20 year old Patience Carter is one
of the few surviving witnesses to the last moments of the worst mass shooting
in American history.
Carter, had fled into the bathroom of Pulse nightclub during the Orlando
massacre, and as the situation was winding down, she said the gunman told
police negotiators on the phone that he pledged his allegiance to ISIS, and
that he wouldn't stop his assault until America stopped bombing his country.She
also said he tried to spare black people because according to him, they had
suffered enough..
Speaking at a press conference ,she narrated her horrifying ordeal
How did me and my friends end up at Pulse nightclub? Well,
we just got to Orlando, Florida, from Philadelphia the night before. So we just
got there. This is my first time ever being in Florida, first time ever being
in Orlando, first time ever being at Pulse nightclub.
How did we even get there? Akyra, who unfortunately is no longer here, Google
mapped popular clubs in Orlando and Pulse was the first one to come up. It had
five stars, and we were so excited. We were extremely excited.
So her mom and her dad drove us there. And we actually reached Pulse nightclub
outside of it around 11:50. But because we needed to go get changed to get
inside, we walked over to 7-11 together. So by the time we got to Pulse
nightclub it was probably a little after 12.
And at the door, they checked our IDs to make sure that we
were over 18. But the sweetest face greeted me right before I paid my $10. Her
name was Amanda. She was one of the victims who unfortunately did not make it.
She had glasses and her bang. I told her that her shoes were the cutest I've
ever seen.
She let me be her plus-one so I didn't have to pay. So when we entered
together, Amanda, Akyra and Tiara Parker, who's my best friend, we were all
having a good time for a short period of time before Amanda actually
disappeared. We don't even — we didn't remember what happened to her. She said
she was going to the bathroom because there are three parts of Pulse nightclub
as you all know now.
There's a patio that's outside. There's a middle section.
And there's an indoor — another indoor part where most of the live
entertainment takes place back there. And at first when we got in we were
hanging out in the middle section with Amanda.
And then when she went to the bathroom, we waited for awhile. But we realized
she didn't come back, so we just... we decided to go to the bathroom too
because we had to go to the bathroom, and we didn't see her in there.