The Boy Who Texted His Mom 'He's Coming, I'm Going To Die', Is Among Those Dead #Orlando Shooting

Love will always win. 

We need to keep reminding ourselves of this. Over and over again. Because we can't let hate win. We can't let Omar Mateen win.

The city of Orlando recently released the official list of 49 victims of the Orlando shooting. 49 innocent people who lost their lives because one man couldn't accept their faith - the faith to love someone from their own gender.

AP

One victim was Eddie Justice, the 30-year-old son of Mina Justice who received frantic texts from her son before he was gunned down at the Pulse nightclub. His name is now forever recorded on the list of the confirmed dead. 

WFTV

The LGBTQ community remains stronger than ever, and we share that solidarity with them. 

Love will always win.

He Was Laughing Fanatically', Recalls One Survivor Who Was Shot 4 Times By The Orlando Shooter

Norman Casiano, 26, was the only survivor who found his way back to safety while being held hostage in the club's bathroom in Orlando. Out of the thirty people the shooter gunned down, Casiano was definitely the luckiest to have survived.

CNN

Casiano was shot four times by Omar Mateen but managed to crawl over his friends' bodies to safety, reports Daily Mail. Casiano, who was released from the hospital a day later, has recalled how Mateen behaved while killing the innocents.

Myspace

Upon hearing the first two gunshots, Casiano had crawled into the bathroom where others had hid to avoid the fire. 

Casiano told Local 10 News, "I started crying and at that point a gentleman stumbles into the bathroom, collapses in front of the stall door and he's bleeding everywhere and he's begging to come inside the stall." The man couldn't fit through and was soon shot down by Mateen.

EPA

"The scary part was that he didn't say anything, and what's scarier than that when he shot the boy that was already shot, he laughed. And as he's laughing as he fires through the whole front of the stall. That's when I got my first wound," Casiano added.

Mateen killed nearly 30 people in that bathroom. 

"He was laughing fanatically as he sprayed people with the gun," Casiano told her. "He was going "ha, ha, ha" as he shot them," Casiano said. 

AFP

Casiano crawled his way out through the same hole which Mateen used later, to meet his certain death. "I'm not the shooter, I'm a victim, I'm a victim," Casiano had shouted to the armed police waiting on the other end of the hole.

While Orlando Shooting Made Global Headlines, 224 People Were Killed In Syria In One Week And Nobody Is Talking About It

The Saturday night carnage at the Pulse night club in Orlando Florida was rightly condemned across the world, in another corner of the  world, a massacre is happening and no one seems to be taking note about it.

Reuters

May be we are too used to hearing about civilian deaths in war ravaged Syria, we might have lost count on the number of casualties.

But the recently the conflict has intensified and once again unarmed civilians caught up in the crossfire are the biggest victims.

In the first week of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, 224 people were killed. Majority of these deaths are blamed on the bombings by Syrian and Russian warplanes, an allegation Russia has denied.

Reuters

Between 6 and 12 June - the first week of the Islamic holy month of fasting - at least 148 civilians, including 50 children and 15 women, were killed as helicopters dropped "explosive barrel" bombs, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

AP

The number of civilian deaths have increased in the recent times, mainly because of the multi-faced operations going across the country including in some ISIS strongholds of Idlib where the coalition forces have made considerable progress in retaking it from the terror group.

Reuters

The Syrian conflict, arguably the most intertwined and confusing civil war of our times began in 2011 with a peaceful uprising against the Bashar Al-Assad government. But it soon descended into chaos after the government decided to go after the demonstrators.

The situation further worsened with the presence of ISIS and other anti-government forces who are fighting against each other for control.

AFP

From 2011, 450,000 people have been killed across the country in various conflicts. It has also forced millions of people out of their homes, making them refugees in neighbouring and European countries.