Woman escapes Las Vegas massacre, survives Gilroy shooting

GILROY, Calif. (KTVU) - Alicia Olive escaped the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history only to have to run for her life again, almost two years later, when a gunman unleashed a hail of bullets at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

"Oh man, this is not happening again," Olive said she recalls thinking during Sunday's terrifying event.  

Olive lived through the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre at the Las Vegas Route 91 Music Festival. 

She told KTXL that after the tragic incident she sunk into a "really deep depression." 

“I would go into either, if it’s a bar or sometimes just a crowded area and something about it, it just, I start to panic,” Olive recounted. 

It took almost two years since the Vegas shooting, but she had just started to feel safe in public spaces, KTXL's Joe Khalil reports. 

Olive and two friends, who she met in a Las Vegas shooting support group, decided to attend the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday. 

Now all three of them are two-time mass shooting survivors. 

“After the Vegas shooting, I felt like I would be there again, and it happened,” Olive said. “Angry. It makes you angry.”

Olive says she and her friends were leaving the festival,  but just before they made it to the exit, gunfire erupted. 

“I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening again.’ We were trying to find somewhere to get cover,” she said.

Olive said massacres can happen anywhere, but the violence should not be accepted as a normal part of life.

“We can’t tell that to the families that lost someone. Say, ‘oh well that’s life, that’s America,'" she said. "It’s not enough. It’s time to say enough is enough."