Latest news with #onePulse
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Survivors, families tour Pulse, but questions persist
Laly Santiago-Leon sat on the floor inside the Pulse nightclub, the exact spot where her close cousin died with his partner in one of the nation's worst mass shootings nine years ago. 'It helped with closure,' she said with tears on the ninth anniversary of the massacre. 'But there will never be closure, but an understanding.' Santiago-Leon was among more than 90 survivors and family members who visited the Pulse nightclub this week before it is torn down and replaced with a permanent memorial. Until this week, few people, other than the investigators, had gotten a chance to go inside the shuttered LGBTQ-friendly nightclub where a gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53 others on June 12, 2016. Orlando city officials invited survivors and the families of victims to see the building if they wanted, saying some thought it would help them in their 'journey of grief.' Some visited Pulse on the ninth anniversary of the massacre Thursday but chose not to go inside. Others visited the building looking for answers, as questions still persist — about law enforcement's handling of the case, the club's compliance with building codes and a private foundation's failed fundraising efforts to build a permanent memorial. How onePulse broke Orlando's heart On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, groups arrived via a shuttle bus. Black privacy screens and umbrellas shielded them from onlookers. They got to spend about 30 minutes inside the club and then were driven back to a hotel. The visits wrap up Saturday. Santiago-Leon called it a 'sacred space' that she wanted to touch before the building is demolished. Her cousin whom she considered as a brother — Daniel Wilson-Leon — died there with his partner, Jean Mendez Perez. She was told the couple were found on the dance floor 'in each other's arms.' 'It was hard,' she said about visiting the site. 'All the memories just came through. …But it was something that I wanted to do. … It was a way to say goodbye to that space.' Christine Leinonen walked around the dance floor where her son Christopher 'Drew' Leinonen and 19 others died in a hail of gunfire. 'I needed to see where my son took his last breath,' she said. 'It's as simple as that, and as painful as it is, it's nowhere near as painful as what my son experienced that night.' Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando: Remembering the victims of June 12, 2016 The gunman, Omar Mateen, opened fire during the club's Latin Night. Police shot and killed Mateen, who pledged allegiance to an Islamic State militant group, after a three-hour standoff. FBI investigators deemed the massacre a terrorist attack, the deadliest in the United States since 9/11. At the time, the rampage was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The death toll was surpassed the following year when a gunman killed 60 people and injured 850 more in Las Vegas. The shuttered Pulse building has been cleaned, and the furniture removed. A makeshift memorial surrounds the former club with pictures of the victims and mourners, flowers and Puerto Rican and American flags. Handwritten messages are scrawled on the Pulse sign. One reads, 'Love wins.' Another says, 'Do Not Forget.' For some, it was too painful to go inside the building. Jorshua Hernandez, 31, was shot twice and still has a bullet lodged inside of him. As the horror unfolded, he waited for three hours on a bathroom floor bleeding from the gunshot wounds, along with other hostages, until police arrived. He said he didn't want to relive that day. 'It's for my mental health,' he said after lifting his T-shirt to show the long scar across his stomach and chest. 'I don't want to see the restroom. I don't want to see the bullet holes. I don't want to walk in and see where I was laying… I want to end this chapter of my life.' Hernandez said he wants new investigations, examining the city's code enforcement at Pulse and whether limited pathways to escape contributed to the death toll. City officials and the club owner said the building complied with code requirements and had sufficient exits. But Hernandez said windows and doors were blocked, preventing people from fleeing. The FBI met with families ahead of the visits, but Leinonen left dissatisfied with the agency, saying it didn't adequately answer questions. She said she's upset the FBI is closing the investigation and questioned whether the agency could have kept a closer eye on Mateen before the shooting. 'The 49 people are directly a result of the FBI failure,' she said. The FBI twice investigated the gunman before the attack but closed the case finding no criminal charges to pursue. Agents first scrutinized Mateen in 2013 after he boasted of connections to terrorists. He was questioned again in 2014 as part of a separate probe into a suicide bomber who attended his mosque and was a casual acquaintance. Mateen was put on a terrorist watchlist during the investigation, but he was removed when no criminal charges were filed as outlined by the agency's rules. In 2018, it was revealed that Mateen's father was a secret FBI informant for over a decade. U.S. Rep. Darren Soto said he'd like to see most of the FBI's files made public when the investigation is closed, with the exception of victim images and top-secret information related to national security. 'This tragedy remains in our hearts and our minds,' said Soto, a Democrat who represents Osceola County. 'We can continue to learn from it.' An FBI spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the status of the investigation and whether the agency's files will eventually be made public. Efforts to build a permanent memorial have been plagued with infighting. The onePulse Foundation, the nonprofit initially leading those efforts, dissolved in late 2023 without achieving its goal of building a remembrance and museum. The group planned a $45 million project that swelled to a price tag of $100 million. One of the group's founders was Barbara Poma, an owner of the Pulse nightclub. The foundation's failure to build a memorial outraged some victim families who questioned its spending decisions and operations. After onePulse collapsed, the city of Orlando purchased the property for $2 million and took over efforts to build a memorial. The city is planning a less ambitious $12 million memorial on the site. The nightclub building is expected to be razed later this year, and construction will start in the summer of 2026. The city hopes to complete the project by 2027. Early plans show a reflection pool where the club's dance floor stood. It also will include a pavilion, tribute wall and a garden. As families and survivors saw the inside of the club this week, a steady stream of people left flowers outside or just stood silently and reflected near the makeshift memorials. Some wiped tears from their eyes. Some wore Orlando United T-shirts. Jakob Strawn, 25, of Orlando, said he visits the Pulse club each year out of respect for the victims, still with a pain in his heart. The shooting happened when he was a high school student in Tampa, hitting him and others in his school's LGBTQ community hard. 'People do still remember,' he said, standing near a wall of flowers and memorials. 'I'm 25. When I look around here, I'm now older than some of these people were when they died. Nine years is not a very long time, and as long as I live in Orlando, I'll keep coming out here every year.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pulse memorial gets $5 million pledge from Orange County
Orange County commissioners unanimously pledged $5 million today to support the city of Orlando's plan to build a memorial to Pulse, honoring its victims and survivors at the site of the former LGBTQ nightclub as the ninth anniversary of the horrific massacre approaches this month. The decision followed a presentation of the proposed memorial, on which construction would begin next summer. It marked another step forward for a remembrance effort that began as a privately led campaign, collapsed amid infighting and misspending, and is being carried forward now by government agencies and public dollars. 'It's time that there is a memorial,' said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who was the sheriff when a lone gunman opened fire during Latin Night at the club on Orange Avenue on June 12, 2016. 'None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point and we can't go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened, but what we can do is control how we move forward together.' Demings said he did not want the county to be an obstacle to a memorial. The rampage at the club killed 49 people, wounded 53 others and at the time was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Demings asked the capacity audience inside the commission chambers Tuesday to pause for a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting, then described the proposed memorial as an appropriate tribute to the people and the diverse communities affected by tragedy. Heather Fagan, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer's chief of staff, lauded the county's pledge as another step in the healing process. Orlando City Council welcomes new design for Pulse Memorial Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan urged her counterparts on the county board to help the community move forward. 'I can never forget the screams of the relatives on Orange Avenue as they found out their children and family members were victims. It haunts me to this day, but I also remember how our community came together, city and county to assist the victims and their families,' she told county commissioners. 'I got to know 38 of the 49 families, and they want their loved ones remembered.' As she spoke, Sheehan clutched a rainbow rosary, a gift from Teresa Jacobs, county mayor when the tragedy occurred. 'You have an opportunity to be part of the healing,' Sheehan said. 'This didn't just impact the gay community. There were members of the LatinX community, the African-American community, there were straight allies who were murdered that day. It's important for us to remember all those beautiful people who simply wanted to dance.' The city sought county funds to help design and build a memorial — estimated to cost $12 million — and has itself pledged more than half the anticipated bill. Orlando took over the memorial effort in late 2023 amid the messy collapse of the private onePulse foundation, oversaw a recently concluded citizens' design process, and has promised to complete the structure by the end of 2027. Created to design a memorial, the onePulse Foundation shut down after spending most of the millions it raised to defray its own lavish expenses, including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to high-priced architects and consultants. Orlando seeks $5 million from Orange County for Pulse memorial; some commissioners are hesitant Mayra Alvear, whose daughter Amanda, died at Pulse, said a completed memorial has much to offer Central Florida. 'This memorial will provide solace, a place for reflection, contemplation…a special place for years to come,' she said. shudak@
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Orlando seeks $5 million from Orange County for Pulse memorial; some commissioners are hesitant
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is seeking $5 million from Orange County to help build a long-sought permanent memorial to the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre, but his request is facing early resistance, in a sign of lingering bitterness over the failure of earlier memorial plans. In a Monday memorandum to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, Dyer asked for the funds to help design and build the memorial — which is estimated to cost $12 million and for which the city has already pledged more than half of that estimate. Orlando took the helm of the memorial effort in late 2023 amid the messy collapse of the private onePulse foundation. 'Since the tragedy, the city and county have continuously partnered to support the victims' families and survivors and helped build community resilience,' Dyer said in the memo, as he sought to evoke the memories of the 49 individuals killed in the horrific shooting. 'We hope that the County will continue that spirit of partnership as we as we work to realize an overdue memorial that properly honors the 49.' A spokesperson for Demings told the Orlando Sentinel Wednesday that while the mayor supports the request, final approval must come from the Orange County Commission during the county's annual budget process in the summer. But other county leaders were more circumspect. While believing a memorial is overdue, Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe, whose district includes the Pulse site, told the Sentinel she could not yet pledge taxpayer dollars to the project. 'We need more information,' she said. 'We need to know where everything ended with the onePulse funding. We've never been told. Was there any money left over and where is that money?' The onePulse Foundation raised about $20 million over its seven-year lifespan, falling far short of the ambition $100 million memorial and museum plan it had concocted. Uribe said the county should be involved in the whole process and not just financially. Commissioner Kelly Semrad raised similar concerns. 'I think the county, our whole community, wants to contribute to recognizing and memorializing the loss, making sure that this never happens again,' Semrad said. 'But I think there are a lot of reservations in terms of what happened to the original amount of money that came into the foundation and where did it go, and making sure that we're accountable, transparent, and that future investment goes where it needs to.' The Orlando City Council last month endorsed a design for a memorial unanimously approved by the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee, which included relatives of the 49 people who died in the massacre and some members who had visited the club that horrible night in June 2016. An early estimate pegged the cost at $12 million to design and construct, of which the city would contribute $7.5 million, but no detailed design or construction pan has yet been prepared. Dyer mentioned in the memorandum how the failed prior efforts to build a memorial, including the efforts of onePulse, will make it harder for Orlando to once again raise funds from private sources — difficulties which apparently extend to public sources as well. 'Unfortunately, many in our local community have given previously through either the OneOrlando Fund, which was established to go directly to the victims' families and survivors, or the OnePulse Foundation without any return of a memorial, which makes it more challenging for the city to raise significant private funding for the memorial,' he wrote. Orlando issued a request for contractors to submit their proposals for the memorial on March 3. Dyer aims to complete the memorial by the second half of 2027, before he leaves office.
