Calgarian witnesses Mexican club shooting, chaotic aftermath
Aleksandar Samardzija says he could hear the gunshots and smell the gun powder at Playa del Carmen shooting
The dance floor at Playa del Carmen's Blue Parrot nightclub was packed when a fatal shooting broke out in the wee hours Monday morning.
Calgarian Aleksandar Samardzija said he was a little more than two metres away from the shooter, although he had no clear view.
"We saw one bigger gentleman in front of us, he was shot several times, they turned him over on his side and he was just gushing blood," he told CBC News.
Samardzija said he's not sure if the gunman ever entered the club, speculating that the shots were fired from the street into the entrance right next to he and his friends.
"I don't think he came in, if he had come in I think we could have been shot," he said.
'They were stepping on each other'
Samardzija said some people were trying to climb over a fence to the beach to safety.
"They were stepping on each other and other people were trying to catch them on the other side," he said.
Samardzija said he and his friends stayed low and eventually decided to make a break for it, hiding behind some chairs as they made their way to the street.
"We had to literally jump over a body going out," he said.
In the end, five people ended up dead, including Kirk Wilson, a southern Ontario man working security detail for the entertainment event company that was putting on the club event.
At least one person, a U.S. woman, was trampled to death in the chaos of partygoers looking to flee the gunfire.
About 15 people were injured, Mexican authorities said.
Will return to Mexico
Even after his vacation took a violent turn, Samardzija says he'd go back to Mexico.
"It's not going to stop me from travelling. I think it was isolated. It was definitely targeted."
The Canadian government has mentioned the shooting in its online travel advisories for Mexico and says travellers should be aware that crime rates in the country are high.
But it also notes that more than 1.9 million Canadians travel to Mexico each year — the "vast majority of them without incident."
With files from Allison Dempster