Orlando shooting survivors recall shots, blood during deadly rampage

“I still can’t walk, but as long as I have a smile on my face I will be fine,” Colon, 26, said. “I have been getting calls all day every day. I have let them know that you have been taking care of me very well.”

Colon was one of a few injured survivors who spoke Tuesday about their experiences during the shooting rampage.

He tried to smile, but his eyes welled and his voice cracked on occasion as he told his gripping story of surviving the attack while dozens died around him.

As Omar Mateen fired a shot toward his head, the 26-year-old Boston native simply thought, “I’m dead.”

Colon told his story Tuesday at a hospital press conference, sitting with the team of doctors who saved him and other victims.

“It was a war scene in the trauma bay,” said Dr. Joseph Ibrahim. Doctors treated large wounds to not only the extremities, but to abdomens, chests and pelvis areas, he said.

Seated in a wheelchair, flanked by his brothers and sisters, Colon thanked the doctors and nurses who worked to save his life. He also had harsh words about Mateen, the New York-born man who police say launched the deadly attack.

“This person had to be heartless, ruthless,” Colon said. “You’re seeing all these bodies and this person is just enjoying doing this. He was calm and just doing his thing.”

‘I see bodies everywhere’

Speaking in both English and Spanish, Colon said he attended Pulse Saturday night with three friends. It was Latin night at the gay club and most of the victims were Hispanic. Colon is of Puerto Rican descent.

Colon said he was initially shot three times in the legs before he even realized what was going on.

“I had fallen down and I tried to get up but I was trampled,” Colon said. “I shattered the bones in my left leg, and people just ran over me. All I could hear was the shotgun and people running for help.”

Mateen then methodically shot everyone who was already dead, “making sure,” Colon said. “I could peek over and see him shooting everyone.”

Mateen shot a woman next to Colon. Then it was his turn.

“I thought, I’m dead,” he said.

Mateen aimed the gun at his head, but somehow missed, hitting him in the hand instead. Colon didn’t move. Then he was shot in the hip.

“He is doing this for another five or 10 minutes,” Colon said. “Shooting all over the place.”

Colon said after he heard what he assumed was a gun battle between the police and Mateen, “I looked and saw a cop standing over me.”

“He had to drag me to safety, through blood and cut glass,” Colon said. “He just drops me off at the hospital and I see bodies everywhere.”

‘A lasting impact’

Victims of the shootings were literally brought in by the truckloads in what Michael Cheatham, the Orlando hospital’s chief surgical quality officer, called the “largest disaster that we probably could have imagined.”

At the hospital, located about two blocks away from Pulse, the first patient to arrive was relatively stable and talking, Dr. Kathryn Bondani said. “I thought all were going to be like this.”

But the victims kept coming in in waves. Each worse than the ones before them.

“The trauma team and his awesome residents came in and helped us figure out who was sick and sickest,” Bondani said.

Dr. Chadwick Smith fought back tears when he talked about the night and the response from his colleagues as he called them at their homes to tell them to come in.

“This is not a drill, this is not a joke,” he said. They all came.

Many of the patients still have a long road ahead.

“I would be surprised if we did not see the death toll rise from this,” Dr. Cheatham said. “Of the six patients still in the ICU, many of them are recovering, but remain critically ill. One or two are profoundly ill. The big question is what their long-term outlook will be. My belief is that they will survive, but this will have a lasting impact.”

While numerous media outlets have been reporting that Mateen was a regular at Pulse, Colon said he had never seen him before.

“But it scared me knowing that somebody like this has been at this club,” he said. “Now, security has to be there all time. I don’t want to step back in there.”

‘He wasn’t gonna stop killing’

At Florida Hospital in Orlando, where several other shooting victims were taken, Angel Santiago and Patience Carter also spoke of their experiences.

Santiago said Pulse was a place where members of the gay community could feel safe. For Carter, it was her first time there. The 20-year-old was visiting from Philadelphia with friends, including 18-year-old Akyra Monet Murray, who was killed in the massacre. They picked Pulse because it had a 5-star rating online.

“The guilt of being alive is heavy,” said Carter, who was shot in the leg. “It went to having the time of our lives to the worst night.”

Carter said she was trapped in a bathroom with several victims that Mateen had shot and was holding hostage.

“The gunshots were still going off rapidly,” Carter said. “We were screaming at the top of our lungs.”

Santiago said he was hiding in a handicapped stall with 15-20 people, hearing gunfire, before the bullets blasted through the stall walls. He was hit in the foot.

“I wasn’t sure whose blood I was sitting in,” Santiago said.

Carter, who is black, said Mateen told those crouching in fear that he didn’t have a problem with blacks and that he had snipers outside.

She said she also heard Mateen on the phone pledging his allegiance to ISIS, presumably to a 911 operator.

“He said he wanted America to stop bombing his country,” Carter said. “At that point, the motive was clear to us, he wasn’t gonna stop killing people until he was killed.”

At that moment, Carter said she heard police rushing in. Mateen then hollered “Hey you,” to someone on the floor.

“He shot them, then shot another person, then shot another person,” Carter said.

Carter said the last person Mateen shot in that sequence shielded her from the bullets. She said she didn’t know the person, nor does she know if he survived.

“Thank you for saving my life,” she said.