Milwaukee Brewers Minor Leaguer Recalls Las Vegas Shooting

MILWAUKEE, WI — Bubba Derby, 23, is an eyelash away from the major leagues, though on Sunday, he and his aunt feared they may have been an eyelash away from losing their lives.

Derby is a minor league pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, having just finished toiling away in AAA Colorado Springs.

He was one of the thousands of fans that were at the Jason Aldean country music concert in Las Vegas on Sunday night — the same evening gunman Stephen Paddock open fire from Mandalay Bay's 32nd floor.

The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

A hail of bullets pierced the crowd. By the time the shooting stopped, 59 were dead and 527 people wounded, a staggering casualty list that ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

"Everybody got down, and we tried to get as low to the ground as possible. ... I turned around to find my aunt, and I'll never forget her face. We made eye contact, and it was that look like 'Are we about to die?' You could hear the bullets hitting, ricocheting, and it's kind of one of those moments where you don't know what to do, but you try to get out of there," Derby told MLB.com writer Ben Weinrib on Oct. 2.

Derby, his aunt and the rest of his family were the lucky ones. According to the report, they sought cover under a House of Blues tent, and made their way, slowly but surely, to safety, not knowing where the shooter was, where the bullets could strike or where the safest place would be.

Derby is stuck in Las Vegas as his vehicle is well within the FBI crime scene perimeter, according to a Journal Sentinel report.

"I’ve been walking around today kind of in a haze. You see the city is pretty empty. I think people are pretty shaken up," he told the Journal Sentinel. "You can tell because they have a certain look on their face like they saw a ghost. For me, personally, processing this information took a while."

Photo: Drapes billow out of broken windows at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, on the Las Vegas Strip following a deadly shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas. A gunman was found dead inside a hotel room. Photo by John Locher/Associated Press