'There was blood everywhere': Witnesses describe horrific Orlando attacks

Witnesses described running for their lives and seeing unimaginable carnage at Pulse in Orlando, a gay nightclub where 50 people were shot dead in an ISIS-claimed attack early Sunday.
The shooting was the deadliest in US history. The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Omar Saddiqui Mateen, reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh) in a 911 call.
Mateen started shooting at about 2 a.m., near last call for the club, which was hosting its popular Latin Night. Police shot and killed Mateen about three hours later.

Those inside the club when the shooting happened told various news outlets about what they saw. Here are some of their stories:

• Ray Rivera, a 42-year-old DJ at the club, told The New York Times that he didn't realize at first that the noise he heard was shooting. He lowered the music in the club to figure out what was happening. "I thought it was firecrackers," he said. "I saw bodies on the floor, people on the floor everywhere. It was chaos, everybody trying to get out."
• Joel Figueroa, 19, described hearing the first shots ring out. "Bam, bam, bam. The only thing I could think of was to duck," he told the Times. His friend, Stanley, was there with him. "There was Stanley, on the floor," he recounted. Stanley was shot three times, Figueroa said. His present condition is unknown.
• José Flores, 25, was near the scene after the massacre had ended. "It looks like a war zone might look. That's why I think it's so important to have a relationship with God — those people didn't know they were having their last drink, what was getting ready to happen."
• Christopher Hansen told the Associated Press that he escaped the club after the shooting started. "When I got across the street there was blood everywhere," he said. "I was helping somebody because he was laying down and I wasn't sure if he was dead or alive. I took my bandanna off, I shoved it in this hole, the bullet hole that was in his back." He described what he was thinking when the shooting started: "I was thinking, 'Are you kidding me?' So I just dropped down. I just said, 'Please, please, please, I want to make it out.' And when I did, I saw people shot. I saw blood. You hope and pray you don't get shot."

It's unclear what Mateen's connection with ISIS was, but he was on an FBI list of suspected ISIS sympathizers, and federal authorities had looked into him in 2013 and 2014.
Mateen's father told NBC News that his son was angered when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago.
"This has nothing to do with religion," he said.

 http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/13/there-was-blood-everywhere-witnesses-describe-horrific-orland/21393963/

'THE GREATEST' IS GONE

The man, the myth, the legend ... the name.

It's common knowledge that Cassius Clay chose to change his name to Muhammad Ali in the 1960s following his conversion to Islam -- but not so many are aware of his original rebranding plans.

"The legend is known that when a young Kentucky-born Cassius Clay joined the Nation of Islam his name was immediately changed to the now iconic Muhammad Ali," Miller says. "But few know that his first name change was to Cassius X.

"It was February 26, 1964 -- the morning after he knocked out Sonny Liston. But nearly two weeks later, on March 6, he announced that religious and political leader Elijah Muhammad (who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975) had given him the new name of Muhammad Ali."

Miller says the name may have originally been intended for Malcolm X, who split with Nation of Islam soon after Ali joined and was assassinated the following year.

It's well documented that on April 28, 1967, Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army and was immediately stripped of his heavyweight title.

Ali, a Muslim, cited religious reasons for his decision to forgo military service.

Early on Ali was closely involved with the often militant pro-African American goals of Nation of Islam, but later in life switched to a more mystical Muslim sect.

"Ali announced that he is a Sufi around 2005, saying that of all of the sects of Islam, he feels the closest connection to Sufism," says Miller, whose book "Approaching Ali" was released in late 2015.

"Sufism is arguably the most peaceful sect of any major or minor religion. Sufis believe that to purposely harm any person is to harm all of humanity, to harm each of us and to damage the world.

"It is the perfect fit for Ali, who had been living in the ways that Sufis do for decades before he'd heard of the religion.

"Few people have heard about the profound ways Ali's faith has evolved over the years. He has been a world soul for many decades; he has grown from separatist to universalist."

The scene is Atlanta, October 26, 1970.

Ali's first comeback fight followed his enforced exile of three years and seven months -- after refusing to be inducted into the armed forces -- against No. 1 heavyweight contender Jerry Quarry.

Then 28, he would go on to make a successful return to the ring, winning by TKO in the third round -- but the fight nearly didn't happen.

"Ali had only six weeks to prepare for this contest," Miller says. "In training, his boyhood friend and former heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis badly fractured one of Ali's ribs.

"Even with this injury, Ali did not reschedule the fight, being entirely uncertain that if he did, he would ever get the chance to fight again."

"The art of the gesture is quite important to him," Miller says of Ali, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1984 at the age of 42. "He communicates with his hands and fingers, his facial features, his eyes.

"He surprises visitors by making a sound with his thumb and index finger that's not unlike a cricket in your ear. He blows on the top of heads, tickles the inside of palms when he shakes hands, teasing almost everyone who visits him.

"Though he can walk, Ali is often seen sitting in a wheelchair or positioned in an easy chair. He is no longer the world's most vocal and irrepressibly animated person."

 Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see."

Famous for his pre-fight proto rap rhymes, Ali had some other dazzling tricks.

"Until recently, throughout his years with Parkinson's disease, Ali surprised visitors by performing prestidigitations (sleight of hand tricks)," Miller says.

"He made a red silk scarf disappear from his hand, he bit coins in half and made them whole again, and he often performed an old parlor trick -- by putting his feet together and rising up on the toes of one foot while keeping his other foot flexed, he could appear to float above the ground."

One of the most enduring memories of Ali's magic, Miller says, took place on the first day they met in June 1975.

"I'd just finished sparring a round with him, nearly got knocked out by only one punch, and Ali helped me out of the ring," Miller recalls.

"Escorting me to a seat among the small crowd, where I sat, looking freshly electrocuted, he leaned over and whispered, 'You're fast. And you sure can hit, to be so little.' He might as well have said he was adopting me.

Muhammad Ali: 'Will they remember me?' 03:27

"Then, while his longtime sparring partner Eddie 'Bossman' Jones was being introduced, Ali climbed back into the ring, where he boxed a relaxed, beautiful and dazzling round, bouncing dozens of jabs, straight right leads, easy hooks and effortless uppercuts off of Jones' face and headgear.

"After the bell rang at the end of the round, and a corner man had removed his gloves, Ali stepped back to the center of his ring. 'The man without imagination has no wings,' he shouted, pointing down at the audience with his left fist. 'He cannot fly.'

"Still holding his left fist at eye level, the one he'd used to tattoo the 'Bossman' for the past three minutes, he rolled it over, bent his arm at the elbow, and slowly pulled it in close to his chest.

"Opening his hand, a bird I now know to have been a Carolina wren flew with a fluttering of wings from Ali's palm and up to the ceiling.

"The crowd oohed and aahed. I can't imagine anyone who was there will ever forget the experience."

 Ali's nickname was "The Greatest."

credit CNN