Eddie Justice: Orlando victim’s texts to mother as gunman came

Orlando Pulse nightclubber Eddie Justice was trapped in a nightclub bathroom when he contacted his mother Mina for the last time in a series of messages.

Justice ran into one of the club’s the bathrooms when Omar Mateen opened fire on the crowd early Sunday morning. Once he and the group were in the bathroom, he soon realized they were cornered. Eddie then texted his mother.

“Mommy I love you,” Justice starts, “In club they shooting.” Eddie’s mother, Mina, asked her son if he was OK.Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to put her concerns at ease. “Call them mommy…Now…I’m tell I’m bathroom…He’s coming…I’m gonna die.”

It’s a profoundly tragic string of texts, as you can feel Justice coming to the frantic realization that he was about to become one of the victims of this terrifying attack.

Eddie Justice, who was missing after texting with his mom during the Orlando attack, has been confirmed dead pic.twitter.com/UgY3GdWn8W

— BNO News (@BNONews) June 13, 2016

Mina said she went through hell as she stood outside the nightclub, trying as hard as she could to help her son. “I think it’s all of them in the bathroom. I could hear a lot of people crying,” she recalled. “He [Eddie] said, ‘He has us and he’s fixing to kill us.’ That was it.”

Mina, and many other friends and families of those inside the nightclub, waited outside the crime scene hoping to see their relatives leave unharmed. For many, that was sadly not the case. Mateen entered the club that had more than 300 people inside and began spraying bullets, leaving 50 dead, and 53 injured. When police and SWAT entered Pulse to try and rescue those who had been held hostage, Mateen exchanged fire with law enforcement until he was shot and killed as well.

Agencies/Canadajournal