A Richland man went to Vegas to sell cigars. He hid for his life instead

Luck placed a Richland cigar store owner in a spot near the center of the concert grounds in Las Vegas last Sunday.

Rick Ornstein, president of The Educated Cigar & Wine, figured it would be a prime location to cater to concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival.

But that central location may have saved his life.

Ornstein and his friends survived the mass shooting there that killed 58 people and the shooter.

And with luck, he’ll be there again.

“If they have the event next year, I’m going back,” said Ornstein, a frequent festival vendor. “I have faith in the system that they’ll respond.”

Fireworks or gunfire?

On Sunday night, shortly after 10 p.m., Ornstein and the four friends who accompanied him to help sell cigars at the country music festival were busy working.

Ornstein and three buddies were running the main booth, about 175 yards from the main stage. Another was working the second location selling high-rated, hard-to-find cigars at an exclusive lounge for artists.

Ornstein said it was luck that got his business invited to the lucrative gathering and luck that got him and his friends out of harm’s way during the shooting.

As Ornstein recalls, Jason Aldean was a few minutes into his concert when the first shots were fired from the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

The cigar seller wondered why organizers would start the festival’s fireworks finale when the concert was just getting going.

After a pause, he heard more loud cracks. One of Ornstein’s companions, a combat veteran of Korea and Vietnam, recognized the sound.

“Rick,” he told Ornstein, “hold on. This is real live machine gun fire.”

A safe escape route

The men hit the ground, watching from their vantage point near an exit as panicked concertgoers fled the barrage. Ornstein’s crew stayed put. Only later did they realize the vendor area was a relatively safe spot.

“I don’t follow crowds. I’m not a stampeder,” Ornstein said.

The men spent about five minutes listening to the gunfire. They tried to figure out where it was coming from and if they had a safe escape route.

With bullets ricocheting off hard surfaces, they concluded there were shooters on the ground. With no other safe route, they got up and headed for the exit, taking shelter behind big rigs parked in the area.

Police tried to steer them to the nearby Tropicana Casino Hotel. Ornstein and his military veteran buddies declined.

“That’s where the terrorists will go,” one told the officers.

Police didn’t quibble, a point Ornstein appreciated in the aftermath. Local police were professional, but didn’t force his group to do something that seemed unsafe, at least to them.

The cigar group finally agreed to enter the hotel hours after the gunfire ended.

Around 5 a.m., they got permission to return to their hotel next to Mandalay Bay. Ornstein was surprised to find his room disturbed.

Security had entered rooms before clearing the hotel for guests to return.

The entire group finally reunited in their rooms early Monday morning.

Ornstein sent the group home to the Tri-Cities, but he stayed behind. He hoped to get permission to retrieve to the expensive cigars, computers, phones and cash he’d left behind.

He figured about 60 percent of his business is sitting in a Las Vegas crime zone. The area was still in lock-down Friday.

Ornstein said he has nothing but praise for how Las Vegas law enforcement and Live Nation handled the massacre and the chaotic hours that followed.

He considers himself fortunate. Though he didn’t know it at the time, the vendor area was largely out of the line of fire.

His friend in the artists’ lounge wasn’t so fortunate. Many were hit there and his friend, a former military medic, rushed to help with first aid.

Ornstein said his friend checked pulses for people “who no longer had them.”

Lucky breaks

Ornstein, a former scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, started The Educated Cigar as an online business in 1998.

It eventually became a brick-and-mortar store catering to travelers and cigar aficionados in Richland, operating from a niche at Atomic Bowl & Joker’s Casino.

He later ventured into the festival business, participating in smaller events. LiveNation introduced him to the world of big-time festivals.

It was a lucky break.

Ornstein tried for five years to get accepted as a vendor to LiveNation’s Watershed Music Festival, annually held at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George. In 2016, he got in, participating in the festival across two weekends.

It went so well that LiveNation invited him to participate in its Route 91 event in Las Vegas last year.

He was reluctant, fearing interstate tobacco laws would make it too difficult for a Washington business to sell cigars in Nevada. When the Nevada secretary of state’s office assured him, in writing, that he was welcome, he headed down with buddies in tow.

The 2016 festival was so successful he doubled down in 2017, taking a 20-foot booth and agreeing to operate in the artists’ lounge.

Being accepted by LiveNation was a big step forward and put him at events that cater to his market: people who can afford to indulge their interests.

Ornstein wants to use the caché to get accepted into beer and whiskey festivals.

But with most of his inventory behind crime scene tape, Ornstein is worried about having the right mix of cigars to fulfill his commitment to a pair of local events.

The Educated Cigar is scheduled to be at White Bluffs Brewing in Richland on Oct. 12 and at Gamache Vintners in Prosser for fall crush on Oct. 14.

He can physically attend. But he’s not sure it makes sense if he can’t supply the premium cigars people expect.

“Maybe they’ll understand,” he mused.

This story was originally published October 7, 2017 at 2:25 PM with the headline "A Richland man went to Vegas to sell cigars. He hid for his life instead."