A man of Guyanese origin is being hailed in the US as a hero for saving the lives of a number of people at the Florida nightclub where 49 people were shot dead by a crazed man who himself was killed last Sunday morning.
According to the Washington Post, Imran Yousuf was a bouncer at the Pulse nightclub and he knew something was horribly wrong when he heard the crack of gunfire. A former US Marine, who had served in Afghanistan, the young man’s training quickly kicked in, the report said.
“The initial one was three or four shots,” said Yousuf, a sergeant who left the Marine Corps last month. “That was a shock. Three or four shots go off, and you could tell it was a high-calibre [weapon]. Everyone froze. I’m here in the back, and I saw people start pouring into the back hallway, and they just sardine-pack everyone,” he told CBS News.
“And I’m screaming, ‘Open the door! Open the door!’ ” Yousuf said. “And no one is moving because they are scared.”
The gunman could have appeared at any moment and they were just a few feet from relative safety. Yousuf told CBS that there was “only one choice.”
“Either we all stay there and we all die, or I could take the chance of getting shot and saving everyone else, and I jumped over to open that latch and we got everyone that we can out of there.”
And according to the India-West the young man’s uncle Rafi Yousuf in an interview indicated that the Yousufs emigrated from India to Guyana four generations ago and his family later migrated to the US. His paternal grandfather is Muslim, and his grandmother is Hindu, so his father Rasheed is a mix. Yousuf’s mother Norma is Hindu, and Yousuf identifies as a Hindu.
The report said Imran Yousuf graduated from Niskayuna High School – near Schenectady, New York – in 2010 and immediately joined the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Times reported that Yousuf served as an engineer equipment electrical systems technician in the Marine Corps from June 2010 to May 2016, according to service officials. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.
