Orlando shooting: Man shot four times played dead to survive

Orlando: Felipe Marrero wakes up in his hospital bed at night still thinking he smells gunpowder, nearly a week after the shooting rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It’s just one of the ways the 30-year-old has suffered after being shot four times in his back and left arm during the attack last Sunday morning that left 49 victims dead and more than 50 wounded. The gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, also was killed in a firefight with police. [caption id=“attachment_2842164” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Felipe Marrero poses in his hospital bed in Orlando. AP[/caption] “It’s the same smell that was in the club that night,” Merrero said in an interview Friday from his hospital bed at Orlando Regional Medical Center. The shock among the city’s residents was turning to grief as families buried their loved ones in cemeteries across the city. With more funerals planned in coming days, the city adorned with “Orlando Strong” banners has been coming together to support each other. “It’s amazing how the community is getting so close,” said Monica Roggiero, outside the funeral of shooting victim Anthony Luis Laureano Disla. While some of the dead are buried, the wounded continue trying to heal physically and mentally. Marrero said he was just about to leave the club about 2 am Sunday when he heard the shooting start. He was near the front door, close to the shooter, so he couldn’t leave through the club’s only exit. He fell to the floor. His friend, Luis Vielma, standing next to him was shot and killed. Marrero lifted the edge of a couch near where he was lying and put his head underneath it. “I covered myself, and laid on the ground for at least 30 minutes not trying to make any sudden movements,” he said. “I was just trying to play dead.” Another 30 to 40 minutes passed. “People were yelling, screaming.” The head of a man lying next to him had been blown apart. Bodies were everywhere, including his good friend Luis’. “And the smell of the place was horrible like gunpowder and you just smelled death in the air,” he said. He said the shots stopped for a while and he noticed the police were outside. The police’s flashing lights started coming into the club, he said, and officers were telling everyone to stay on the ground. Marrero said Mateen would lie among the bodies for a time so police couldn’t see him. The shots stopped, as though Mateen were reloading, Marrero said. Next, Mateen shot Marrero, hitting his lower back and left arm.