The world stopped for a while yesterday when a shooter murdered 50 clubbers and injured another 53 in a gay club in Orlando, Florida.
You may have seen the footage or images of the texts that one clubber, 30-year-old Eddie Justice, sent to his mother as he was trapped in the bathroom of the club. Today, Eddie Justice was listed as one of the 50 lives lost in the shooting.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Justice texted his mother telling her he loved her and asking her to call the police as she arrived outside the nightclub to look for him.
The shooter, Omar Mateen, entered the nightclub at around 2am local time, armed with an assault rifle, handgun and explosive device. Witnesses said he fired relentlessly, firing 20 rounds, to 40, then 50 and more.
Justice texted his mother, “I’m gonna die” as Mateen, discovered Justice and a group of his friends in the bathroom and cornered them.
Justice’s mother Mina told WOFL news, “I think it’s all of them in the bathroom. I could hear a lot of people crying,” as she recalled a phone conversation she had with her son.
She told the station that during the conversation, she made him text rather than continuing the call because he was fearful he was going to look at the shooter and get shot.
“[Eddie] said, “He has us and he’s fixin’ to kill us. That was it,”‘ Mina told the station.
Justice was an accountant, and his mother described him as someone who loved to make people laugh.
He was only one of 50 others lost in the biggest mass murder in U.S. history. Read about the other victims here.