An Arizona car dealership says it is giving a free truck to a veteran credited with saving dozens of lives during the Las Vegas mass shooting.
AZ Central reports that Shane Beus, owner of B5 Motors in Gilbert, wanted to show his appreciation to 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran Taylor Winston, who commandeered a pick-up truck during the shooting and used it to drive injured victims to safety.
“Most of us would have ran and never came back,” Beus said. “His military training allowed him to think in a split second what to do.”
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“It was still quite scary, but we just knew they (the victims) had to get to the hospital immediately,” Winston told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week. “No ambulances were immediately available. There was far too many casualties for anyone to handle.”
B5 Motors put out a social media blast last week to find Winston, who lives in San Diego. About seven hours after their tweet plea, they announced they had made contact with him.
Beus reached out to Winston, who lives in San Diego, to offer him a new truck as a way of saying thanks.
“It’s very, very courageous what he did,” Beus told AZ Central. “He was willing to risk his life and run back into the storm and help out.”
Beus said the dealership selected the F-150 but gave Winston the opportunity to choose between the used truck and two other vehicles in the $20,000 price range.
The dealership posted a video Monday to Facebook Live showing Winston being handed the keys to a silver truck and driving away in it as onlookers applaud.
“My message is that I hope people will recognize the heroism in him and others and become selfless,” Beus said. “It’s kinda what America is about, helping others.”
Winston said he plans to sell his current vehicle and will donate the money to victims of the mass shooting.
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