The mayhem Sunday night on the Las Vegas Strip where a woman plowed through crowds on the sidewalk with her Oldsmobile was “a scene out of a CSI movie,” said a retired Hawaii musician who witnessed the aftermath of the traumatic incident.
“It was serious,” said Butch Helemano of Mililani Mauka in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas.
Authorities say Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, intentionally mowed down dozens of people on a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, killing one and injuring many. After the crash she parked at a casino a few blocks from the Strip and told a parking attendant she ran over people nearby and asked the valet to call 911. Holloway’s daughter, 3, who was in the back seat, was not injured.
Helemano had just landed in Las Vegas from Hawaii on Sunday night with his wife, Bobbie, and son, Kana‘i. At about 7 p.m. they were on their way to the Embassy Suites Las Vegas Hotel & Lodging in their sport utility vehicle when they saw a man lying on the ground as they neared the Paris casino-hotel.
Helemano initially thought the man had suffered a heart attack, but then saw a woman lying on the ground nearby. He observed more than a dozen more people on the ground as they drove down three blocks.
“I thought it was a terrorist attack,” Helemano said.
Bystanders were helping the injured, consoling them.
“It just had happened. The car had just taken off,” Helemano said. He recalled a woman screaming and pointing out a 1996 Oldsmobile to police.
The crash happened in front of the Paris and Planet Hollywood casino-hotels and across from the fountains of the Bellagio. The Miss Universe pageant was being held at Planet Hollywood at the time of the crash.
Helemano’s son, 21, wanted to go home after he saw the horror.
“He’s never seen this type of trauma,” Helemano said.
“This is the world we live in,” he said. “We just pray that that stuff doesn’t come to our homeland.”
Helemano commended first responders.
“The police were very quick with their response,” he said. “They were there within minutes.”
Paramedics and firefighters maneuvered through the packed lanes on the boulevard to reach the victims.
The Strip shut down for four to five hours after the incident.
Helemano is in Las Vegas for vacation and to visit family members.
It certainly was a shock to see the horror, he said. Helemano said his family is praying for the families who were injured and praying for Holloway.
“To have a child in the car and do that, there must be something seriously wrong with that lady,” he said.
Holloway has been on suicide watch at jail. Authorities say she lived in Oregon and had been living in Las Vegas for about a week in her car. Investigators say she ran out of money and believe she was headed to Dallas to find her daughter’s father.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
