The mother of one of the Las Vegas shooting survivors who tragically died in the Thousand Oaks shooting is speaking out.
As news cameras rolled, Susan Schmidt-Orfanos — the mother of 27-year-old Telemachus ”Tel” Orfanos — exclaimed that she does not want sympathy, she wants “gun control.”
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“Here are my words: I want gun control,” Schmidt-Orfanos said as she shook with grief. ”I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts.” The Boston Globe noted that she then added that she wants Congress ”to pass gun control so no one else has a child that doesn’t come home.”
“I hope to God no one sends me anymore prayers. I want gun control. No more guns!”
The mother of shooting victim Telemachus Orfanos. She says her son survived the Las Vegas mass shooting but was killed in Thousand Oaks.
This must stop. pic.twitter.com/PkDJtgSYWH
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 9, 2018
Another Thousand Oaks shooting victim who lived through the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival attack in Las Vegas is 22-year-old Brendan Kelly, who told the news outlet that he was hanging out with friends at the Borderline Bar & Grill when 28-year-old United States Marine Corps veteran Ian David Long walked in and began firing.
”I already didn’t wish it on anybody to begin with for the first time,” Kelly stated when asked about the two shootings. ”The second time around doesn’t get any easier.”
BREAKING: Thousand Oaks shooting suspect walked into the bar, immediately shot a group of security guards and employees standing near the entrance, then paused to text or post to social media, law enforcement sources say – ABC
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 9, 2018
He went on to share that as soon as he heard the “pop, pop” sound of the weapons, he knew it was gunfire.
”The chills go up your spine. You don’t think it’s real — again,” Kelly, who is a Marine himself, went on to say.
Another person who was at the Borderline Bar & Grill during the shooting and was also in Las Vegas when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured 851 more by opening fire on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, was Dani Merrill.
“It’s hard to sleep after these kinds of things,” Merrill said of the tragic and terrifying ordeal. “You just don’t know how to feel.”
“Today, we finally know the names of all of the people who were killed in that horrifying shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, Wednesday night,” says @jaketapper as he takes a moment to pay tribute to each of them //t.co/q3ScmxjR47 pic.twitter.com/mi9Tg2sBvC
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) November 9, 2018
Police have not yet revealed if they have determined a motive for Long’s actions, but the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Photo credit: Twitter / USA Today
