A former Florida Democratic House candidate recently admitted to lying about removing 77 bullets from dozens of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, a claim that led to her being cited with violating state law, according to documents released last week.
The documents, released by the Florida Department of Health, say Catherine Elizabeth McCarthy admitted to a state investigator that she lied about being a doctor, including when she said she was one of the doctors who treated victims of the June 2016 massacre, which left 49 dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando. McCarthy was a registered nurse in the state until her license expired in 2005, but has never been a licensed doctor, according to the Washington Post.
"That night of Pulse, I personally removed 77 bullets from 32 people," McCarthy said at an event hosted in March by Florida Democratic Rep. Darren Soto, according to a recording of the event from CNN affiliate WESH in Orlando.
"The night of Pulse, I was working at Orlando Health. And we're -- you're never prepared for it. We've never experienced something like that," she said at the event.
The documents, however, state that a department investigator found that "since '2014 (or) 2015' (McCarthy) had knowingly been holding herself out as a Medical Doctor" and that she misled the public as she prepared for her campaign.
