One of the survivors of the Orlando gay club massacre barely escaped with his life. Janiel Gonzalez says a man slammed an outside door to Pulse Nightclub blocking the exit and trapping at least 50 people in a narrow hallway.
Gonzalez the man slammed an door where employees normally enter and exit the club.
49 people died and 53 were wounded in the June 12 attack. Omar Mateen, 29, was killed by a SWAT team after he went on a rampage inside the club with an assault rifle.
Luis Burbano admitted he was the man behind the door that night. He defended his cowardly actions, saying he thought he was doing the right thing by shutting the door.
Burbano told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that he dropped to the floor when the shooting started. He said he saw people running through a curtain that hid the employee’s only exit door. On the other side of the door was a narrow hallway leading to an outside door.
Burbano estimates 20 people were crowded into the hallway crawling over each other trying to escape the gunfire.
He said he decided to shut the “employee’s only door” to ease the overcrowding in the hallway so the ones in the hallway could escape.
“There was banging, there was pushing of the door… but at that point in time, I just tried doing what I thought would be best at that moment because [the gunshots were] getting louder and getting closer.”
But Gonzales, who was in the hallway, disputes Burbano’s story.
He told ABC News that Burbano slammed the exit door to the outside and held it shut, preventing others from escaping.
“In a moment of desperation we were all crawling on the floor trying to find a place to exit,” said Gonzalez. “I looked to my right and I could see people going through some curtains. We were digging through the curtains and we finally see a door.”
“Fifty people were trying to jump over each other trying to exit the place. There was a guy holding the door and not letting us exit. He’s like ‘Stay inside, stay inside.’ As he is saying that, the shooter keeps getting closer and closer and the sound of the bullets is getting closer.”
Gonzalez added: “Everyone starts to panic. People are getting trampled. We’re shouting ‘Let us out, let us out!'”
Gonzalez said he feared the man was the killer’s accomplice.
“This guy is trying to prevent us from leaving. Maybe they’re working together,” Gonzalez said.
In another TV interview, Burbano said, “I don’t feel like even a survivor. I just feel like a person who had to do what they had to do in that moment in time.”
