A former US Marine sergeant of Indian origin,
Imran Yousuf, has been hailed as a hero for saving scores of lives at a Florida
night club when a terrorist went on a rampage killing 49 people.
When Yousuf, who was working as a
bouncer at the Pulse night club catering to the gay community in Orlando,
Florida, heard the first gunshots his military experience fighting in
Afghanistan kicked in, according to media reports.
As everyone in the packed night club
froze in fear, he jumped up and at personal risk opened a back door allowing
many people to escape.
He told CBS News television that as
panicked people streamed to the back of the hall, “I’m screaming ‘Open the
door! Open the door!’ And no one is moving because they are scared.” “There was
only one choice,” he added in the interview. “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.”
Yousuf had left the Marine Corps just
last month.
CBS
News identified Yousuf as a Hindu and his name caused some confusion. California-based
newspaper India West, which interviewed his uncle, clarified that his mother
and paternal grandmother are Hindus and he identifies with their
religion. His family emigrated from Guyana, where his ancestors had gone
from India. He grew up in the town of Niskayuna and joined the Marine Corps
soon after he finished high school at the age of 17 and served in both
Afghanistan and Iraq.
His
brother, Ameer Yousuf, said, “This was
so unexpected but
because of my brother’s training in the Marine Corps, he was prepared
and used strategies from that to do everything he did.”
Marine Corps Times said he had been
awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal during his service.
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