News : Vinton native praises heroes who responded to Las Vegas shooting; receives credit for helping stranger

Blaine Schwartz and his wife Ronit, with Michele Feister, a California woman they helped when the Las Vegas shooting began. Although his photo has been shared more than 2,100 times already on Facebook, after initially appearing on the page belonging to talk show host Ellen Degeneres, Vinton native Blaine Schwartz says he does not deserve any recognition for his response in helping a stranger during the Las Vegas shooting Sunday night. It's the victims of the shooting, as well as the first responders, the police officers, firefighters and others who rushed in to help while music fans fled the bullets coming from an automatic rifle 32 floors above who deserve the attention, says Schwartz, who now lives in the Las Vegas area. Schwartz hopes that people in his home state will focus on the 59 people who have died, the more than 500 injured, and the many people who have not yet been accounted for. The son of Kevin and Shirley Schwartz of Vinton, Schwartz is a member of the Vinton-Shellsburg Class of 1999 who joined the U.S. Air Force after high school. He and his wife, Ronit, were praised in a Facebook post by a California woman whom they helped after the shooting began. According to the woman, she was standing not far from where Jason Aldean was singing when the first shots rang out. "I was right near the stage when the shooting occurred yesterday night at the Route 91 Harvest Festival," wrote Michele Fiester. "Amid the chaos, I got separated from the girlfriends I was there with. This kind couple on my left, complete strangers to me, took me under their wing, let me run with them, comforted me, and put me up in their lovely home for the evening since I could not get back to my hotel." Fiester, a married mother of two, later learned that the couple who helped her are Iowa natives, although she did not name them in her post. "They gave me clothes and shoes, since I lost my sandals while running away from the gunshots, fed me breakfast and got me safely reunited with my friends today," Feister wrote. "Their kindness in the midst of a harrowing and traumatic event is my silver lining. They give me the strength to believe there are still good people in this world. They could've easily ran past me, taken care of themselves alone to get back safely to their young children, but they didn't. And for that I am forever and completely grateful. I am alive and safe today because of their help." "I owe them my life," she says. "I'm just so blessed I crossed their path and am thankful to have new lifelong friends even in the midst of this horrific ordeal." Fiester also says all of her friends escaped unharmed Sunday night. "My friends were both safe, able to make it back to our hotel." she says. "I met back up with them this morning and got them to the airport to catch flights home to their families back in Texas." Blaine Schwartz's brother, Josh, also a Vinton native who now lives in Colorado, joined his brother in praising the first responders. "I would like to say something on behalf of my brother Blaine Schwartz and his wife Ronit Schwartz," says Josh. "They are amazing, wonderful, caring people who would do anything for anyone. They do this because we were all raised this way. They are also simple and humble people. This act was not anything more than they would do under any other circumstances. Even though all of the comments are very appreciated, they would like to focus on the real heroes that gave so much that evening. They would like to thank all of the Federal, State, and local Law Enforcement, the Fire and EMS and the military and off duty personnel. All volunteers. Mostly they would like to send prayers to all victims, families, and friends who have been affected by this tragedy." "Is Vinton ready?" Schwartz, who said he has now lived in Vegas longer than he has lived in Vinton, works for a private company that helps advise the Air Force on security issues. "The headline of this story should not be 'Vinton native, etc.' It should be: 'Is Vinton ready for something like this?'" Schwartz said. The response time of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was "amazing," said Schwartz, who worries that small town rural communities may not be prepared for a similar event. "If this were to happen at a high school football game on Friday night, the police response time would be far slower, and many rural areas don't have the capacity for hospitals," he said. "That's why this event should matter." Schwartz says Iowa was only recognized by his story because he happened to be wearing an Iowa Hawkeye shirt. Many people who saw the photo assumed his wife, Ronit, is also from Iowa; she is a native of Israel. Focusing on his story, he said, distracts from the real heroes of the night: The LVMPD, which quickly found the shooter, and the rest of the first responders, who rushed in to help. "What I did, what my wife, did, is beside the point," says Schwartz. "There are hundreds of stories of other people doing the same thing."