Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Dispatcher records released Thursday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office give a second-by-second account of the night of last month’s mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub. Among the exchanges in the 35 pages released is an 18-year-old woman’s 25-minute conversation with a dispatcher while she lay on the floor of Pulse nightclub. She describes her fear and pain, then over time numbness spreading from her bullet wound in her arm to her leg. She describes losing her sight, then the line went dead. She “just keeps pleading,” a dispatcher reported at 2:37 a.m. “She does not want to die.” She told a dispatcher that “everyone in the bathroom is groaning in pain” and that “people are bleeding out.” She was one of the 49 people who were killed.
A new interview in the Orlando Sentinel also revealed that, in the last gun battle between officers and shooter Omar Mateen, 13 SWAT officers fired their weapons, according to the team’s commander. Officers opened fire after they blew a hole through a wall behind which Mateen was holding hostages, said Orlando Police Capt. Mark Canty. He told the Sentinel it was unclear who fired first or how many total shots were fired. Officials are still investigating the events, and will determine if any hostages were struck by friendly fire, he said. Five total breaches were blown through walls between two bathrooms after about 5 a.m., Canty said. Mateen emerged after most hostages were able to escape from those holes. The finaly gun battle began around 5:15 a.m. Of the SWAT members participating in that exchange, 10 Orlando police officers and three Orange County deputies were involved.
