Orlando Survivor: 'I Made Peace With God'

A woman describes the moment Omar Mateen started shooting inside the bathroom where she was hiding - before pausing to call 911.

Survivors of the Orlando massacre have recounted the moment they came face to face with killer Omar Mateen.

US-born security guard Mateen killed 49 people when he opened fire inside the gay nightclub Pulse in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Survivor Patience Carter described what she was thinking as the 29-year-old burst into the bathroom where she was hiding and began shooting indiscriminately.

"I made peace with God," she told reporters.

"'Just please take me. I don't want any more.' I was just begging God to take the soul out my body.



"The gunman entered the bathroom and is shooting his machine gun. So we're all scrambling around the bathroom, screaming at the top of our lungs.

"People are getting hit by bullets, blood is everywhere, and there was a moment where he stopped shooting in the bathroom and everyone looked around. That's when I realised my leg was shot."
Ms Carter heard Mateen, the son of Afghan immigrants, call 911.

"Everybody could hear it," said the 20-year-old, whose friend died in the attack.
"He said the reason he was doing this was because he wanted America to stop bombing his country.
"From the conversation, he pledged his allegiance to ISIS."



Another victim said he escaped death when the killer aimed at his head but hit his hand.

Appearing alongside doctors at Orlando Regional Medical Centre, Angel Colon said: "He's shooting everyone that's already dead on the floor, making sure they're dead.

"I was able to peek over and I can just see him shooting at everyone. I can hear the shotguns closer and I look over and he shoots the girl next to me.

"I'm just there laying down and I'm thinking, 'I'm next, I'm dead'.

"So I don't know how, but by the glory of God, he shoots towards my head but it hits my hand. And then he shoots me again and it hits the side of my hip."

Mr Colon said Mateen had continued hunting down victims "for another five, 10 minutes" in the club with "bodies everywhere".


He described the deafening gun battle as police exchanged fire, and said an officer eventually dragged him to safety across a floor of broken glass.

"I am looking up and some cop that I wish I could remember his face or his name, because to this day I'm grateful for him," he said.

"He looks at me, he makes sure that I'm alive.

"He grabs my hand and he's like, 'This is the only way I can take you out' ... I'm grateful for him but the floor is just covered in glass."

Other survivors have described the terror as people crowded into a bathroom cubicle as the gunman prowled for victims.

Norman Casiano told ABC's Local10 news how he crawled "military-style" into the toilets and joined about 10 people huddled in one stall.

"You hear the gunshots getting closer and closer and closer," said Mr Casiano.



"A gentlemen stumbles into the bathroom and collapses at the stall door and he's begging to come inside the stall.

"We're trying to get him in but he wouldn't fit underneath, the door wouldn't open because there are bodies piled up - everyone's hiding."

As the people in the cubicle tried to reassure the man, Mateen burst into the room, "shot him one last time", and laughed.

"He's laughing, that's when he fires through the whole front of the stall, just free-fired and that's when I got my first two wounds," said Mr Casiano.