The images from the mass-shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival are hard to ignore. While some show the horror of the event, many others captured the heroism. While those images were going viral, the stories behind them have been harder to uncover. This is the story of one of one of those images.
The man seen here has been identified as a young US Army soldier. The Daily Mail writes “Matthew Cobos was photographed on Sunday night lying on top of a young woman in an attempt to shield her from the barrage of bullets tearing through the air around them.”
Cobos and the woman appear to be in the middle of the concert arena, very much isolated, as those around them are fleeing.
“Cobos, who is a US Army soldier, eventually dragged the young woman to safety before bravely going back into the danger zone to help the injured,” the Mail writes. “He is pictured above (center) with his sister and her boyfriend at what is believed to have been the Las Vegas concert”
The woman has not been identified. Many who have seen the image are struck by Cobos’s hand on the woman’s face. The gesture looks oddly intimate in a moment of terror. Cobos reportedly tried to cover the woman’s eyes to keep her from seeing what was happening around her and to protect her face.
Moments later, the shooting paused, and Cobos led the woman to safety behind a car. He then went back in to help others. Cobos is one of the ones credited with improvising tourniquets and even plugging bullet holes with his fingers.
Getty photographer David Becker took the photo. He had seen them make it to safety.
After the concert, Cobos returned to California. He is reportedly stationed in Hawaii where he is a cavalry scout.
The relationship of Cobos to the woman he was pictured with remains unclear. It is believed that she made it through the shooting. There are numerous people who survived, thanks to the efforts of those like Cobos who put themselves in the line of fire to save them.
