A Miami man who survived the Pulse Nightclub massacre says he was shot during the fierce firefight between the gunman and police.
Miguel Leiva shot took Snapchat video of victims hiding in a bathroom stall as Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 in a rampage on June 12.
“He was laughing… a devilish laugh,” said Miguel Leiva, who was shot twice.
Leiva told Local10 News that he was visiting a girlfriend in Orlando when a friend invited him to Pulse.
He said the shooting started just before closing time. As bullets flew, Leiva and a small group of panicked partygoers rushed into the restroom where they huddled together for hours.
Leiva said the gunman yelled, “‘Everybody come out! Everybody’s gonna die!’ And as he kept shooting in the club, he kept laughing.”
“We just stood quiet, and everyone’s phone kept ringing,” he told Local10 from his hospital bed.
Levia said they recorded Snapchat video and sent the video to family so they could see people were trying to stay quiet.
“The only way we knew to let our families know ‘we’re okay, we’re okay,’ was just to record it and let them hear we’re trying to be quiet and send the video.”
He said there was one plastic cup in the bathroom. The cup was rinsed out and passed around so everyone could take a sip of water.
Mateen paused during the carnage to update his Facebook page.
“I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi.. may Allah accept me,” Mateen posted early Sunday morning. “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west” … “You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”
Leiva said Mateen ignored the people in the restroom — until hours later when he rushed in firing wildly after Orlando SWAT team blew a hole in the wall.
That’s when Leiva was shot twice in the leg.
A SWAT team drove an armored vehicle through a wall in the club, and engaged Mateen in a wild shootout.
“When we heard the first explosion, the gunman came from behind… and came in the bathroom and started shooting at the SWAT team through a hole they had just made,” said Leiva.
Several more people were killed in the bathroom during the gunfight.
Orlando police later admitted they may have inadvertently shot and killed some of the victims in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
After it was all over, the police assisted 30 victims out of the bathrooms. Leiva said they stepped over bodies on their way out.
