Survivor shot as she cowered in cubicle said gunman tried to spare black victims – because they ‘had suffered enough’
Terror fanatic Omar Mateen killed 49 people when he opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando on Saturday night
ISIS gunman Omar Mateen promised not to shoot any black people because they had 'suffered enough', a traumatised survivor has revealed.
The terror fanatic murdered 49 people when he opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando on Saturday night.
But survivor Patience Carter said crazed Mateen told her during a tense stand-off: "I don't have a problem with black people...This is about my country.
"You guys suffered enough."
The student sobbed as he described how she watched helplessly as her friend Akyra Murray, 18, bled to death after being shot while hiding in a toilet cubicle.
Minutes earlier they had been having the time of their lives as they partied with pals at the Pulse club.
Miss Carter, a college student in Philadelphia, says she was on holiday with Miss Murray and victim Tiara Parker's family when she witnessed America's deadliest attack since 9/11.
They had been dropped off by a parent and were enjoying their girls' night out.
Describing hearing gunshots around 2am, Miss Carter said: "'I was so confused. I was like, 'Wow, a club would do all of this just to get people to leave their club?'' she said. 'I thought it was a BB gun at first, or the DJ playing some sound of gunshots.
"I didn't think they were actually real gunshots.'"
She dropped to the floor and started crawling to their exit before heading over to join her friend Miss Carter.
But they realised their friend Miss Parker didn't make it out of the building so they decided to go back in to try to find her.
The three friends reunited in the club before hiding in a toilet cubicle.
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However, Mateen followed the victims into the bathroom and began unleashing a barrage of bullets - hitting the man that had shut the door.
Miss Carter recalled: "'We were all scrambling around in the bathroom, screaming at the top of our lungs."
It was only when the gunman left that the student realised she had been shot in the leg.
Miss Carter added: "At that point we knew that this wasn't a game.
"This was very real and this was something that was really happening to us right now.
"It was a shock. We went from having the time of our lives to the worst night of our lives all within a matter of minutes."
Mateen returned to the cubicle and urged her to come out of the cubicle as "he didn't have a problem with black people".
He added: "This is about my country. You guys suffered enough."
Mateen was eventually gunned down by armed cops after a three-hour stand-off.
Miss Carter suffered a shattered right leg but her pal Miss Murray tragically bled to death.
Orlando nightclub massacre Patience Carter writes poem about surviving America's worst terror attack since 9/11
The guilt of feeling grateful to be alive is heavy. Wanting to smile about surviving but not sure if the people around you are ready, as the world mourns the victims killed and viciously slain,I feel guilty about screaming about my legs and pain...Because I could feel nothing
Like the other 49, who weren’t so lucky to feel this pain of mine. I never thought in a million years that this could happen.
I never thought in a million years that my eyes could witness something so tragic.
Looking at the souls leaving the bodies of individuals.
Looking at the killer's machine gun throughout my right peripheral.
Looking at the blood and debris covered on everyone's faces.
Looking at the gunman's feet under the stall as he paces.
The guilt of feeling lucky to be alive is heavy, it's like the weight of the oceans walls crushing uncontrolled by levies. It's like being drug through the grass with a shattered leg and thrown in the back of a Chevy.
Being rushed to the hospital and told you're going to make it, when you laid beside individuals whose lives were brutally taken.
The guilt of being alive is heavy.
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