The deranged gunman who went on a homophobic rampage at an Orlando gay bar wanted to spare the lives of black people, according to one of the survivors.
Omar Mateen gunned down 102 people at Pulse Nightclub early Sunday. 49 people died and 53 were wounded during the bloodshed.
One of the survivors, Patience Carter, 20, recalled the horror inside one of the club’s bathrooms.
While hiding in one of the stalls, Carter heard Mateen speaking to hostage negotiators on his cell phone.
When he hung up, he “started speaking in Arabic” and then asked, “Are there any black people in here?” Carter said, according to CBS News.
Carter remained silent, but someone else in the bathroom spoke up.
“I don’t have a problem with black people,” Mateen reportedly said. “This is about my country. You guys suffered enough.”
Carter, who was celebrating a friend’s high school graduation at the club, said police shouted to hostages to move away from the walls so they could blast a hole in the bathroom.
But before police could begin blasting, Mateen executed three more people in the bathroom. She said one hostage died while shielding her from the bullets.
“He wasn’t going to stop killing people till he was killed,” she told reporters from Florida Hospital Orlando.
Mateen was killed when a SWAT team drove an armored vehicle through a wall and engaged him in a fierce firefight.
Carter’s girlfriend Akyra Murray, 18, was the youngest victim to die in the club massacre. Another friend, Tiara Parker, escaped the bloodshed.
Police rescued 30 people from the bathrooms. 26 victims remain in Orlando area hospitals. Six are in critical condition.
Doctors expect the death toll to rise.
