We didn’t spend a lot of time at the campground on the 21st. My family was on a road trip down the west coast. We setup camp in late afternoon, then left the grounds to go to Santa Monica pier. We arrived back a little before 10. We knew we couldn’t get back in to the campground after 10 as there would be spikes on the road and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare so I’m guessing we were one of the last vehicles in.
When I heard the shots, I grabbed my phone and the screen lit up and I am fairly certain that it was 4:27. I did not have phone service and turned off my phone screen quickly. My thoughts at that moment were that there was an active shooter in the park. I quickly dressed and tried to look out of the flaps in the tent door that I had let down for airflow. It was still extremely dark and I could not see anything. I heard a baby cry out and thought he or she must’ve been been awakened by the shots.
I listened by the door for any kind of movement and didnt hear much. I was afraid to leave my tent as I didn’t want to call attention to the fact that I was awake. My wife and four kids were all in the tent and I feared for our lives.
A little while later I heard a male voice call out “Help, somebody help me”. Almost immediately after that I heard a female voice say “shots fired” and assumed someone with phone service had called 911.
A very short time after that, the campground road was filled with SUVs and squad cars traveling very fast on the campground road, searching the area with spotlights. A fire truck showed up shortly after that, then an ambulance.
Sheriff deputies came and got statements from all campers and we were told that we couldn’t leave. If I remember correctly it was close to 1pm before we left. No one had come back to say we could leave but we saw other campers leaving so we tried to head out. We had to check with law enforcement as we left the park.
