Indian-origin Marine saved lives in Orlando shooting

Imran Yousuf, a 24-year-old bouncer at the Pulse nightclub, heard the gunfire break out early Sunday morning. “The initial one was three or four (shots). That was a shock. Three of four shots go off and you could tell it was a high calibre,” Yousuf, whose family had immigrated to Guyana from India four generations ago, told CBS News. 

That’s when his Marine Corps training kicked in, said Yousuf, a former sergeant who just left the Marine Corps last month. Yousuf knew just beyond that pack of panicked people – was a door – and safety. But someone had to unlatch it. “I’m screaming ‘Open the door! Open the door!’” Yousuf said. “And no one is moving because they are scared.” “There was only one choice — either we all stay there and we all die, or I could take the chance, and I jumped over to open that latch and we got everyone that we can out of there.”  

By creating the exit, Yousuf estimated that about 70 people were able to get out of the nightclub safely. “I wish I could’ve saved more,” CBS News quoted him as saying.