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Monroe County Music Producer Recalls Las Vegas Horror

DELAWARE WATER GAP — A music producer from Monroe County was in Las Vegas during Sunday’s deadly mass shooting. Jim Della Croce was supposed to be a...

DELAWARE WATER GAP -- A music producer from Monroe County was in Las Vegas during Sunday's deadly mass shooting.

Jim Della Croce was supposed to be at the country music concert but instead went back to his hotel room less than an hour before the shooting happened.

Della Croce was in Las Vegas recording a video for a country music artist he represents.

Della Croce was supposed to go with members of his group to the Jason Aldean concert, but instead, he went to dinner.

About 45 minutes later, he received an urgent call to get back to his hotel room.

"The whole hotel was a refugee camp of people just with white towels from the hotel to stay warm, in shock, bleeding, broken limbs, separated, no phones, panicking," Della Croce recalled.

Recounting Sunday night's deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, music producer Jim Della Croce says he's lucky to be back in his office in Delaware Water Gap.

He and members of his production company were out west recording a music video for country music singer Tony Jackson.

The crew decided to cut rehearsal on the Vegas Strip short, just 45 minutes before the deadly shooting happened.

"We finish the production at Stoney's. Taylor says, 'do you want to go to the concert. I have backstage passes?' I am exhausted, haven't slept, I decided to go eat. So at about 10:15, 10:10 our tour manager calls, says, 'get back to the hotel there has been a shooting. Don't be upset but get everyone back to the hotel.'"

Della Croce says he and Tony Jackson went their separate ways.

Another producer, Taylor Winston, went to the concert. As the night unfolded, Winston ended up playing a bigger role than just producer.

"Taylor found keys, found a truck with keys in it, commandeered the truck, loaded victims into the truck and got to the hospital. The streets around the perimeter were so gridlocked with ambulances and I don't know how anyone got through."

Della Croce says it took hours for him to get back to his hotel room. Much of the time after is foggy, but one observation will stay with him forever.

"I was finding shoes all over the place, which didn't dawn on me until the following day. It was probably four or five in the morning and I realized that people were running out of their shoes for their life."

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