Santa Maria reaction to Las Vegas shooting massacre

Those who work the overnight shift in 24-hour businesses and others out late at night or early in the morning in Santa Maria were stunned and capitvated by the late night live television coverage and social media dispatches of the mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.

At the 24-hour truck stop at the Chevron gas station on Betteravia Road, truckers and customers learned about the mass shooting in Las Vegas with live coverage from the scene on the big screen TV inside the convenience store.

“I’m horrified”, said station attendant Mike Willard, ” that somebody would use a gun to go out and shoot people for no reason at, its just, I’m scared.”

Across town at Denny’s, customers were using their cell phones to watch the chilling live television coverage and videos of the mass shooting and rising death toll.

“It’s scary, anybody could have been there”, said Denny’s manager Vickie Brooks about the mass shooting at a live music event, “we go to Las Vegas all the time, to watch stuff like that.”

“There was just one shooter, he was on the 34th floor of Mandalay Bay, there’s no balconies out there, so he broke the window and started blasting”, said Denny’s customer Mike Arnold about the shooting he monitored on his cell phone while he ate his meal.

Most we spoke with in the early morning hours after the mass shooting agreed its becoming a way of life in the country and can happen at anytime, anywhere.

“It happens about every day now”, said India Patel who was eating at Denny’s, “you gotta just watch your surroundings which a lot of people don’t do, they’re very vulnerable now, but that’s life nowadays, you can’t trust anybody that comes to you.”

“You really got to think about where you go nowadays”, said Vickie Brooks, “put yourself out there.”

“It scares me, because that means anybody could walk in here with a gun and take shots at anybody else in here”, Mike Willard of the Chevron on Betteravia Road said, “we already had one shooting last year over here, its terrifying man, I don’t know what to say.”

There was a Greyhound Bus scheduled to leave Santa Maria for Las Vegas at 4:00am Monday morning, but no one could be found waiting at the bus depot for the departure.

The next arriving flight by Allegiant Air from Las Vegas to the Santa Maria Airport is scheduled for Wednesday.