Connecticut Couple Glad to Be Headed Home from Vegas

As the tragedy in Las Vegas continues to unfold, one Connecticut couple is on their flight back home to the Nutmeg state from Nevada.

Tracy Schoenfeldt, of Guilford, spent the last few days in Las Vegas as her boyfriend, Joel Karabeinikoff, of Southington, was playing in a softball tournament.

But when NBC Connecticut spoke with the couple on Monday via Facetime, they were at the Las Vegas airport, located just minutes away from where the gunman opened fire, and the couple couldn’t wait to get out of Nevada.

"It was very scary and there’s another Connecticut team out here, too, which we know, but they’re all OK," Karabeinikoff said.

First reports of the shooting were around 10:08 p.m.local time.

The couple didn’t go to the concert but said they had just passed the music venue minutes before the attack.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary then.

"We drove next to it. I said to our taxi driver, 'What is this big white tent?' and the driver said, 'That’s where the big country music show is.' And I said, 'I love country music.' Not even 45 minutes later my cousin is texting me to make sure I’m OK,' Schoenfeldt said.

Once they learned about the what unfolded, their first thought was to check with their friends on the strip.

"First we had to make sure our friends were OK. Found out they were in lockdown in the convention center and the Luxor, they had been at a comedy show, they were all okay and scared to death," Schoenfeldt said.

The couple was staying about 20 minutes away from the Vegas strip.

They described the aftermath caused by the shooting as they were on the way to the airport.

"It’s a mess, the highway, the freeways, a mess. Everything’s a mess here," Karabeinikoff said. "Everyone’s trying to leave, everybody looks like they’re trying to get out. “There was a mound of traffic, four lanes broken down to two, four broken down to two and then we’re turning for the airport, and on each side, there was police looking for vehicles."

Ultimately, the couple ended up missing their flight because of traffic, but they have since headed back to Connecticut. 

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