'People are dying, you're running': A veteran wrote a powerful statement criticizing social media star Dan Bilzerian's actions during the Las Vegas shooting

Anjelica Oswald
Thursday 05 October 2017 13:44 BST
Comments

The INSIDER Summary:

  • Social media star and professional poker play Dan Bilzerian was in Las Vegas during Sunday's mass shooting. 
  • He posted videos to his Instagram fleeing the scene.
  • Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer criticized Bilzerian for using the tragedy as content for his viewers and for running from those in need.

Social media star and professional poker player Dan Bilzerian captured video of himself during the horrific shooting in Las Vegas Sunday night, but one Marine who saw the video was disappointed.

Sergeant Dakota L. Meyer, a 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran and 2009 recipient of the Medal of Honor, posted a screenshot from Bilzerian's Instagram story to his own Instagram page criticizing Bilzerian for running away and filming it.

"This is why children shouldn't classify heroes by their followers or their photos," Meyer wrote. "@danbilzerian, this is what kills me about people like you. Always playing 'operator dress up' and so so tough when the cameras are on. A woman just got shot in the head and you are running away filming; that's not what operators do. Please stop trying to be someone your [sic] not. People are dying, you're running away not helping them and pretending it's worthy of a video is disgusting."

Bilzerian is a gun fanatic and often shares photos of his collection with his 23 million followers.

 

A post shared by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on

During Sunday night's tragic events, Bilzerian posted videos to his Instagram story saying that he saw a woman get shot in the head right next to him at the Route 91 Harvest music festival.

"F---, this girl just got shot in the f---ing head," Bilzerian said in the first video, which was uploaded around 10 p.m. local time (PDT). "So f---ing crazy."

In a second video, Bilzerian said he was going back to the grounds armed with a weapon.

"So I had to go grab a gun. I'm f---ing headed back. It's f---ing so crazy — some kind of mass shooting," he said in the video, which was shared about an hour later.

World Star Hip Hop's Twitter account uploaded Bilzerian's story.

Warning: Graphic language

In later videos, he said he was going home saying, "I don't think there's much I can do."

Meyer is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War" and was the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor since 1973. He's married to Bristol Palin.

People in the Las Vegas area can donate blood to victims at these locations. Those looking to help can also donate to the Red Cross and to GoFundMe pages for the victims.

Read more:

• This chart is easy to interpret: It says we're screwed
• How Uber became the world's most valuable startup
• These 4 things could trigger the next crisis in Europe

Read the original article on Business Insider UK. © 2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in