A Las Vegas shooting survivor from Santa Clarita who managed to escape the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert with his wife recalled having a single thought when he realized what was happening: “We had a choice, either to die or to run.”

Ray Avalos and his wife, Stacy, were enjoying the concert from the VIP section when they heard the first shots, and like many others in attendance that night, thought it was fireworks. But as a second round of gunfire erupted, this time much louder, Avalos knew there was a gunman.

After ducking down behind the couches they were sitting in, Stacy became convinced the shooter was inside the venue, and the couple knew what they had to do.

“At that moment, we made that choice to run,” Avalos said. “So I grabbed her hand and we ran… We don’t know where to go, we don’t know where there’s the shooter.”

Related: Healing From The Las Vegas Shooting With Santa Clarita Grief Counseling Expert Sharon Brubaker

After leaving the VIP area, the couple found themselves in the main venue under heavy gunfire.

“There were people on the ground. I stepped on people, my wife stepped on people, I didn’t know if they were alive or if they were dead,” he said. “I couldn’t look down. It was just like, we need to get out of here.”

The pair remembered passing a woman Avalos described as “frozen in time,” yelling at her to run but unable to stop themselves.

“I remember her face, and she couldn’t move,” Avalos said. “She just stayed. At one point I kind of turned around and looked to see if she was still there, and she was. But I’m like, ‘We’ve got to get out of here, because we’ve got two small kids. That was our thought — we’ve got to get home to our children.”

Related: Las Vegas Shooting: Santa Clarita Community Rallies Together To Raise Over $172,000 For Local Victims

When Avalos and his wife finally reached an exit, they headed in the direction of the MGM hotel where they were staying in hopes of finally finding safety. Instead, they were met with more panicked people running out of the hotel shouting there was a shooter inside.

“Our whole thought was, ‘We’re under attack,’” Avalos recalled. He and his wife joined a group running to the back side of the hotel through the pool area, only to be met with the same terrifying scene.

“More people started running … saying there was a shooter in the hotel,” he said. “So here we are again, thinking there was another shooter, and we’re experiencing this for a third time thinking we’re going to get shot.”

The group took refuge in a restaurant near the pool with only one entrance, but had no way of knowing there was really only one shooter that night.

“The security and the restaurant people, they were unbelievable (saying), ‘We’re going to be safe in here… This is the only way you can get in or out — we’re going to be okay,’” Avalos said. “I think at that point we finally realized we were kind of safe, but we didn’t know how safe.”

He continued, “My wife broke down, and I was in a daze, like, ‘What is going on here? Is this really happening?’ You don’t think that something like that is going to happen, but when it does, you’re just trying to process it.”

Since he’s been home, Avalos compared the struggle to move on from the traumatic event to a rollercoaster of “ups” and “downs,” with no end in sight.

“It’s a day to day, minute by minute kind of thing,” he said, noting he can go from being “up” in a happy place to having a flashback and going back “down” without warning. “I know it’s going to end eventually, but I don’t know when it’s going to end. I am here right now, and that’s the only thing I can deal with, is right now.”

He continued, “I’m determined not to let this event change me forever. We’re a sports family, we’re concert people, I’m a music person, I just love life. And this one event, I’m not going to let it change who we are.”

Ed. Note: If you would like to share your Las Vegas shooting survival story, please email info@hometownstation.com.