Publican Robin's lucky escape from Las Vegas hotel

BY KIERAN O’MAHONY 

A CORK publican and regular visitor to West Cork was  in the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday night week, when Stephen Paddock shot and killed 59 innocent people and injured more than 500. 

Speaking to The Southern Star, after safely making it home on Tuesday, Robin Creagh from Kerry Pike, owner of The Joshua Tree bar in Cork city, (a regular visitor to Baltimore, where his family have a holiday home), described the ordeal as ‘surreal and total mayhem.’

‘We were there for a stag party since Thursday, staying on the 19th and 29th floor of the hotel. It was our last night so four of us were playing cards in the casino while two of the others were in their bedroom. All of a sudden a SWAT team ran past us, and told us all to leave because there was an active shooter in the hotel,’ recalled Robin.

‘We literally just ran and hid in a storage unit with about six others. We could hear the gunshots and thought it was coming from outside the door. It was total mayhem. We leaned against the door in case the shooter tried to come in.’

The next thing, said Robin, was that the SWAT team instructed them to leave the room and they were all searched. ‘We then ran out to the back of the building where all the staff were, and we were there for about two hours and didn’t really know what was going in. We were texting the two lads who had barricaded themselves into the bedroom when word got out about the shootings.’

Eventually Robin and his friends were bussed out of the area to a college basketball stadium where they were given blankets and told to rest.

‘Our phone batteries were beginning to die, but we had alerted our families about what was happening and they were telling us what they could see on the news,’ added Robin.

It was nearly 8am on Monday before Robin and his friends were allowed back into the hotel to collect their luggage. They made their way to the airport and flew out to London.

‘We are all okay now and are just very grateful that none of us were injured.’