I arrived at Pulse nightclub probably around 12.30 and I was there with two other friends and we just were having a good time, dancing, talking, and toward the end of the night we moved toward the rear bar. We had a Latin bar section and a hip-hop bar section.

So toward the rear of the building, that’s where I ended up with my friends, and right around two o’clock, right around when they stop serving alcohol, that’s when we heard the first round of shots go off. Immediately my friend and I fell to the ground to take cover. My initial thoughts were maybe there was an altercation, it was personal, so stay to the ground until it’s over.

But then we heard additional rounds going off, so at that point my friend and I ran to the bathroom in the rear. There was a bathroom on the left and the right. The bathroom on the left had a large handicapped stall, which we knew about, so we ran in there, and when we arrived there were already people hiding in the handicapped stall.

We continued to hear gunfire. We dropped to the ground in the handicapped stall. I hid as best as I could underneath the sink. There wasn’t much protection there but I felt it was better than nothing. My friend Jeff was in front of me; there were a couple of other people surrounding us; but I believe overall about 15 or 20 people in that handicapped stall, just hiding.

So we just continued to hear gunfire and I just remember thinking, when is it going to stop, because if it was personal, usually that shouldn’t last too long. I just kept hearing gunfire over and over and over again. They kept getting louder, closer, and I could actually start to smell – I don’t know, I guess it’s gunpowder, I’m not sure. It kind of smells like when firecrackers go off.

We were all trying to be as quiet as possible. We didn’t want to attract attention. But the gunfire kept getting closer and closer and at one point everyone’s just like, ‘Shhh, shhh, be quiet, be quiet’, and that’s when bullets start coming through the stall wall towards us. I can’t recall exactly how many bullets but it sounded like he had loaded.

I was hit by a bullet in my left foot, my right knee, I thought I was shot a third time but it ended up being a graze. My friend who was with me was hit as well. His injuries are worse than mine. Overall there was just a lot of blood, a lot of people hit, and even some fatalities which were apparent almost immediately. Everyone was just panicking.

After the shots stopped, we were just trying to be as quiet as possible because we didn’t want to attract him back to us. We remained down, trying to assess the situation, I dialed 911 a few times, trying to explain to the operator what was occurring, what was going on, while continuing to hear gunfire.

Some time went by and it quietened down a little bit. I finally heard the police arrive. I heard the police yelling, ‘Drop it! Hands up!’ and I don’t know what was going on. Eventually things quieted down some more. I was bleeding, my friend Jeff was bleeding a lot, I was on the ground in a pool of blood; I wasn’t sure whose it was but I felt like it was my friend Jeff. He was, overall, in a bad condition.

My thought process was, do we stay here and wait for the shooter to come back, or do we try to leave? So I tried moving so I could exit underneath the stall but then people were, ‘Stay here, don’t leave, you will get killed.’ So I stayed there for a little while longer but everything just quieted down and all I heard was police chatter on the radio from the distance. I didn’t hear any more gunfire.

At that point I decided to, little by little, drag myself underneath the stall, to exit the handicapped stall where we were. Once I got out of there, I saw that there was a body in front of the door on the opposite side. I didn’t see anyone else around. I couldn’t walk so I had to drag myself out of the bathroom towards the bar area where I was initially, until I actually saw the face of a police officer.

When I finally saw an officer I had a cellphone in my hand and I started waving the light so he could see me. At that point the officers instructed me: lift my hands, drop whatever I had in my hands, drag myself towards them. I yelled, I said there are people shot, there are people who were killed in the bathroom who need your help, but they weren’t coming near me. They told me to drag myself toward them.

Once I got, I guess, close enough, a couple of the Swat grabbed me by the arms and dragged me outside. At that point I was just telling them my friend was shot, there are several people there who I believe are dead, and there are at least 15 people in there, we need your help. At that point they asked me instructions on exactly where the bathroom was. After I told them, they put me in an ambulance brought me here.

By the time I got to the hospital, they said my blood pressure was already very low. I was dizzy, cold, they gave me two units of blood to kind of stabilise me, and after that I’ve just been here. Thankfully eventually I heard my friend Jeff, he was in a critical condition but as of last night he’s stable. I’m just grateful to be alive because after seeing what occurred, I don’t even know how I’m alive today.