Pulse nightclub shooting survivor killed in head-on car crash
ORLANDO, Fla. _ The last year brought some difficult moments for Jahqui Sevilla, who escaped from Pulse nightclub after the shooting started. But she was getting better _ going to college, working, playing fullback for the Orlando Anarchy women's tackle football team.
Just after midnight Monday she was driving south on State Road 417 when her Mitsubishi drifted into the northbound lanes, hitting another car head-on. She and the other driver, 53-year-old Soraya Matias-Roth of Lakeland, were both killed.
"She was getting her life back from when it was stolen," said Chandice Hunter, the Orlando Anarchy's team captain. "It just breaks my heart. She's like a little sister."
Matias-Roth was carrying three passengers, who were injured but are expected to live, said Sgt. Kim Montes, a Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman.
Troopers are still investigating what caused the crash.
Sevilla, 20, joined the Anarchy about two years ago, Hunter said.
Sevilla had just completed her second semester at Valencia College, where she was taking general education courses, college spokeswoman Carol Traynor said. She also worked at a clothing store in the Altamonte Mall, Hunter said, and had talked about wanting to be a firefighter.
The night of June 11, Sevilla and some of her teammates and friends went to see the Orlando Predators Arena Football League team play, then went to Pulse to dance at Latin Night. As closing time neared, most of the group had left the club. Only Sevilla, her teammate Paula Blanco, and Blanco's boyfriend, Cory Connell, were left inside, Hunter wrote in the days after the attack.
When the shooting started, Blanco was hit in the forearm. Sevilla kept pressure on the wound, waited until they could safely move and helped guide her outside. Connell was one of the 49 killed in the shooting.
_Orlando Sentinel
