Fans of Jason Aldean, the musician performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas as a gunman opened fire on the crowd, have leapt to his defence after online trolls attacked him with taunts of "coward".
The 'Dirt Road Anthem' singer has opened up in an emotional Instagram post after he was filmed stopping his performance as sustained gunfire rang out, before witnesses said he ran off stage for safety.
"I am so sorry for the hurt and pain everyone is feeling right now and there are no words I can say to take that pain away. Just know you all are in my heart and my prayers as we all go through this together," says Aldean.
The 40-year-old was then subjected to online attacks over his response to the massacre, with many commenters saying he should've told fans what to do before he escaped.
Others have leapt to Aldean's defence, with one replying: "The man has two children and one on the way. You would have ran too".
Many social media users ignored the trolls and simply shared condolences for Aldean and everyone caught up in the attack, which claimed the lives of 59 people and injured more than 500 others.
"I truly don't understand why a person would want to take the life of another. Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see," says Aldean on Instagram.
"At the end of the day we aren't Democrats or Republicans, whites or blacks, men or women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and it's time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE!"
Aldean has had 19 number one hits on the US country charts and his last album They Don't Know debuted at number five on the Australian album chart last year.
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