We are all now painfully familiar with many of the devastating stories that came out of the deadliest mass shooting in America’s history, the Las Vegas shooting of October 1, 2017. While some stories ended with families in mourning, a community in shock and a nation dismayed, not all of the stories ended in tragedy. Many have been rays of light, tales of hope emanating from that fateful night.
Markie Coffer was very pregnant and a week overdue to give birth to her son, when she, her boyfriend Travis and her brother Cody, decided to go to the Route 91 Harvest Festival that night.
“We decided, ‘Oh we’ll go. Maybe it will help the baby come out and we were just there having fun,” Markie remembers.
And then toward the end of the night, the worst happened, and the trio were caught up in a fight for their lives, along with hundreds of other concert goers when a man opened fire into the crowd from a high vantage point in a hotel nearby.
Markie’s boyfriend Travis had been in the Army, and he ushered them to safety as quickly as he could. Cody though was shot in the shoulder. “One of my brother’s friends picked us up and brought us straight to the hospital,” Markie said. “It was chaotic down there.”
Still in shock and mourning for the concert goers who didn’t survive the incident, Markie gave birth two days later. Markie and Travis decided to name their son “Wyatt”, an old English name that means “Brave in war.”
“He’s been unique since the beginning,” Markie said. “He is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Travis added.
“I’m thankful nothing happened worse to any one of us…and we couldn’t be here for him,” Markie said. “It was perfect timing for him.”
Markie’s brother Cody is expected to make a full recovery, though he still has dozens of bullets fragments in his shoulder and chest. Everyone, including us, are glad that Wyatt has gotten a chance at life and that Cody will have a chance to know him.
