Orlando shooting: Video shows terrified clubgoers hiding in Pulse nightclub during shooting

Chilling video has emerged from inside the Pulse nightclub filmed during OmarMateen's deadly rampage in Orlando, Fla., byone of a handful of patrons as they hid in a bathroom.

The dark and blurryfootage, shot by survivor Miguel Leiva, shows roughly half a dozen young men and women, crammed into what appears to be a bathroom stall. Many are crying, while others urge them to be quiet.

"We had to be quiet because any noise [Mateen] heard he was going in that direction and shooting people and killing them,"Leivasaid.

"I thought I was going to die and I thought someone has to know what really happened." The fate of the other people in the video was not immediately clear.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Terrifying moments of clubgoers hiding from Orlando shooter

8 years ago

Duration 0:49

Mobile phone video shows people huddled in bathroom trying to stay quiet

The video surfaced as other details aboutMateen'slife comewere discovered.

School records say he struggled academically in the elementary grades because of behavioural problems and an inability to concentrate, and talked about violence at an early age.

Teachers found dealing withMateendifficult as early as third grade, according toSt.LucieCounty school records. One teacher wrote that he was"very active ... constantly moving, verbally abusive, rude, aggressive."

In a 1999 letter toMateen'sfather, one of his middle school teachers wrote that the boy's "attitude and inability to show self-control in the classroom create distractions."

Separately, a bartender says Mateen stalked her nearly a decade ago when he started coming into her Florida bar.

Heather LaSalla of Fort Pierce, Fla., told The Associated Press that Mateen sent her so many uncomfortable messages on Facebook that she blocked him.

She says she ran into him again at a park in November while she was with her young son and Mateen was with his. She says he talked about his son's soccer league, but he still had a weird vibe about him.

She was a bartender in Port St. Lucie at the time and says she never filed a criminal complaint over his behaviour.

$5M for victims, families

Meanwhile, an advocacy group for crime victims willoversee the payout of some of the millions of dollars indonations raised for victims of theshooting in an effort to deliver aid as quickly as possible.

As of Thursday afternoon, $5 million had been raised onlinefor the victims by Equality Florida, a gay rights group that hasdecided to distribute the money through the National CompassionFund, a unit of the nonprofit National Centerfor Victims ofCrime.

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There are other private fundraising campaigns for thevictims of the massacre, including campaigns to benefit specificindividuals, but so far only Equality Florida has sought theWashington-based centre's help in managing the money.

The victim centre's executive director Mai Fernandez saidthe fund planned to disburse emergency money after theauthorities confirm an official list of those present duringSunday's massacre at Orlando's Pulse night club where a gunmankilled 49 people and injured 53 others.

Distributing money to the victims of mass shootings,terrorism and other major crimes can be a fraught process,raising thorny questions about the value of human life, howapplications will be verified, who should be making thedecisions and how quickly aid can reach those in need.

While countries such as France, Italy and Spain havegovernment-run funds that provide benefits to victims of acts ofterrorism, the United States largely relies on apatchwork of state-level aid for crime victims and privatefundraising efforts.

The National Compassion Fund was set up in 2014 to helpspeed up and streamline the flow of private funds and co-ordinateefforts on a national level. The Orlando massacre is the fourthshooting for which the fund is collecting contributions.

Victims and survivors could also be eligible forcompensation from public funds.

Dozens of claims

The U.S. federal government helps states pay forcrime-related expenses including funeral and burial services,medical treatment and mental health counselling. The FloridaAttorney General's Office is processing dozens of claims throughits victim compensation fund, a spokesman for the office said.

The state could also receive money through a $50 million Antiterrorism Emergency Assistance Program, administered by theOffice for Victims of Crime, which is part of the U.S.Department of Justice.

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According to Florida law, state-distributed victimcompensation that reimburses losses is capped at $25,000 ordouble that sum in case of a "catastrophic injury."

It is too early to say how much in private aid the Orlandovictims could receive in total, Fernandez said in a phoneinterview. "What we disperse is whatever the public gives us."

The fund aims to disperse money within nine months and gives100 per cent of what it receives to victims minus fees chargedfor electronic donations, with administrative costs covered byseparate fundraising, Fernandez said.

No central fund

For an attack last year in which a gunman fatally shot fourU.S. Marines and a Navy sailor in Chattanooga, Tenn., thefund says it received $467,335 from 556 donors.The bulk,$331,490, was paid to the estates of the five people killed,with smaller amounts going to those who were physically injuredor psychologically traumatized, the fund says.

The fund also collected donations for a 2014 shooting inFort Hood, Tex., and the movie theatreshooting in Aurora,Colo., even though that attack took place in 2012, before thefund was created.

The fund does not consider variable factors such as lostfuture income, so, for example, each person severely injuredreceives the same amount.

Merging funds with similar missions is a good idea, saidKenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who oversaw compensation funds forthe Sept. 11 attacks and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Feinberg is helping to advise the National Compassion Fund.

"Having competing funds is a big mistake. The money getsdistributed too widely. You don't have a centralized, singlefund to maximize distributions," Feinberg said.

The victims centreapproached Equality Florida, which foundthe offer of help attractive because the center does not chargefor its services and provides one-on-one contact with victims,Ida Eskamani, Equality Florida's development officer, toldReuters.

"It's sad that there is a need for such an organization."

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