ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0For Pulse survivor Orlando Torres, it is hard to believe nearly 10 years have passed since the nightclub shooting. But it only takes a second for him to remember what he went through inside the club that night, hiding in a bathroom stall as the gunman moved through the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree-and-a-half hours felt like three-and-a-half days to be saved,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
At one point, Torres thought he was going to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it was his fingers or gun, I don\u2019t know, but I know he walked around and saw my body laying underneath there and I just froze there,\u201d Torres said. \u201cI was expecting my whole back to be riddled with bullets \u2014 but thank God he left me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres was not shot, but he was injured when law enforcement eventually rescued him through a narrow hole in the nightclub\u2019s outer wall \u2014 one of several holes law enforcement made to reach survivors trapped inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe holes in the walls where the last survivors were saved, it was like a gateway \u2014 not a gateway to heaven but to freedom \u2014 and shows what we went through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Torres said he believes his background helped him survive. He previously worked in law enforcement in New York and spent years in security. When he heard the first gunshots, he knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hearing it constantly, and I\u2019m like, that don\u2019t sound right \u2014 that popping doesn\u2019t sound right,\u201d Torres said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was my experience as a law enforcement officer in New York, or in security 20 years, I don\u2019t know, I just automatically locked that door, laid down on that toilet bowl with my feet up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those memories made it difficult for Torres to watch crews tear down the Pulse nightclub building earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurt to see it being torn down because along with that goes a lot of great memories \u2014 besides for what happened that June 12th \u2014 of a gunman who came in and terrorized everybody just because they wanted to dance, and take as many lives as he could,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
Torres had helped organize the Latin night event that brought people together that infamous night. Despite the trauma, he said the attack has not stopped him from going out and living his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree or four times, my life flashed in front of me in that restroom, and it wasn\u2019t my time,\u201d Torres said. \u201cYou have a date and time \u2014 we all don\u2019t know. And because of that, you don\u2019t stop enjoying life. That\u2019s why I love that phrase \u2018Keep Dancing Orlando\u2019 because if you don\u2019t, they won. So, \u2018Keep Dancing Orlando’.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres is also making the most of his second chance by doing work he said helps save others. He now works as a driver, often delivering lifesaving organs to hospitals.<\/p>\n
On every trip, time matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a mission to get this to a place in a timely manner because patients are on standby, ready for surgery that same day, or the following day, and you can\u2019t delay,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
He said he equips his vehicle at his own expense to make sure each delivery is handled professionally and arrives on time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do it with my heart. It\u2019s giving back,\u201d Torres said. \u201cGod gave me that second chance, and thank God I\u2019m alive to do what I\u2019m doing right now. I\u2019m doing something worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0For Pulse survivor Orlando Torres, it is hard to believe nearly 10 years have passed since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,274,770,12716,115,1335,768,139,141,140,16956,278,835],"class_list":["post-302024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-jeff-allen","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}