WELLINGTON, Fla. (WSVN) — Two South Florida sisters scared to death during the Las Vegas shooting are searching for the men they’re calling lifesavers.
Because of the help from these strangers, they made it out alive. Now they want to find the strangers who became their heroes.
Lauren Farina pulled out her phone moments after the first shots were fired. She had no idea what was going on but knew she wanted to record it. “If something happens to me and I’m not able to tell what I saw, maybe the police could use this video,” said Lauren in a Facebook live video.
Lauren and her sister Lulu took the picture below at the concert that night. They’re wedding planners from Wellington that were in Vegas for a convention and figured they’d catch a show while they were there.
“It’s OK. It’s OK. Relax, relax, relax, relax,” could be heard on the sisters Facebook video.
But even as they tried to stay calm, panic set in with the sound of gunfire.
“It sounded like everything was so close,” said Lulu in a phone interview with 7News, “so we thought that there was a shooter like on the ground, or multiple shooters is what it sounded like because there were so many gunshots.”
The Farinas wanted to run, but Lauren has a knee injury — she’s been in a wheelchair since March.
“I was just dragging her out as fast as we could,” said Lulu, “just trying to get out and run away as far as we could.”
But as fast as they could wasn’t fast enough. Lulu was losing strength and a woman next to them screamed as she was shot.
That’s when a man Lauren calls her “guardian angel” came along.
“He went underneath her arm and just picked her up and helped me drag her, continuing on passed, across the street,” said Lulu.
A second man — guardian angel number two — helped carry Lauren to safety.
“Honestly, without these two men, I would be laying there in plain view of this person,” said Lauren. “I honestly don’t even think I would be on the phone with you today.”
Lauren had lost her shoes and one of the men gave her his. Then came guardian angel number three, driving a truck, taking the Farinas sisters in.
“They just flung the door open and shoved her in there and said ‘Yes, yes’ and they threw her in there,” said Lulu. “They threw me in the bed of the truck.”
That truck driver is Taylor Winston. Lauren saw him giving an interview on TV.
“We went back towards the gunfire and just started looking for priority victims,” said Winston.
“I just lost it,” said Lauren. “I started crying. My hands started shaking. I just couldn’t believe that one of the three guardian angels I was given that day was found.”
Still, Lauren has no idea who the other two men are, or even if they survived, but she plans to find out.
“I’m going to do everything I can possibly do to try to find this man,” said Lauren, “because I just need to give him a hug and say, ‘Thank you.'”
The only thing linking the Farinas sisters to the men who helped save their lives is a pair of sandals.
If you have any information and think you can help them reunite, please contact 7News.
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