Heartbreaking Last Texts From a Victim to His Mother Show Just How Terrifying the Orlando Shooting Was

This is devastating.

21 March, 2018
Heartbreaking Last Texts From a Victim to His Mother Show Just How Terrifying the Orlando Shooting Was

​While the world continues to grieve the victims of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, the friends and family of those who are still unaccounted for are holding out hope that their loved ones made it out alive. In one very heartbreaking story, Orlando mother Mina Justice tells the ​Associated Press​ that she was sound asleep on Saturday night when she began to receive a series of terrifying text messages from her son, Eddie.

"Mommy I love you," the first one read. "In club they shooting."

After trying to call him with no response, she quickly texted back. From there, she found out that her 30-year-old son was trapped in the women's bathroom at Pulse, a gay club downtown. Her son told her to call the police.

"I'm gonna die," he wrote. "He's coming. I'm gonna die."

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Justice quickly called 911 and sent multiple texts and calls to her son, with no response. The 911 dispatcher requested that she stay on the line in order to get more information, and when Justice asked her son if anyone had been hurt, he responded, "Lots. Yes." Justice then texted him several more times to find out if he was with police, or still in the bathroom.

"Still here in the bathroom," he responded. "He has us. They need to come get us."

Soon after, police showed up at the scene, and Justice told Eddie to text her as soon as he found them — but instead, he responded asking for help again.

"Hurry," he texted. "He's in the bathroom with us."

"Is the man in the bathroom wit u?" Justice asked.

"He's a terror," Eddie responded, before he sent his final text message a minute later. "Yes."

Since then, Justice has not heard from her son, and still does not know if he survived the shooting.

"His name has not come up yet and that's scary," she told the ​Associated Press​. "It's just ... It's just, I got this feeling. I got a bad feeling."

As of now, 50 people were killed and over 50 were injured in this senseless and terrible massacre, the worst in U.S. history. Police estimate that around 320 people were in the club at the time of the shooting, but it is unclear at this time how many victims are still unaccounted for. 

Credit: Cosmopolitan
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