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Wellington sisters share horror of Las Vegas massacre

Posted at 7:40 PM, Oct 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-04 05:01:30-04

Two Wellington sisters are survivors of the Vegas massacre. They are still trying to process what it took to make it out alive. 

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Lulu and Lauren Farina feel lucky to have had each other in what may be the worst day of their lives.

"I grabbed her wheel chair and literally dumped her on the ground and we laid on the platform," said Lulu who was wheeling around her younger sister Lauren, who has an injured knee. 

Lauren started recording video when she thought she heard gunshots, she said in case they didn't make it. 

"We had no clue where it was coming from. We thought it was somebody in the crowd, it sounded like multiple people," said Lauren.

The women said the rapid gunfire went on for what felt like an eternity. Lauren and Lulu called their parents in Wellington right after they saw one woman shot in front of them. 

"It was such a helpless feeling. I said where's your sister and she said she's right next to me, what's going on (Carlos Farina asked), somebody is shooting at the crowd, we're running," said Farina as he described his conversation with his daughter. "I said where are you running to, she said we're just running." 

Farina, who is a 30-year veteran of the Broward County Sheriff's Office immediately knew what they were dealing with when he heard the gunshots in the background of the phone call. 

"You could hear the shooting in the background. I knew immediately it was an automatic rifle. I know that sound very well and so I knew that whoever was in that area was just part of a killing zone," he said. 

Lulu said if it wasn't for two men who helped her carry her sister to safety, they would have never made it out. She said she was dragging Lauren who could not walk because of her injured knee.

One of the men, Lauren said, saw she lost her shoes and gave her his. Now the women are sharing the picture hoping to find the two men they call their angels.

The strangers helped the women into a pick-up truck where victims were being loaded in.

Paramedics were begging them to take the wounded to the hospital because ambulances were filling up with people and there was no more room. 

"The people were bleeding so much, I had blood all over me," said Lulu.

At the hospital, Lauren said she's never been more proud of her sister who put her down in a safe area and then started helping victims. 

"I was proud of her, with everything we had just seen that nothing can prepare you for, there's by big sister just doing what she has to do," said Lauren.

Farina told me he saw the video of the shooting his daughter recorded and posted on social media.

He said hearing the phone call and seeing the video he really saw the pure panic and danger his daughters were in.

"That second barrage of bullets were hitting so close to them, I could also feel the bullets through the sound of the video like if it was around me, that's how close they were," said Farina.

He said he is very proud of his daughters who told him they thought about him and everything he has taught them using his law enforcement  about not overreacting and panicking, but thinking and coming up with a plan of action.