An Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting survivor was brought to tears during a Thursday appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Tony Marrero, who lived to tell his story after he was shot multiple times by crazed gunman Omar Mateen on June 12, got the surprise of a lifetime when superstar Katy Perry walked onstage.
As seen in a clip, both the singer and Marrero cried as they embraced for a few minutes on camera.
“I’m shaking right now,” Perry said through tears. “We’re both electrified by each other, I’m so inspired.”
DeGeneres added, “Katy wanted to be here when she heard how she impacted you, she told me the other night, ‘I’m not going to be able to hold it together.'”
The cry fest continued as Marrero thanked Perry, 31, for her song, “Rise,” which he listened to repetitively while recovering from the horrific shooting that claimed the lives of 49 people, and injured 53 others.
“Your lyrics to (“Rise”) helped me from the day I was in the hospital all the way to now,” he said. “You’re amazing.”
Perry, who learned one of Marrero’s dreams is to attend film school, offered to pay for a year of his tuition.
Marrero was shot four times by Mateen, but miraculously the bullets missed every single one of his organs.
“The only way that I had a chance to survive was to make it seem like I didn’t have a head,” he told reporters in the hospital after the attack. “But he still shot me in the back.”
DeGeneres, who called his story a “miracle” also gifted him with a private screening of “Finding Dory” and donated $25,000 to the official GoFundMe page for Pulse Victims via Shutterfly.
