Parents share final texts from daughter killed in Orlando massacre
PHILADELPHIA -- The parents of Akyra Murray, an 18-year-old from Philadelphia who was killed in the Orlando massacre, shared their daughter's final text messages.
Murray was with two friends at the Pulse nightclub when the shooting began around 2 a.m. Sunday.
"I'm just hurt. A feeling of emptiness knowing that my daughter is not coming home with us is just the saddest part," said her mother, Natalie.
The vacation was supposed to be a celebration of life for the Murray family - a celebration of Akyra's graduation from West Catholic High School and her full basketball scholarship to Mercyhurst University.
"I just keep seeing her face," said her father, Albert.
Akyra, her cousin Tiara Parker, and friend Patience Carter begged the Murrays to go to the club Saturday night. The club allowed teens to enter.
"The night it happened, I didn't really want her to go and she just kept begging me, 'dad take me,' and I said 'she's on vacation,'" Albert Murray said.
Her parents dropped them off and then, at 2 a.m., got text messages reading "Please come get us now," and "Please, they shooting."
They jumped in the car and frantically drove the 30 minutes to Pulse.
Then they got the call.
MORE: Orlando survivor Patience Carter pens powerful poem
"I received a phone call from my daughter saying 'Mom, I've been shot in the arm, help me please, I'm scared, I am bleeding so bad. Please help me, call the cops, please help me," Natalie Murray said. "I guess at that point she was in the bathroom, and the assailant guy was in there with them."
At the scene, it was chaos.
Those who were with Akyra say she stayed on the phone with police, trying to direct them to their whereabouts. They were held hostage in a bathroom stall by the gunman.
The Murrays were outside - so close, but yet so far. They wouldn't learn of Akyra's death for 36 hours.
They still don't know how she died. The loss is still unbelievable.
"Have to keep it positive and know my daughter died for a good cause, saving her cousins and friend, and knowing she was happy up until the end, until the day she stopped breathing," said her mother.
MORE: These are the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando
