it,” explained Woo.
“But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And as I looked at the thousands of people there and saw the hill overlooking us, I had thoughts of someone unloading a rifle into the crowd.”
Woo said he and his group stayed for the rest of the music, but access to their campsite was blocked off due to the investigation.
“We had to wait a few hours to get in. We were freezing,” added Woo.
“We did sleep in the campground. I didn’t really want to be there but there was a big police presence by that time.”
Woo said the Sunday of the festival was cancelled and they all drove home to Canada.
He said he has heard at least five different stories as to the shooter’s motive, so “so no one really knows right now.”
According to news reports in the U.S., after the initial shots were fired, the suspect started moving through the campground and “continued to shoot randomly into the crowd” until he was eventually confronted by police and taken into custody.
The suspect was shot in the confrontation with police and was hospitalized for his injuries, but no further details were immediately released.
Festival organizers say it was their "understanding that the incident stemmed from an isolated situation that escalated, leading the assailant to flee the area. An officer involved-shooting then occurred to neutralize the event.”
On the decision to keep the festival going after the shooting, organizers say it was done at the "request of law enforcement once it became evident that there was no ongoing threat to the safety of attendees. This was also done to ensure the majority of attendees stayed away from the campground area where the incident took place."
