Man who texted mom during Orlando shooting confirmed dead
(FoxNews.com) - As Omar Mateen swept the interior of Pulse nightclub in Orlando with gunfire, 30-year-old Eddie Justice sought shelter in a bathroom. Somehow, amid the chaos, he was able to text his mother, Mina.
Here is the conversation she had over text message with her 30-year-old son.
"Mommy I love you," the first message said. It was 2:06 a.m.
"In club they shooting."
Mina Justice tried calling her 30-year-old son. No answer.
Alarmed and half awake, she tapped out a response.
"U ok"
At 2:07 a.m., he wrote: "Trapp in bathroom."
Justice asked what club, and he responded: "Pulse. Downtown. Call police."
Then at 2:08: "I'm gonna die."
Now wide awake, Justice dialed 911.
She sent a flurry of texts over the next several minutes.
"I'm calling them now.
U still in there
Answer our damn phone
Call them
Call me."
The 911 dispatcher wanted her to stay on the line. She wondered what kind of danger her son was in. He was normally a homebody who liked to eat and work out. He liked to make everyone laugh. He worked as an accountant and lived in a condo in downtown Orlando.
"Lives in a sky house, like the Jeffersons," she would say. "He lives rich."
She knew he was gay and at a club -- and all the complications that might entail. Fear surged through her as she waited for his next message.
At 2:39 a.m., he responded:
"Call them mommy
Now."
He wrote that he was in the bathroom.
"He's coming
I'm gonna die."
Justice asked her son if anyone was hurt and which bathroom he was in.
"Lots. Yes," he responded at 2:42 a.m.
When he didn't text back, she sent several more messages. Was he with police?
"Text me please," she wrote.
"No," he wrote four minutes later. "Still here in bathroom. He has us. They need to come get us."
At 2:49 a.m., she told him the police were there and to let her know when he saw them.
"Hurry," he wrote. "He's in the bathroom with us."
She asked, "Is the man in the bathroom wit u?"
At 2:50 a.m.: "He's a terror."
Then, a final text from her son a minute later: "Yes."
Early Monday, Justice was confirmed to be among the 50 people killed in the worst mass shooting in modern American history, as city officials began releasing the names and ages of victims whose next of kin had been notified.
As of early Monday, 21 of the victims' identities, including that of Justice, had been posed on a city website. The other 20 confirmed victims are:
-- Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34
-- Stanley Almodovar III, 23
-- Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20
-- Juan Ramon Guerroro, 22
-- Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36
-- Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
-- Luis S. Vielma, 22
-- Kimberly Morris, 37
--Darryl Roman Burt II, 29
--Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32
--Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
--Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25
--Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35
--Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50
--Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
--Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
--Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
--Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
--Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
--Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old