The man seen in a Getty Images photo shielding a young woman during the Las Vegas shooting has been identified as soldier Matthew Cobos by the Army’s official Twitter account.
Cobos was photographed protecting the woman on Sunday night by photographer David Becker. The image went viral after the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
The young woman tripped as they were attempting to flee the gunfire, and Cobos shielded her with his own body before they managed to get up and run away, Becker told the Australian website News.com.au. At the time, Becker still thought it was a false alarm.
“It had been so dark outside I couldn’t see the details, I just saw a lot of people lying on the ground, thinking they were playing possum, but now I could see people covered in blood and I thought, ‘this is real,’” Becker said. “When I saw the image of the woman lying on the ground covered in blood, that was when the impact of what I was experiencing hit; when I realized people were dying.”
The Las Vegas shooting occurred Sunday evening when a gunman identified by police as Stephen Paddock fired at concert-goers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The attack left 58 dead, according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.
