Pulse survivor Orlando Torres, left, reconnected with former Orlando SWAT officer Timothy Stanley. Stanley helped rescue Torres from the lavatory after the gunman was killed. (Matthew Peddie, WMFE)
On June twelfth, 2016, Orlando Torres spent three hours huddled in a toilet at Pulse nightclub, desperately making an attempt to not entice the eye of the gunman. Torres and Timothy Stanley, one of many SWAT officers who rescued him, visited the WMFE studios 5 years after the taking pictures to speak about their expertise.
SWAT Officer Timothy Stanley and his associate James Parker rescued Torres after the gunman was killed by police 5 years in the past. But the 2 didn’t reconnect till a style present in November of 2016.
That’s when Torres acknowledged the voice of the officers who had saved him. So he shouted “soldier!” to get their consideration – the very factor James Parker had yelled at him throughout the rescue.
“And as soon as he said that, I said James (Parker), that’s what you were screaming in the bathroom,” Stanley recalled. “Crazy.”
When police punched a gap within the wall, it broke a water line and the lavatory the place Orlando Torres was hiding started flooding with water. But Torres couldn’t transfer as a result of his physique was numb from mendacity nonetheless for 3 hours.
“They were trying to motivate me by saying ‘soldier, soldier, push yourself up,’” Torres mentioned. “I remember those words clearly. I’m like ‘No, I can’t, I can’t,’ and so they grabbed my right arm and pulled me up from the floor.”
Stanley mentioned that in actuality, his associate James Parker wasn’t calling Torres soldier to inspire him. The occasion was so traumatic that Parker, an Army veteran, clicked again into his army coaching.
For Torres, with the ability to thank the individuals who rescued him was very touching. “You just don’t know what to say,” Torres mentioned. “I’m already feeling emotional just thinking about that.”
Listen to the total interview with Orlando Torres and Tim Stanley right here:
Because the FBI was investigating the Pulse nightclub taking pictures, law enforcement officials and victims weren’t allowed to speak to one another. Stanley mentioned assembly Torres on the style present was a turning level for the psychological well being of some officers struggling after Pulse.
“In our profession, they like to hide it,” Stanley mentioned. “Like they want to be all macho and stuff like that. But it will destroy lives. I always talk about take care of our own. Getting together with the victims, that was the first time. We’ve never done that before. We did the fashion show and I will tell you, it saved a lot of the officers’ lives. Their mindset that we circled back, met Orlando and a lot of other people that we rescued, it was closure. For everybody.”
Five years later, Stanley is retired from the Orlando Police Department. He now works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, doing coaching throughout the state on how to reply to mass shootings.
Torres drives for a rideshare firm. He usually wears a hat emblazoned with the phrases Pulse Survivor. He says when folks discover out that he’s a Pulse survivor, he provides them a easy piece of recommendation: Know your exits. But 5 years later, Torres nonetheless goes out to nightclubs.
“People say ‘how do you do that?’ knowing what you’ve been through,” Torres mentioned. “I tell people that our motto here in Orlando is ‘keep dancing, Orlando.” Because should you don’t, they win.”
This interview first aired in June 2016