ORLANDO, Fla. — Nearly a decade after the Pulse nightclub shooting, survivor Keinon Carter says he is still carrying both the emotional and physical scars from that night.
Carter was critically injured in the June 12, 2016, attack. He said that in the hours after the shooting, his family was told to say their goodbyes.
Despite being declared dead at one point, Carter said his sister, who was holding his hand at the hospital, refused to let him go.
“She didn’t stop. ‘Hey, wake up. Are you there?’” Carter said. “She did what she was supposed to do. She checked. She saw signs. I replied — she asked for another sign, and I replied again.”
Carter survived, but said his recovery has been long and painful.
“I’m just thankful I’m still here,” he said.
Carter was shot in the leg and through the stomach, and spent about a month in a coma. When he regained consciousness, one of the first people he asked about was his friend, Antonio Brown, who had gone to Pulse with him that night.
Carter said he has very little memory of exactly what happened, but believes Brown, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, shielded him from bullets in the club. Brown did not survive.
“When I opened my eyes at the hospital, the first person I thought about was him — ‘Is he OK? How’s he doing?’” Carter said. “And it still hurts to this day not being able to just say my respects.”
Spectrum News first met Carter in the months after the shooting, when he was still using a wheelchair and trying to process what he had endured.
He remembers the moment he pushed himself to begin walking again.
“I decided to walk to my front door,” Carter said. “That was me saying, ‘Get up.’”
In the years since the attack, Carter has also dealt with the loss of his mother and younger sister. He said there have been dark days, but he has continued moving forward one day at a time.
“You only have two choices in life,” Carter said. “If I would’ve sat down in that wheelchair and felt sorry for myself, I could’ve went the other way. But I chose to fight. I chose to swim. And I wanted better for myself. That’s what kept me going.”
Carter said he is disappointed it has taken so long to build a permanent memorial for the 49 people killed at Pulse.
“I’m not that pressed to even go see it — it’s not even on my mind,” he said. “I do want to go and be in support of the mothers and the families of the 49 and make sure they are alright and like it. But 10 years — I never thought a mass shooting took this long to put a memorial up.”
While Carter continues to work through the emotional trauma, his physical recovery is also still ongoing. He has had more than 60 abdominal surgeries, and said his next one could help restore parts of his life that most people take for granted.
“Now, my body’s going to be able to digest all the way through,” Carter said.
He also hopes it will allow him to do something he has not been able to do since the shooting.
“I haven’t been able to sleep on my stomach in 10 years,” he said. “A real relaxing-on-your-pillow type.”
Carter said he is grateful that Orlando Health forgave his and other survivors’ medical bills, and he remains thankful for the care he received.
“I’m thankful for all the nurses, doctors and everybody at Orlando Health that had a hand on making sure I stayed alive,” he said.
Now, Carter is focused on moving forward. After years of experience in the hospitality industry, he is working on turning his love of cooking into a business.
“I’ve got the idea already in my mind,” he said, laughing. “So I can’t really tell y’all on TV before somebody steals it.”
Carter said he hasn’t been able to visit Brown’s grave, but wants to later this year.
REMEMBERING PULSE
Ten years ago minus one day, the city of Orlando was dealing with a tragedy. Late Friday night, June 10th, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after a concert at The Plaza Live at Colonial Plaza, just east of downtown Orlando. The Saturday morning news was overflowing about the horrific murder of a young celebrity in The City Beautiful’s own backyard. It was incomprehensible that someone would do such a thing, and then the incomprehensible was followed by the unimaginable. Some 27 and a half hours after Grimmie’s murder, another gunman opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub on South Orange Avenue in the SODO section of Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 58 others. When daylight came, the numbers were staggering.
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