Mother of Orlando shooting victim: "He was my everything"
ORLANDO, Fla. -- When Mina Justice was awakened by her son's texts on Sunday morning, she had no idea that it would be the last time she would communicate with him.
"He texted me 'I love you' at 2:06... he's down at a club and there's shooting," Justice told CBS News. "And, 'Tell the police to hurry because I'm going to die. I'm gonna die.'"
Eddie Justice, 30, was among the 49 people shot to death inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
"It hurts so bad," his mother said. "He was my funny baby. ... He was my everything."
A Snapchat video recorded inside the nightclub showed Eddie just minutes before the shots rang out.
He fled to the women's bathroom, where he thought he'd be safe. Instead, Eddie and dozens of others were cornered. He became a hostage and then a victim of Omar Mateen's rampage.
Mina Justice said she's both angry and sad.
"More angry than sad," she said. "This person took my child."
It's also hard for his sisters, Lakitra and Nerelsha, who drove from Georgia the minute they got the news.
"You just can't prepare yourself," Lakitra said. "You just never know when your time is up."
"It saddens me that my brother had to have give his life," Nerelsha added. "As a people, we need to come together and just love on each other, and not hate."
"We'll let everybody know who he was, what he stood for," Mina said. "I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to keep talking and keep talking, 'til I can't talk no more."
Eddie was Mina's only son. She says he kept a stuffed animal on his bed that she now often holds because it smells so much like him. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Justice family.
