ORLANDO, Fla. — Two victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting shared their stories during a Tuesday afternoon news conference at Florida Hospital Orlando.
Patience Carter, of Philadelphia, had never been to Florida until that fateful night. She described the horror she and others felt as they helplessly huddled in a bathroom stall as the gunman entered.
"We were all getting hit by bullets," she said. "At that point, we knew this wasn’t a game. This was very real. This was really happening to us. We went from having the time of our lives to having the worst night of our lives in a matter of minutes."
Carter said the gunman then called 911, saying his motive was retaliation for U.S. bombings "in his country." She said he then pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and began speaking in Arabic.
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The shooter, Carter says, later asked if there were any African Americans hiding in the bathroom stall.
"He then spoke to us directly," she said. "He said, 'I don’t have a problem with black people, this is about my country. You guys have suffered enough.'"
That didn't stop him from firing his gun many more times, she said.
"The motive is very clear to us who were lying in blood -- our blood and other people’s blood," she said. "The guilt of being alive is heavy."
Wounded and bloodied, Carter said she prayed that God would take her soul from her body.
Survivor Angel Santiago Jr., who hid in a different bathroom stall as the gunman attacked, said he had to drag himself out to safety after being shot in the left foot and right knee.
As Santiago and the two friends heard gunshots, they ran to a bathroom for cover. They said they joined about 15 others in a large bathroom stall. The group tried to be quiet.
Santiago eventually dragged himself, unable to walk, out of the bathroom and toward police. He used his cellphone light to indicate his presence to officers, who soon grabbed him and got him outside.
"I don't even know how I'm alive today," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cox Media Group
