Dennis and Lorraine Carver narrowly escaped death when Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on October 1.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the couple was line dancing and singing along to country performer Jason Aldean when Paddock began spraying bullets into the crowd from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. When Dennis realized what was happening he jumped on top of his wife to shield her. The couple’s 20-year-old daughter, Brooke Carver, told the paper that her parents eventually got up and ran hand in hand to safety.
“After the shooting, they heard from all the people they cared about most,” recalled Brooke. “They were so happy.”
But then tragedy struck: on the night of October 16, Dennis, 42, and Lorraine, 53, were killed when their car crashed into a metal gate and burst into flames near their home in Riverside County, California.
“Our mom . . . was there for every school play, every football game, every cheer competition, every day for anything, she was there,” Brooke wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on October 20. “Our dad was the strongest man we have and will ever meet in our lives.”
Brooke and her younger sister Madison, 16, see signs of their parents everywhere. Three days after the Las Vegas massacre, Dennis surprised Lorraine with a bouquet of red roses. Nearly a month later, not a single petal has fallen from the flowers.
“It’s almost as if they’re frozen in time,” Madison told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’re so lucky we have those flowers to remind us of them.”
Then, a week after the fatal accident, Dennis’ iPhone arrived in the mail. He had lost it during the shooting. “When we turned it on, all his photos and messages were still there,” Brooke said. “This is how we know they’re looking down and watching over us.”
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