Phoenix residents who witnessed Sunday's mass shooting recount horrifying scene

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - On Monday, hours after a mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured, Many Valley residents who attended the Harvest Music Festival returned home.

Survivors have told gut-wrenching stories of sheer panic, the instinct to run and hide, fearing for their lives, as well as harrowing images that they will never forget. Those who are back home home are grateful, but still in shock.

"The flight here, every other person, you see tears coming down," said Misti Swin, who attended the music festival. "You see empty seats, and you wonder if that seat is supposed to be for somebody that couldn't make it."

Swin and Katlyn Thomas were standing toward the left of the stage, as shots rang out.

Ana Peterlin was also at the festival.

"We just kept running until we got to a back," said Peterlin. "We hid between two refrigerators until the shooting stopped. It was, like, 10 minutes. Just hundreds of hundreds of rounds."

They hid until the gunfire ended, then literally ran for their lives.

"We saw bodies in the street. It was just insane, and it just felt so surreal," said Thomas.

"We just ran as fast as we could, as long as we could, to the MGM," Peterlin recounted. "We were running in front of cars. They were honking at us. We didn't care. We were being shot at, there were bodies everywhere, people trying to resuscitate."

"Just needed to find somewhere to hide and text our parents that we love them," said Thomas.

They said they had no idea how many shooters there were, or if the shooter was on the move. It wasn't until the next morning that details of the shooting were released.

"Crazy, sad, somber," said Swin. "Just hug your people and God Bless America."

For one man, Anthony Potts, the pase 24 hours has been busy.

"One second, I was having fun, the other, I was running for my life," said Potts.

Potts still had the wristband for the fateful event on him, almost 24 hours following the mass shooting.

"I didn't even take a shower, said Potts. "I just packed my bags and left."

Potts and his wife attended the music festival all weekend. On Sunday, with his wife back in the hotel room, Potts went out for one more night

"We were just getting a drink and we heard a couple pops," said Potts. "Thought it was a firework, firecracker. And we looked up in the sky, and there was nothing there."

Potts took note of Country singer Jason Aldean on stage, to see what he would do.

"He took a quick take," said Potts. "Like, he stopped with his lyrics, looked over and went on with it, and not a few seconds later, profuse fire came down, the whole stage shut off."

The chaos unraveled from there, but the Glendale native happened to be in the right place to escape.

"Thank god we were by the back exit on the east side," said Potts.

Potts was able to escape quickly, but others could not. The vivid gunfire clearly heard on videos posted on social media will be a sound he'll never forget.

I'll re-live it every day of my life for sure," said Potts.