Club-goers helped each other as they fled the gunfire
By Noreen O'Donnell ••
Luis Burbano felt his bones shake when bullets started flying early Sunday at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. At first, he thought it was part of the music. Burbano, who rushed to the aid of the injured, is now unable to sleep and struggling to understand why he was spared.
Luis Burbano had escaped from the bullets flying across the dance floor at the Pulse nightclub into a narrow alley and through a hole in a fence when he stopped to help a young man who collapsed in front of him.
"I grabbed him not realizing that his forearm was split in two," Burbano told CNN. "Then I realized he had a gash on his side as well."
Burbano quickly took off his shirt to use as a tourniquet and, as he talked to the young man to keep him calm, he realized another man was pacing back and forth. And that man had a bullet in his leg, he said.
"I did a tourniquet really quick on him as well," said Burbano, an employee of Florida International University, according to his Facebook page. "I had them both by my side until the paramedics came."
Stories of bravery like Burbano's are emerging from the terror in Orlando, Florida, that began inside the gay nightclub around 2 a.m. Sunday when 29-year-old Omar Mateen, armed with what authorities said was an assault rifle and a handgun, opened fire. At least 49 people were killed and dozens wounded by the time Mateen was killed by a SWAT team.
His motive for attacking the club is still under investigation, authorities say. In a 911 call immediately before the slaughter, Mateen swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. His father told NBC News that Mateen had been infuriated earlier when he saw two men kissing.
Joshua McGill, a nursing student, wrote on his Facebook page that as he hid under a car with a man who had been shot, he tied shirts over the wounds to stop the bleeding.
"[A]nd got him secretly to the nearest officer who then transported us to the ER," he wrote. "Words cannot and will not describe the feeling of that. Being covered in blood.. Trying to save a guy's life that I don't even know regardless that I'm fine..just traumatized."
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Nicole Edwards and her wife Kellie Edwards observe a moment of silence during a vigil outside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for the mass shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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People hold candles during an evening memorial service for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shootings, at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. The shooting at Pulse Nightclub, which killed 49 people and injured 53, is the worst mass-shooting event in American history.
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Demetrice Naulings cries while recalling how he survived the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub that claimed the life of his friend Eddie Justice, June 14, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. "I'm not going to get a chance to get another friend like," said Naulings. "Eddie was my angel."
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Angel Colon, a victim of the Pulse nightclub shooting, is kissed by his sister while attending a news conference at the Orlando Regional Medical Center, June 14, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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Orlando, second from right, and his family attend a vigil and church service held at Joy Metropolitan Community Church near the Pulse nightclub. Orlando, who declined to give his last name, was at Pulse, trapped for three hours in a bathroom.
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David Rivera holds a rainbow flag at the site of a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting, June 12, 2016, in Atlanta. The vigil was organized by members of the city's large LGBT community.
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A man attends a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre on June 13, 2016, in Sydney, Australia.
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Family members wait for word from police after arriving down the street from a shooting involving multiple fatalities at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida,, June 12, 2016.
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Bomb disposal officers check for bombs at an apartment complex possibly linked to the fatal shootings at an Orlando nightclub, June 12, 2016, in Fort Pierce, Florida.
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Angel Mendez, standing outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center, holds up a cell phone photo trying to get information about his brother Jean C. Mendez that was at the Pulse Nightclub where a shooting involving multiple fatalities occurred, June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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A police officer stands guard outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center hospital after a fatal shooting at a nearby Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016.
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An injured man is escorted out of the Pulse nightclub after a shooting rampage, June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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Donors lineup to donate blood following a mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub.
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People wait outside the emergency entrance of the Orlando Regional Medical Center hospital after a shooting involving multiple fatalities at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016.
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Emergency personnel wait with stretchers at the emergency entrance to Orlando Regional Medical Center hospital for the arrival of patients from the scene of a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016.
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Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the LGBT Center of Central Florida, center, is comforted by Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, right, after a shooting involving multiple fatalities at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016.
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President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement on the mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub in the White House Briefing Room in Washington, DC on June 12, 2016.
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Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, second from right, and Orlando Police Chief John Mina arrive to a news conference after a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016.
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Jermaine Towns, left, and Brandon Shuford wait down the street from a multiple shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016. Towns said his brother was in the club at the time.
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Orlando police officers are seen outside of Pulse nightclub after a fatal shooting and hostage situation on June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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FBI assistant special agent in charge Ron Hopper, center, answers questions from members of the media after a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016. Listening are Orlando Police Chief John Mina, left, and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
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An Orange County Sheriff's Department SWAT member arrives to the scene of a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Sunday, June 12, 2016.
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Members of the Orlando City Fire Rescue seen around Pulse nightclub after a fatal shooting and hostage situation on June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
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ORLANDO, FL - JUNE 12: FBI agents investigate near the damaged rear wall of the Pulse Nightclub where Omar Mateen allegedly killed at least 50 people on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The mass shooting killed at least 50 people and injuring 53 others in what is the deadliest mass shooting in the countryu00d5s history. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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Bystanders wait down the street from a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016.
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Brandon Shuford, left, waits down the street from the scene of a shooting involving multiple fatalities at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016.
The man was later identified as Rodney Sumter, a bartender at Pulse who was struck in his arms and back. On Monday morning one of his cousins wrote to McGill to say that Sumter was in good spirits, waiting for surgery.
"Thank you so much for saving his life," Trina Brown Linning wrote. "If you had not stopped to help him, he could have easily bled to death. God bless you and your family."
Christopher Hansen describes what he did to help save someone’s life.
Christopher Hansen, a newcomer to Orlando, thought at first that the shooting was part of the music.
"I looked over and I saw bodies falling, people screaming," he said. "The person next to me was shot and the blood splattered and then I fell down."
When he got out of the club, he took off his bandanna for a man whose pant leg was drenched in blood, he told NBC News.
A DJ at the club, Ray Rivera or DJ Infinite, mistook the shooting for firecrackers until he turned off the music, he told The Daily Beast. When club-goers began to scream and run, he ducked behind his DJ booth and was quickly joined by a man and a woman. The man made a run for it, but Rivera helped the woman escape.
"I never imagined I would be at anything like this," he told The Daily Beast. "It was so terrible."
Emilie Plesset contributed research for this article.
