ORLANDO, Fla. (WHDH) — Dozens of survivors remain hospitalized following the mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando and some are describing what they saw as the gunman opened fire.
Norman Casiano said he can still hear the gunshots and bullets hitting the floor. He described the gunman as laughing as he ran through the Pulse Nightclub, shooting everyone.
“It wasn’t like a multiple laugh, it’s like a villain in a movie,” said Casiano. “It was a laugh of satisfaction, like, I’m doing what I came here to do.”
Dozens of people hid in the club’s bathrooms, hoping the shooter would not follow them. But survivors said he went into the bathrooms and kept shooting and occasionally stopped to make several calls to 911.
[Authorities try to piece together Orlando killer’s movements]
“Everybody could hear who was in the bathroom, who survived, could hear him talking to 911 saying that the reason why he’s doing this is because he wants America to stop bombing his country,” said Patience Carter. She said she also heard the gunman speaking in Arabic but was not sure to whom.
Carter said the gunman also asked if any black people were in the bathroom.
“He responded to him saying that, ‘You know, I don’t have a problem with black people, this is about my country, you guys suffered enough,” said Carter.
About 30 people remain hospitalized, with at least six in critical condition.
[GOP scrambles to distance itself from Trump on Orlando]
President Obama will visit Orlando Thursday.
The White House says President Obama’s visit is about offering comfort and support to a community that’s grieving.
Spokesman Josh Earnest says many details about the president’s trip are still being worked out, but Obama will meet with and offer condolences to the families of those who were killed and will seek to comfort those who survived.
Earnest tells reporters at Wednesday’s press briefing that the president will also meet with first responders, doctors and nurses who acted heroically to try and save innocent lives. He says their efforts were successful in saving dozens of people, and the president wants to thank them personally.
Earnest says the trip will be an emotional one for Obama and that he will speak publicly about the experience.
A newly unearthed documentary clip shows Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen talking cynically about people who make money off disasters.
The clip from 2012’s “The Big Fix” shows Mateen chatting with an undercover film crew while working as a security guard at a BP oil spill cleanup site on the Florida panhandle.
Mateen tells a woman who pulls up to his guard booth that everyone is “hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain so they’ll have the jobs.”
Security firm G4S confirmed Wednesday that the guard in the clip is Mateen.
[Oversight of private security guards varies by state]
G4S spokeswoman Sarah Booth says Mateen was stationed in Pensacola, Florida, for several months in 2010 to assist with the oil spill cleanup.
“The Big Fix” chronicles the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill that sent more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
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