One of the survivors of the nightclub shooting says she went from having the time of her life with her friends to the worst night of her life in a matter of minutes.

Twenty-year-old Patience Carter was partying with her friends Akyra Murray, 18, and Tiara Parker, at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida Saturday night when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire and killed 49 revelers in the gay club - including Murray, the youngest victim.

During a press conference on Tuesday at Florida Hospital Orlando, Carter recalled her memories of the shooting, read a poem about her survivor's guilt and revealed previously unreported details about how the gunman - including the fact that he promised not to shoot any black people because they had 'suffered enough'.

Philadelphia college student Patience Carter, 20, sobs on Tuesday as she describes her survivor's guilt at a press conference about the Orlando shooting

Carter suffered gun shot wounds to both legs. She was at the nightclub Saturday night with her friends Tiara Parker and Akyra Murray, who are cousins. Parker was injured; Murray didn't make it out alive

Carter, a college student in Philadelphia, says she was on vacation with Murray and Parker's family (Murray and Parker are cousins), and that Murray's parents dropped them off at the club that night for a girl's night out.

It was around 2am when the first gunshots were heard. At first, Parker says she thought the noise was some over-the-top way the club owners were trying to get everyone to leave.

'I was so confused. I was like, 'Wow, a club would do all of this just to get people to leave their club?'' she said. 'I thought it was a BB gun at first, or the DJ playing some sound of gunshots. I didn't think they were actually real gunshots.'

Nonetheless, Carter says the noise prompted a physical response and she dropped to the floor.

On the floor, she noticed her friends running to the bar, while she started reflexively scooting backwards - not aware that she was actually crawling out the exit.

Murray noticed where Carter was going and ran over from the bar to join Carter exiting the building.

Carter says shortly after Mateen started shooting inside the club, she and Murray actually escaped

Her biggest regret is not telling Murray to stay outside so she could go back in and get Parker

Carter says she was in the bathroom when Mateen came in and asked if any black people were hiding. Mateen reported said: 'I don't have a problem with black people. This is about my country. You guys suffered enough.'

Once they reached the safety outside, they realized that Parker didn't make it out of the building so they decided to risk both of their lives and reenter the club.

What makes Carter feel so guilty is that Murray was later shot and bled out from her injuries, and may have survived if only she had told her to stay outside while she went back in to get their friend.

Back inside the club, the three friends reunited and then sought shelter with some other men in a handicapped bathroom stall.

Mateen was quick to follow the victims into the bathroom though, and started unleashing a barrage of bullets - striking the man that had closed the door to their stall.

'We were all scrambling around in the bathroom, screaming at the top of our lungs,' Carter recalled.

Carter's friend Murray (pictured), the youngest victim of the shooting, was shot early on and bled out while she was help hostage for three hours

It was when Mateen stopped and left that she realized that she had been hit in the leg, and that her friends were shot too.

'At that point we knew that this wasn't a game. This was very real and this was something that was really happening to us right now.

'It was a shock. We went from having the time of our lives to the worst night of our lives all within a matter of minutes,' Carter said.

Carter says Mateen did eventually return to their stall and that they feared he was going to shoot them again.

But this time he called out and asked if there were any black people hiding behind the doors.

Carter was too afraid to respond, but another black person did, giving an affirmative.

Surprisingly, that caused Mateen to put away his weapon.

'I don't have a problem with black people,' Mateen reportedly said. 'This is about my country. You guys suffered enough.'

The notion that he 'didn't have a problem with blacks' is, however, contradicted by the fact that he had already shot a number of them that night and statements from ex-colleagues who said he was openly racist and continually making derogatory remarks about blacks and hispanics.

Carter says she also heard some of Mateen's phone conversations with police during the three-hour stand-off, recalling that he spoke in Arabic at a certain point, pledged an allegiance to ISIS and said he was carrying out the shooting to stop America from bombing his country. Mateen was born in New York and is a U.S. citizen, but both of his parents immigrated to the country from Afghanistan.

The shooting took place on Latin night and many of those killed were from Puerto Rico, which has a large expatriate community in Florida.

Mourners from West Catholic Preparatory High School, Murray's alma mater, embrace during a vigil in memory of the victims of the Orlando, shooting on Monday at City Hall in Philadelphia

Near the end of the standoff, police issued a warning to the survivors in the club, telling them to move away from the walls since they were going to break through.

It was then that Carter says Mateen made three final executions - including a man who was shielding her body.

After SWAT team's broke through the club walls, Carter says she as afraid she was going to drown 'in bloody water' since the force of the break-in caused the pipes to burst and blood was everywhere.

While some have questioned the three-hour wait to break into the club, Carter thinks that police did the right thing.

After being rescued, Carter learned that the bullets had shattered her right femur and also hit her left leg.

She continues to recover from her injuries at the hospital, alongside her friend Parker who is also on the mend.

Murray, however, did not make it. To deal with her survivor's guilt Carter has been writing in the hospital, and she shared one of her poems on Tuesday titled 'The guilt of being alive is heavy'.

She also says that she has spoken with Murray's mother who has assured her that she did nothing wrong.

'I was speaking to her mom and she told me to not feel guilty, God has his plan,' she said.

Murray's death came less than a week after she graduated third in her class of 42 students at West Catholic Preparatory High School in Philadelphia.

During her time in high school, Murray was a stand-out player on her basketball team, leading scoring with more than 1,000 points to her name.

She had recently signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania on a full scholarship.

ORLANDO NIGHTCLUB VICTIM PATIENCE CARTER PENS POEM ABOUT SURVIVING THE MASSACRE The guilt of feeling grateful to be alive is heavy. Wanting to smile about surviving but not sure if the people around you are ready, as the world mourns the victims killed and viciously slain,I feel guilty about screaming about my legs and pain...Because I could feel nothing Like the other 49, who weren't so lucky to feel this pain of mine. I never thought in a million years that this could happen. I never thought in a million years that my eyes could witness something so tragic. Looking at the souls leaving the bodies of individuals. Looking at the killer's machine gun throughout my right peripheral. Looking at the blood and debris covered on everyone's faces. Looking at the gunman's feet under the stall as he paces. The guilt of feeling lucky to be alive is heavy, it's like the weight of the oceans walls crushing uncontrolled by levies. It's like being drug through the grass with a shattered leg and thrown in the back of a Chevy. Being rushed to the hospital and told you're going to make it, when you laid beside individuals whose lives were brutally taken. The guilt of being alive is heavy. Advertisement

Angel Colon, one of the survivors of the Orlando nightclub massacre, recieves a kiss from his sister as he speaks to members of the press at the Orlando Regional Medical Center on Tuesday

Colon says he was getting ready to leave Pulse nightclub around 2am Sunday morning when gunman Omar Mateen arrived and starting shooting the revelers

Another survivor, Angel Colon, recalled his fear that night as he lay wounded on the floor of Pulse as people trampled him in their desperation to escape the club.

Speaking at the Orlando Regional Medical Center, the 26-year-old described how his fun night out with friends turned into a night of unfathomable horror when the gunman entered and started shooting.

'I had fallen down. I tried to get back up, but everyone started running anywhere. I got trampled over, and I shattered and broke my bones on my left leg,' he said.

'All I could do was just lay down there while everyone was just running on top of me trying to get to where they had to be,' Colon, his voice quivering, said.

'And all I could hear was the shots going one after another, and people screaming, people yelling for help.'

With three bullets in his leg and unable to run to safety as Mateen continued to fire bullets into the motionless bodies of those around him, Colon thought he was going to die.

He remembers Mateen leaving at one point – and hears more shots – but just as he began to feel safe, he hears the gunman return.

'I hear him come back, and he's shooting everyone that's already dead on the floor. Making sure they're dead,' Colon said.

'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 was shot twice more in his hand and again on the side of his hip.

Felipe Marrero, 30, left, poses in his hospital bed in Orlando on Monday in this picture taken by his friend Joseph Rivera, 34, right. Rivera said Marrero was hit four times in the back

Careful to not give away the fact that he was still not dead despite six bullets lodged inside him, he remained there - until police burst into the building three hours after the start of their ordeal.

A police officer dragged him to safety through broken glass, he said. 'I don't feel pain, but I just feel all this blood on me from myself, from other people.'

Other survivors were not ready to talk about their ordeal.

Felipe Marrero, a ride attendant at Universal Studios in Orlando, had been scheduled to speak to reporters but cancelled at the last minute, saying he was not ready.

His friend and colleague Luis Vielma, 22, was killed. Vielma had posted a group picture featuring Marrero on his Facebook page on Saturday, captioned: 'True friends who become family.'

Marrero survived four shots in the back, and the 30-year-old was barely able to sit up for a selfie with his friend Joseph Rivera, 24, who reunited with him at the hospital on Monday night.

His mother Jacqueline Perez sad she grieved for Vielma's family, but was relieved to discover her son had survived.

'I was so relieved,' she told NBC News. 'It's like seeing your baby all over again.'

Demetrice Naulings broke down in tears while telling reporters how he survived the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub that claimed the life of his best friend Eddie Justice.

'I'm not going to get a chance to get another friend like that anymore,' said Naulings. 'Eddie was my angel.'

Naulings, 34, described how he ran for the door holding Justice's hand as people all around them were shot.

In the scramble for the exit, the pair became separated, Demetrice realized with horror when he made it outside.

With bullets still hitting the walls inside, Eddie sent messages to his mother saying he was in the bathroom and that he was going to die.

Demetrice Naulings (right) broke down in tears while telling reporters how he survived the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub that claimed the life of his best friend Eddie Justice (left)