Two sisters who were caught in the deadly Las Vegas shooting massacre will be denied access to the multimillion-dollar victim recovery fund because they don’t meet the criteria for receiving a donation.
ABC 7 Chicago reports that Jasara Requejo and her sister Kendra Hobbs were in the audience at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert on October 1 when Stephen Paddock shot at the crowd from his high-rise suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, killing 58 people and injuring over 500 more.
Requejo was shot twice, and underwent multiple surgeries, including one to remove a bullet in her arm. But because she was in the hospital in Las Vegas for only 10 hours, she is disqualified from receiving any of the donations made to the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund through GoFundMe, which has raised $11.6 million of its $15 million goal.
And because her sister Kendra was not physically injured in the shooting, she too is disqualified — although neither sister has been able to return to work in the two months since the gun massacre.
“I ran for my life. I said goodbye to my family. I watched my sister bleed out. I watched our friend’s face get blown off,” Hobbs told the news station.
“PTSD is so real. I didn’t want to be in that war zone. I didn’t want to see what I saw.”
Earlier this week, representatives for the fund reportedly met at town halls to discuss how the donations will be allocated, but the ABC 7 Chicago report says that is remains unclear when the committee will finalize the rules determining the distribution of funds.
“I feel like I’m not even allowed to call myself a victim because they’re saying only these victims get it, when we all are victims,” Requejo said.
A friend of Requejo’s has set up a separate GoFundMe campaign on her behalf.
Victims reportedly have until January 31 to make a claim on the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund.
[Feature image: GoFundMe/Jasara Requejo]