Former Mass. man described playing dead during Orlando shooting
"I'm thinking, 'I'm next, I'm dead.'"
A former Massachusetts resident said he played dead to survive the Orlando nightclub shooting on Sunday morning.
During a press conference at Orlando Regional Medical Center on Tuesday, Angel Colon recounted his story of survival inside Pulse, the gay club where gunman Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people in what’s being called the worst mass shooting in American history.
Colon said he heard shots and started running. He said he was shot three times in the leg and fell down and couldn’t get up. People ran over him while trying to get away, he said. But Colon said he was forced to stay where he fell because he couldn’t walk on his injured leg.
Mateen went into another room and Colon heard more shooting. Then the gunman returned, he said.
“He’s shooting everyone that’s already dead on the floor, making sure they are dead,” said Colon. “I was able to peek over and I can just see him shooting at everyone … I look over and he shoots the girl next to me. And I’m just there laying down, I’m thinking, ‘I’m next, I’m dead.'”
Colon said Mateen then pointed a gun again in his direction.
“I don’t know how, but by the glory of God he shoots towards my head but it hits my hand and he then shoots me again and it hits the side of my hip,” Colon said. “I had no reaction. I was just prepared to just stay there, laying down, so he won’t know that I’m alive.”
Colon lived in Framingham for several years, according to The Boston Globe.
Two New England natives — Stanley Manolo Almodovar III and Kimberly ‘KJ’ Morris — were killed in the attack.
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