Survivors describe horror inside Pulse nightclub

During a recent press conference, in which victims talked about their horrific experience, Carter recited a poem that she said she wrote from her hospital bed to cope the night before.

According to Carter, she and her friends were waiting on an Uber home when they heard the first shots. They rushed back inside amid the gunshots, found her and took shelter in a bathroom with other clubgoers.

The Philadelphia native said Mateen had multiple conversations with the remaining people in the bathroom until the police opened fire, blowing open the bathroom wall, and the room started flooding with water from burst pipes. She said that at first she thought he had a BB gun but then realized she was being hit with particles from a wall that was coming apart from the force of assault rifle bullets. She believes said victim saved her life.

“I don’t feel pain, but I just feel all this blood on my from myself, from other people”, he said and added that he wished he could thank the police officer who rescued him. She recalled that he said, “Damn!”

“I can hear the shots getting closer, and I look over and he shoots the girl next to me” Colon said.

She and Murray had separated from Parker and were in the outdoor patio area. “Throughout that period of hours the gunman was in there with us, [he] made a 911 call saying the reason why he is doing this is because he wants America to stop bombing his country, and then he pledged allegiance to ISIS”.

The New York-born shooter had two parents originally from Afghanistan.

Asked about reports that Mateen may have been in the club before, his father, Seddique Mateen, said from his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that his son may have been “scouting the place”. “He said, ‘You know, I don’t have a problem with black people”, Carter said. She also told them she had driven him to the Pulse nightclub because he wanted to case the joint, the network said.

Mateen was shot dead by police after a three-hour standoff early on Sunday morning. Then another shot to his side.

When you laid beside individuals whose lives were brutally taken. Once they located Parker inside they hid in the bathroom where the gunman, Omar Mateen, eventually entered and started shooting.

Patience Carter breaks down after telling her story. “I will love you guys forever – for doing that for me”, he said, addressing the staff. I don’t know how but by the glory of God he shoots towards my head but it hits my hand.

Carter was in Orlando on vacation with a friend’s family. Unlike Carter and Parker, Murray died.

Colon said that as soon as he heard the gunshots, he and his friends ran.