One of the survivors of the nightclub shooting says she went from having the time of her life with her friends to the worst night of her life in a matter of minutes.
Twenty-year-old Patience Carter was partying with her friends Akyra Murray, 18, and Tiara Parker, at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida Saturday night when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire and killed 49 revelers in the gay club – including Murray, the youngest victim.
During a press conference on Tuesday at Florida Hospital Orlando, Carter recalled her memories of the shooting, read a poem about her survivor’s guilt and revealed previously unreported details about how the gunman – including the fact that he promised not to shoot any black people because they had ‘suffered enough’.
Carter, a college student in Philadelphia, says she was on vacation with Murray and Parker’s family (Murray and Parker are cousins), and that Murray’s parents dropped them off at the club that night for a girl’s night out.
It was around 2am when the first gunshots were heard. At first, Parker says she thought the noise was some over-the-top way the club owners were trying to get everyone to leave.
‘I was so confused. I was like, ‘Wow, a club would do all of this just to get people to leave their club?” she said. ‘I thought it was a BB gun at first, or the DJ playing some sound of gunshots. I didn’t think they were actually real gunshots.’
Nonetheless, Carter says the noise prompted a physical response and she dropped to the floor.
On the floor, she noticed her friends running to the bar, while she started reflexively scooting backwards – not aware that she was actually crawling out the exit.
Murray noticed where Carter was going and ran over from the bar to join Carter exiting the building.
Once they reached the safety outside, they realized that Parker didn’t make it out of the building so they decided to risk both of their lives and reenter the club.
I Use This Product EVERY Week!
To my gyals, clay has cured my skin of years of acne proned skin, improved my complexion, acne scars and shrunk my pores. This is the best clay mask assortment pack to try all my favorite kinds of clay + it's affordable.
What makes Carter feel so guilty is that Murray was later shot and bled out from her injuries, and may have survived if only she had told her to stay outside while she went back in to get their friend.
Back inside the club, the three friends reunited and then sought shelter with some other men in a handicapped bathroom stall.
Mateen was quick to follow the victims into the bathroom though, and started unleashing a barrage of bullets – striking the man that had closed the door to their stall.
‘We were all scrambling around in the bathroom, screaming at the top of our lungs,’ Carter recalled.
Carter’s friend Murray (pictured), the youngest victim of the shooting, was shot early on and bled out while she was help hostage for three hours +14
Carter’s friend Murray (pictured), the youngest victim of the shooting, was shot early on and bled out while she was help hostage for three hours.
It was when Mateen stopped and left that she realized that she had been hit in the leg, and that her friends were shot too.
‘At that point we knew that this wasn’t a game. This was very real and this was something that was really happening to us right now.
‘It was a shock. We went from having the time of our lives to the worst night of our lives all within a matter of minutes,’ Carter said.
Carter says Mateen did eventually return to their stall and that they feared he was going to shoot them again.
But this time he called out and asked if there were any black people hiding behind the doors.
Carter was too afraid to respond, but another black person did, giving an affirmative.
Surprisingly, that caused Mateen to put away his weapon.
‘I don’t have a problem with black people,’ Mateen reportedly said. ‘This is about my country. You guys suffered enough.’
Image Credit @dailymail Read more here
Whether she remembers accurately or not, why does anyone feel the need to call bs on her story. She survived! Thank God… She’s obviously severely traumatized, and probably going to be that way for the rest of her life. Always the need to be critical instead of looking at the bigger picture.
How is this BS? There were multiple accounts of ppl hearing him say things about sparing blacks. When he first came in he shot up the place and anyone in the way. A survivor said he then started to check if ppl were still alive and that may have been the moment where he “spared” black ppls lives.
http://vidmax.com/video/141692–Are-you-black-I-Don-t-have-an-issue-with-the-blacks-Orlando-shooter-was-shooting-people-by-race
SO IS THIS GUY LYING, ALSO??? He practically repeated what she said verbatim…. you guys in the Peanut Gallery…..smh…. weren’t there, but quick to discredit the survivors. Ask your selves…. “What in the world does she have to gain by lying about this guy?” Not her 15 mins of fame… she got that just by being there. What does she have to gain by making that up???? I’ll wait
#shesurvived None of you have to believe her story but answer one question ….where you at club Pulse that night? #illwait neither was I so why would I judge her story #nooneshould
Thank you I just said that people are so quick to judge bit forget the fact that we should be glad these people that lived are able to recount the event. ✊????????
That’s exactly the point I was making. Yes a lot of lives were lost and my heart aches for those families but this beautiful queen is alive. This world needs love…a lot of love!!
All of you that doesn’t believe her, were you all there?
…and were you there than?
No I wasn’t there, were you?
I’m getting tired of people being disrespectful. You were not there. Regardless if you believe what happened or not shaming her and calling her out of her name is wrong. And it’s a lot of US doing it. Chill out with that. Be glad she’s alive along with the other survivors. Y’all know good and DAMN well media tends to unleash only a little bit of information so people can run with it and go crazy. Stop and think for second before you go posting. A little word to y’all “Grown folks”
Well there were some black people died and a lot of Hispanics
None of you where there how do any of you know what he said to her?
She got shot so the sentiments don’t add up,if I were her I won’t have even repeat what that devil had 2 say
When he shot he did it through a bathroom stall…he couldn’t see who he was shooting…
This is interesting, there was an interview with a man who’d previously worked with the Orlando killer and he specifically said in that interview that this individual would walk around all the time and make the statement that he wanted to kill all the “N words”. So if that was in fact a true statement why would he have changed his mind and decided not to kill someone because of her nationality? Also I agree with one of the previous post he did in fact kill other black people, the young man who was texting his mother from the bathroom who they later found murdered was an black man.
She’s not lying.. several others said he said the same thing..
Yes Traci I watched this all yesterday I saw her interview. The 18 year old that was killed was with her cousin who is Patience best friend. Several others have corroborated her claims. She is not alive though because she is black if that be the case he would not have killed any blacks. She is alive because of God’s grace. It was just not her time. It is sad about the 18 year old she just graduated last week, was a straight A student, had been given a full scholarship for college. Her mom said she wanted to study Criminal Justice because she wanted to understand why people commit such heinous crimes only to be killed by the very type of person she wanted to study. So sad.
Makes no sense.! he still Shot Her.!…Duh.!
Internet trolls at their finest…people lost their lives and those that survived will never be the same! You want to argue about if she’s telling the truth, smdh. Im actually mad at myself for responding to this mess instead of studying like I should be, but when I read all the comments shaming the victim for telling her story and arguing weather or not it was true, I just felt the need to say “y’all are crazy!!”
For those who speak and don’t know…..while in the military serving at Guantanamo Bay…..they said the same thing over and over to every black person they encountered….even asking us why we served a country they did not serve us! This is how the extremist feel wether you like it or not! They said you will never see them cut off the head of a black man and if they killed or maimed one it was not intentional. This fucked up human could not see in the dark as he massacred people but once in the light he made the statement I have heard so many times.
he did not cause he did kill others ,
Loads of crap, such a lier
Well that’s something new
Yeah, that entire mess is very sad. I didn’t get a chance to watch any clips bcz my data is down and I haven’t turned on the TV in days.
The title sounded like one of those thoughtless, sensational attention grabbers they tend to use.
Staged.
A demented and tortured soul who at that time identified with the suffering of black folk.
Well he must be colour blind because black people did die!
To those of you who’s calling bs, Anderson Cooper were interviewing two black guys that survived the massacre and was in that bathroom and they also said the same thing she is sayin. So I guess in middle of praying for their lives and being scared, these three had enough time and energy to make this up. Smdh
I guess this is the big paycheck she was expecting & celebrating about on her fb page. Her magazine & TV shows also airs this month. Gr8 timing
Yes I read about this on cnn.com. He didn’t want to kill black people. But he still was a crazy mass murderer. And no one’s lives should have been taken that night.
He wanted the crackers!!
What could she possibly have to gain from saying he spared her life because she was black? You all don’t know because you weren’t there. The fact that there are people trying to poke holes in the story of a survivor, is exactly what’s wrong with the world.
It pain some of you to hear that he had nothing against black people it hurt you guys so much to hear that