Pulse nightclub survivor dies at party just three months after deadly shooting
By Will Stroude
A Florida man who survived June’s deadly massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando has tragically died just three months later.
Chris Brodman was found unresponsive in the early hours of Sunday morning at a house in Tampa, Florida, where he had been attending a house party with friends, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him, but the 34-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers could not determine Brodman’s cause of death but confirmed that there were no signs of violence. An autopsy has been completed with forensic and toxicology results pending.
Brodman survived the deadly shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub – in which 49 people were killed after gunman Omar Mateen opened fire on revellers – alongside his boyfriend, Cord Skyla.
The pair were outside in the smoking area after a night celebrating Brodman’s birthday with friends when the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history began. After initially mistaking the gunfire for music, Brodman hid under a table and behind the bar before escaping.
He later got a rainbow tattoo on his chest as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
Sharing a photo of the pair on Facebook following Brodman’s death, Skyla wrote: “I still can’t believe my baby is gone. I can’t sleep I can’t breathe i don’t know how I’m going to go on without him.”
Friend Ramses Tinoco, who was with Brodman the night of the shooting, told the Tampa Bay Times: “I’ll never, ever understand this. He was so young and he could have achieved his dreams and taken the second opportunity God had given us of living to another level. He had so much potential.”
He added: “He was so tall and so handsome and always so hyper talking to everybody and anybody.
“To me, he was the center of everything. But he always wanted to be better.”
A crowdfunder campaign set up by Skyla to help raise money towards funeral costs has already amassed more than $1300 of its $7000 target.
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