An Orlando man says he played dead for five minutes as a gunman opened fire just feet away from him inside Pulse nightclub early Sunday morning, WSB-TV reported.
Marcus Godden was one of hundreds of people who were inside the club when Omar Mateen, 29, started what would become the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
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Godden says he was at the bar when he heard dozens of gunshots.
“I fell to the floor. People are just, oh my Lord, people are just falling on the floor. Blood is here; blood is there,” he said.
Godden says he saw Mateen with a handgun and rifle in his hands.
“He just stood there with this look on his face,” Godden said.
Godden says he could smell the gunpowder and his ears are still ringing from the rounds being sprayed throughout the club.
“I played dead for about five minutes. He was shooting, shooting. I could hear him in another room, hear people screaming. I'm getting stepped on,” Godden said.
On the floor next to him, he said there were multiple gunshot victims.
“(I told them), ‘It’s going to be OK. Get out and get away. We are in this together. If we die together, we die together,’” he said.
Godden said when the gunman barged into another room, he jumped over a wall and sprinted to the 7/Eleven across the street, not knowing if others would follow his lead.
“I don't know if they made it out or not, but I managed to talk to two and as I was running I was hoping they would be behind me,” he said.
By the time the massacre ended hours later, Mateen had fired 202 rounds inside the nightclub, killing 49 and wounding at least 53 others.
Godden says now all he can do is pray for the lives lost and their families.
Read more at WSB-TV
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