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Las Vegas Shooting Survivor Becomes Police Officer - 'I Want To Be That Person for Someone Else'

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Lauren Card was one of the survivors of the Las Vegas massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in October 2017.

Soon after that tragic event, she made the decision to pursue a career in law enforcement.

On Monday, Card was sworn in as a police officer in Springfield, Oregon, according to The Eugene Register-Guard, having been inspired by the heroic work of first responders during the massacre.



During singer Jason Aldean’s performance, gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from a window in the Mandalay Bay hotel.

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Card’s mother, Robin Baird, attended the concert with her.

“We thought it sounded like fireworks; like one went off,” she told The Register-Guard.

When they heard more shots, Card and Baird, along with Baird’s long-term boyfriend, Kevin Lee, and his daughter, Kaila Lee, crawled into their riser-style VIP suite for shelter.

They proceeded from the VIP suite to climb a 10-foot brick wall and traveled farther down the Las Vegas strip, eventually taking shelter in the MGM Grand, Baird told The Register-Guard.

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Shortly after that, they rented a vehicle and drove to Arizona to fly home.

She remembers the feeling of safety and protection when law enforcement arrived at the scene of the shooting.

“And in that moment, I kind of had a sense of, ‘OK, the police are here. They are going to fix it. They are going to make it better. Everything is going to be OK,”‘ Card said.

“I want to be that person for someone else, in that situation,” she explained. “When they’re going through something crappy or going through a hard time, I want them to see me and be like, ‘OK, she’s going to fix it. She’s going to make it better.'”

You can listen to excerpts of her interview with The Register-Guard here:

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“My heart is with the families that weren’t as fortunate as ours,” Card said. “But we made it out, and I don’t want this to affect me in such a negative way and let it ruin my life. I want to do something with this, show that you can move on, you’re strong.”

Lt. Scott McKee at the Springfield Police Department was concerned that her past experience could cause a reaction like post-traumatic stress when Card is placed in difficult situations as a cop.

But Card said that the experience and her training have helped improve her ability to respond to these types of situations on the job in the future.

“I know she’s much stronger and is excited to be able to take care of the job,” Baird said of her daughter.

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Jennifer Bushnell is a graduate student at Ohio State University seeking to broaden her horizons in the field of writing. She loves to travel the world and will be spending much of 2018 living in Southeast Asia. In her free time, she loves laughing, reading, playing tennis and hanging around in her hammock. You can most likely catch her with some type of coffee in her hand.
Jennifer is a graduate student at Ohio State University getting her master’s degree in social work. She has a passion for community development work and serving large-scale communities to help then reach self-sufficiency. She also dabbles in missionary work as much as she can. She has co-authored a peer-reviewed article, traveled twice to Southeast Asia and New Zealand and blogs for her home church. She enjoys playing guitar, reading, laughing, tennis, and hammocking as much as she can.
Birthplace
Chardon, Ohio
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Outstanding senior award for undergraduate studies; certified in Bridges out of Poverty Training
Education
Bachelors of social work and global & international studies
Books Written
Fresh Fruits: A 30-Day Devotional
Location
Chardon, Ohio
Languages Spoken
English, some Hindi, some Tamil
Topics of Expertise
Health, Faith




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