Bullet from Las Vegas shooting passed through man, got stuck in wallet

Robert Gundran
The Republic | azcentral.com
A hundred-dollar bill stained with Bill Robinson Jr.'s blood after he was shot during the Las Vegas shooting.

A Scottsdale man received a series of texts that no parent would ever want to get from a child.

"There was a shooting at Route 91. I got hit," read the text message from Bill Robinson Jr. to his father.

Bill Robinson Sr., 63, got the text from his 35-year-old son who was attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on Oct. 1 in Las Vegas.

The elder Robinson felt immediate relief when he got another text message that read, "I'm good."

The bullet hit Bill Jr. in his abdomen and passed through his body, according to Robinson Sr.

It exited his buttock and entered his wallet, ripping through cash and cards before lodging inside the billfold.

Bill Robinson Jr. in a hospital after the Las Vegas shooting.

The cash Bill Jr. carried with him, presumably to spend on leisure and fun in Las Vegas, was now stained with his own blood in what was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

MORE:'This can't be happening': The fateful 11 minutes of the Las Vegas shooting

Doctors told the younger Robinson that if he was hit at a slightly different angle, the bullet could have hit his femoral artery or his spine.

The femoral artery is in the leg, and if hit it can lead to a fatal loss of blood. If hit in the spine, it can potentially cause paralysis.

Robinson Sr. said his son's cellphone died during the night after he sent the texts, but one of his friends kept an open line of communication with the family.

"She was a hero," said the elder Robinson of the friend, Lisa Reiswig, who stayed with his son while he was in the hospital.

"She never left his side through the whole ordeal," he said. "They were together when the shooting started. They helped each other get out of the venue and into the car to get to the hospital."

Robinson Sr. drove to Las Vegas at 6 a.m. the morning after the shooting to see his son.

Bill Jr. is out of the hospital and back home in Colorado.

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