(October 2, 2017) – 29-year-old Sonny Melton is described in Facebook tributes as a kind spirit. Melton was a registered nurse who in 2016 worked in the surgical unit at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. Amy Garner, a spokeswoman for the hospital described Melton as “a very kind, compassionate, genuine person who lived life to the fullest, and he took great care of our patients.”
Mr. Melton was a 2015 graduate of Union University. He was from Big Sandy and was currently working in the emergency department for Henry County Medical Center.
Heather Melton, his wife, is an orthopedic surgeon. Henry County Medical Center officials said they will provide counselors to staff who are struggling to deal with this “horrible incident.”
“The thoughts and prayers of the entire HCMC family are with Sonny and Heather’s families,” the center’s CEO, Thomas Gee, said in a statement.
The couple married in June 2016, according to the wedding website The Knot.
On Monday in a White House briefing Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House spokeswoman, said Sonny Melton and his wife had been married only a year “When the bullets began raining down from above, Sonny shielded her from danger, selflessly giving up his life to save hers,” said Sanders.
Sonny Melton and his wife, Heather Gulish Melton were in Las Vegas on Sunday night for a music festival. When the couple heard gunshots, his wife said, he grabbed her and began to run.
“I felt him get shot in the back,” Heather Melton told WCYB, “I want everyone to know what a kindhearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.”
Sonny Melton was soon pronounced dead, one of 59 people killed during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in the largest deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
On Monday, Heather Gulish Melton said she was not yet ready to open up about what she went through.
Multiple agencies continue the investigation to answer the question why this man with no prior record and no apparent motive would mercilessly spray a crowd of victims with deadly gunfire.
