Harlan native lucky to be alive; shot in arm in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NV – Former Harlan resident Jacob Andersen was shot in the arm Sunday, Oct. 1 during the Las Vegas, NV shooting massacre that left 58 people dead and approximately 500 wounded at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert.
    Andersen, a 2006 Harlan Community High School graduate and son of Bob and Toni Andersen of Harlan, has lived in Las Vegas for four years, and was in attendance at the concert Sunday night when shooter Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers from his Mandalay Bay hotel room.
    He feels lucky to be alive.
    “It looked like a war zone,” Andersen said.  “People were running everywhere.  People were covering up friends and protecting them….and they were yelling for EMTs for people that were shot.  It really was a war zone.”
    Andersen said Wednesday that he and his fiancée, Kimberly Grettum, are country music lovers and attended the concert as a last fun event heading into fall.  It was a little after 10 p.m. and Jason Aldean was on stage performing his music set.  Andersen was enjoying the concert with Kimberly and other family and friends when the first shots were fired at 10:08 p.m.  At first the thought was the sounds were firecrackers, but he soon realized they were actually gunshots.