Trapped In The Bathroom: Orlando Shooting Victim Captures Pulse Massacre On Tape
Orlando shooting victim Miguel Leiva disobeyed gunman Omar Mateen's orders to come out of Pulse nightclub's bathroom during the deadly events on Sunday, instead capturing cell phone footage of the massacre.
"Fifteen or 20 of us, maybe even 30 of us, stayed in the stall," the Miami native, who had been visiting his girlfriend in Orlando, told ABC's local 10 News.
According to the victim, one of the 53 injured, nightclub hostages stayed in that bathroom for nearly four hours.
"We just stayed quiet, and everybody's phone kept ringing," Leiva revealed. "The only way we knew to, like, let our families know, you know, we're OK, we're OK, was just to record it and let them hear that we're trying to be quiet and send the video."
As he waited in the stalls with dozens of other victims, Leiva sent videos to his distraught girlfriend. He later suffered two gunshots wounds before the rescue SWAT team dragged him from the scene.
"We were just waving our hands so they can see that we're alive, but we were still trying to be quiet. So, finally, they start pulling people out, and it was so bad, like, we had to step over bodies," Leiva said, adding tearfully of those who died, "Half of those people were in the bathroom with me ."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Mateen opened fire inside Pulse at about 2 a.m. Sunday, killing 49 people, and injuring 53 using an assault rifle.
The crazed killer called 911 during the brutal attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and even made mention of the Boston Marathon bombing, CNN reported.