Pulse tragedy

	Trigger warning
	This article describes a mass shooting event with many victims. There are no graphic images; however, the details of the incident, the names of the deceased, and photographs from their lives may be disturbing or re-traumatizing. Reader discretion is advised.

Pulse tragedy
Pulse's letter "P" logo
Chronological Information
Date	June 12, 2016
General Information
Location	Pulse nightclub at 1912 South Orlando Avenue, Orlando, FL, U.S.A.
Participants	At least 300 patrons and employees of Pulse, primarily LGBTQIA+, Latinx, or both Perpetrator
Method	Mass shooting with hostages
Outcome	49 deceased victims (perpetrator also killed by police) 53 survivors of gunshots At least 5 survivors with non-gunshot, hospital-treated injuries Additional survivors with minor or no physical injuries

The Pulse tragedy—also known as the Pulse shooting, Pulse massacre, Orlando nightclub shooting, etc.— was a mass shooting at the popular gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016. It was one of the club's weekly Latin Nights and the shooting began when more than 300 people were still there.

The perpetrator of the massacre, whose image and name (Omar Mateen) will not be used again in accordance with the no notoriety protocol, used a military-style rifle and a handgun to shoot 102 people, killing 49 victims and injuring 53 survivors with gunshots. After he held dozens of hostages in restrooms for three hours while claiming he had bomb vests to detonate, law enforcement officers breached a wall with their explosives and ramming devices, then shot and killed the perpetrator.

This attack is the deadliest act of violence against LGBTQIA+ people in the United States, surpassing the 1973 arson at UpStairs Lounge gay bar in New Orleans, Louisiana that killed 32 people. It is also the deadliest terrorist attack within the U.S.A. since September 11, 2001, and it was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in the U.S.A. until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. The murdered victims were predominantly both Latinx and LGBTQIA+ and ranged in age from 18 to 50 years old.

Pulse

History

Fliers for Latin Saturdays before June 11, 2016

Pulse—also known by names like Pulse Orlando, Pulse Nightclub, and Club Pulse—was located at 1912 South Orlando Avenue in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. The club was co-founded by Ron Legler and his friend Barbara Poma, who met him through her husband, Rosario Poma. Legler's original concept for Pulse was an upscale gay bar in the style of the Martini Bars and UltraLounges he had enjoyed in Manhattan, New York. He approached the Pomas with the idea and they provided much of the financial backing; Legler described Rosario as especially hands on during construction, with Barbara serving as accountant and mediator. She dedicated Pulse to her late brother John, a gay man who had battled HIV and died in 1991 due to AIDS complications. The planned opening for the 2004 Gay Days weekend in June was delayed by legal petition from a neighboring church. Pulse officially opened on July 2, 2004, and quickly became a popular gay nightclub. Unlike other local bars, the location was open to ages 18 and up. Legler gave up his ownership of Pulse in 2014 when he moved to Baltimore, Maryland.

Layout and operations

Pulse's layout at the time of the shooting:

• Main entrance: one entry door to reception desk area, a large window/fountain wall in the south exterior wall, two beaded-curtained–archways leading into a narrow hallway; the hallway had an entry on the left for the Adonis Room and two for the Jewel Box (in the center and on the right)
• Adonis Room: the smaller room to the left/west of the front hallway, with a bar (on the right/east), two narrow stages for dancers across from the bar and on either side of a hallway to the restrooms, and a larger stage (back of room/north) for performers such as drag queens, with a curtained-off back hallway to the left of the stage. The room had the club's only emergency exit double doors (front/south), no windows, and multiple mirrored walls, with the only lighting coming from round paper lanterns, rotating strobe lights, and television screens. Then, connected to the Adonis Room:
  • Restrooms: located on the building's west exterior wall, one doorless urinal restroom in the front-left/southwest corner, then a narrow hallway in the room's left/west wall leading to a north and south pair of accessible unisex restrooms. The south restroom had a urinal and an accessible stall; the north restroom had a wall between the door and the sink area, a non-accessible stall, and an accessible stall; both had doors.
  • Back hallway: curtained-off from the rest of the Adonis Room and terminated at the north exterior wall, where an exit-signed door opened into a fenced outdoor corridor
  • Dressing room #1: on the left side of the back hallway and on building's west exterior wall, entered through a keypad-locked door on the left side of the hallway and facing the stage
  • Dressing room #2: on the right side of the back hallway, "backstage" or behind the stage
• Outdoor corridor: variously described in reports as a narrow hallway, service alley, or storage/trash area, running parallel to the north exterior wall and fully enclosed by a fence connected to an overhang above; it had a latched gate preventing or delaying entry/exit from the corridor to the outside despite the exit signs inside
• Jewel Box: the larger room to the right/east of the main entrance, with the main dance floor and stage (left/west), a clear door to the Adonis Room and a seating area (back-left/northwest), a narrow hallway to the left of the main bar terminating at the north exterior wall, the main bar itself (back/north), and the Lounge/VIP seating area (front/south); it had three exit-signed doors: one at the end of the hallway into the fenced outdoor corridor and two for the outdoor patio (one to the right of the bar at back/northeast corner and one at the front-right/southeast corner by the restroom). No windows and variable lighting from a chandelier, round paper lanterns, bar lights, strobes, and disco balls. Then, connected to the Jewel Box:
  • Liquor storage: behind the seating area and through a door on the left wall of the hallway
  • Kitchenette/drink prep: through a door behind and to the left of the main bar (but not in the hallway), with a ladder up to the second-story space and an employee door on the right to the outdoor patio
  • Second story: accessed by the ladder in the kitchenette/drink prep room, with one of its balconies overlooking the Jewel Box used as a DJ booth, a small storage room, and a manager's office; layout unclear as it was never depicted on any building plans
  • Restroom: front-right/southeast corner of the Jewel Box, between the VIP seating area and the outdoor patio
• Outdoor patio: wrapped around northeast corner and right/east exterior wall of the building facing Orange Avenue, with a bar against that wall, enclosed by a tall black vinyl fence that had one gate kept latched so people could not sneak in and out; the gate was further concealed at night by its black paint and hardware

According to the Community Coalition Against a Pulse Museum's reviews of public records, in 2003, the City of Orlando originally gave conditional use permits for renovations and operation as a restaurant/martini bar; in actuality, Pulse operated as a dance hall, entertainment venue, and nightclub. It later had multiple unpermitted and uninspected renovations and structural modifications, some (but not all) of which were depicted on the last equipment layout plan in 2010 later found in emails but not on file with the City. Although the City documented complaints and violations of permits and building codes, these were never resolved. No complete, up-to-date floor plans were available at the time of the shooting.

Although Pulse had more than the minimum required exit doors, five of those seven opened to fenced areas that patrons could not readily open: the patio and the outdoor corridor. The black vinyl fences were taller than the maximum height allowed by code, and any exit through the outdoor corridor was further obstructed by garbage and various items stored there.

Fliers for what would have been Latin Saturdays after June 11, 2016

By the time of the shooting, Pulse was open six nights per week with weekly themes for each, including two Latin Nights to start and end the week: Noche Latina (Monday night through early Tuesday morning) and Upscale Latin Saturdays (Saturday night through early Sunday morning). The latter were advertised as "Neema Presents Upscale Latin Saturdays" or "Neema Presents Latin Saturdays" and hosted by Iranian event manager Neema Bahrami. The last four Latin Saturdays held before the night of the shooting were:

• May 14: Latin Night Two Year Anniversary Turnabout, a benefit for The Barber Fund/One Love Movement, hosted by Angelica Sanchez as a Boy, Lisa Lane as a Boy, Kenya Michaels as a Boy, and Neema as a Girl
• May 21: Kennedy Davenport from RuPaul's Drag Race, hosted by Angelica Sanchez and Kenya Michaels
• May 28: Melina Leon Live in Concert, hosted by Lisa Lane and Kenya Michaels
• June 4: Latin Gay Days 2016, hosted by Mimi Marks, Kenya Michaels, Jessica Wild, and Lady Janet

At some point, Cynthia Lee Fontaine had been scheduled to perform on June 11, 2016, but was unable to due to another booking the same night at the South Beach nightclub in Houston, Texas. Pulse had no advertised event for June 11 until a social media posting on the day of the event. There were plans for:

• June 18: Dominican Pride with Lila Star, hosted by Angelica Sanchez and Kenya Michaels
• June 25: Puerto Rico Pride with Cynthia Lee Fontaine, hosted by Queen Bee Ho and Kenya Michaels
• July 2: 4th of July Weekend Extravaganza, with performances by Kenya Michaels, Noel Leon, and Elishaly D'witshes
• July 16: George Lamond Live in Concert, part of the Pulse 12th Anniversary Party, hosted by Kenya Michaels and Lisa Lane

Shooting

	Trigger warning
	This section contains specific details of the mass shooting event, including multiple deaths and other traumatic incidents. Reader discretion is advised or skip to the Aftermath section.

Various timelines by media outlets, local and state law enforcement, and federal investigators differ from each other on the exact minutes and seconds of the events, although they each strive to be internally consistent. During annual remembrance events, 2:02 a.m. EDT is the time observed as the beginning of the deaths. Where times are provided in this article, they are according to the referenced source. Several people noted in this article use multiple names, such as performers on- and off-stage. This article attempts to use one name per person for clarity regardless of which name is given in a particular citation, but there may be mistakes in selecting that name.

Before the gunshots

Social media flier for Pulse's Latin Night on June 11, 2016, with performances by Jasmine Jimenez as Jasmine International (on left) and Kenya Olivera as Kenya Michaels (on right); both survived

Pulse hosted its weekly Latin Night on Saturday, June 11, 2016. That night featured drag performances by two Latinx, transgender women: Jasmine Jimenez (drag persona: Jasmine International) of Colombia and Kenya Olivera (drag persona: Kenya Michaels) of Puerto Rico.

Detective Adam Gruler, an Orlando Police Department (OPD) officer, was working off-duty hours as a security guard outside the club. He was armed with a handgun and in uniform, which did not include protective equipment such as body armor. When he arrived for his shift on June 11 at around 11:40 p.m. EDT, a club promoter told him someone underage had gotten in with a fake ID. Gruler eventually located and brought the young person outside, but they ran off. Gruler left Pulse in his unmarked patrol vehicle from around 1:00 to 1:20 a.m. EDT on June 12 while unsuccessfully searching for that person. He returned and parked in the same spot on the sidewalk parallel to Esther Street on the south side of the club, then either stood next to his vehicle (according to him) or remained inside it (according to Jonathan Watts). Neal Whittleton, a former law enforcement officer, was in charge of Pulse's security that night and was not armed. According to Imran Yousuf, a Pulse bouncer/doorman and U.S. Marine combat veteran, the only employed security staff on duty that night were himself and Kimberly "KJ" Morris, who was killed.

Approximately 20 minutes before the perpetrator began shooting, he walked into the main entrance, paid the admission fee at the desk, and entered the Jewel Box room. There were no security checks before his entry but he was not armed at that time. Whittleton was out on the patio when he met and spoke to the soon-to-be shooter, who asked him, "Hey, why is it so slow tonight? Where are the girls at?" The perpetrator seemed to be assessing whether or not Whittleton was carrying a gun and said, "Yeah, I see you here all the time." The security guard had never seen him before and explained it was likely a slow night because Gay Days, an annual LGBT gathering at Walt Disney World, ended the previous weekend. After the gunman was publicly identified, multiple survivors realized that they had seen or may have seen him shortly before the shooting. One of Selvin Dubon's friends may have seen the gunman at a corner of a bar, scowling and giving Dubon an "unsettling look". While still hospitalized several days after he was shot, Felipe "Tony" Marrero told the Associated Press the gunman had been next to him at one of the bars, buying and having a drink. Marcus Godden did not see the gunman with a drink but estimated that around 2 a.m., the shooter was standing some distance away from the bar, staring intensely and silently at the crowd. Something did not sit right with Godden, who said, "He was looking at us like we were nothing, like we were pathetic, like we just mean nothing." Club surveillance cameras recorded the gunman watching people dance for several minutes in the Jewel Box, including men dancing together.

The perpetrator exited the club around 1:54 a.m. to move his van into a closer parking spot under a canopy in the Pro-Tint & Detailing lot adjacent to Pulse; his weapons and ammunition were in that vehicle. Jonathan Watts, the manager of One-Way Valet working at Pulse that night, was parking a vehicle along Kaley Street when he noticed a van parking under a canopy behind Pulse; he estimated this was around 1:30 a.m., so it is unclear if he witnessed the shooter arriving or moving the van just before the shooting. Because it was near closing time, Watts decided not to tell the driver, whom he never saw, that the area was off limits. He went to his valet podium along the south of the club and talked to Detective Gruler.

As Latin Night's closing time approached on Sunday, June 12, the bartenders announced the last call for drinks and the deejays played music for about 300 remaining patrons. DJ Simon2001 spun reggaeton for the main dance floor from the upstairs booth overlooking the Jewel Box, DJ Infinite played traditional reggae outside on the patio, and DJ Flawless was in the Adonis Room playing hip-hop. Jasmine Jimenez performed earlier that night and afterwards recorded a Facebook message with her close friend Eddie Sotomayor Jr., who was killed, and his surviving partner, Luis Rojas. Jimenez collected her bag from a dressing room, and Sotomayor remained inside after he asked Rojas to escort her to her car.

Akyra Murray had gone to Pulse with her cousin Tiara Parker and their friend Patience Carter while visiting Orlando. While at the main entrance, they met Amanda Alvear; Murray and Alvear were both killed that night. Alvear offered to let Carter be her plus-one to avoid paying the entry fee, then the group had fun before separating from Alvear and going to the Adonis Room. Darryl "DJ" Roman Burt II, another person killed, was at the club celebrating with his friends Alex Barr, Javád Whigfall, Antwine Jenkins, and Fred Johnson. Around last call, Burt ordered a drink at the bar while the others waited for him. Survivors Jeff Xcentric, "V", and Angel Santiago were also near that bar, which Michael Belvedere was tending.

Club promoter Orlando Torres had experience as a former auxiliary police officer in Queens, New York and a security guard at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC). He was with a friend, Bobby Rodriguez, and before he walked with her into the north restroom, he briefly greeting a friend who was killed in the shooting.

First wave: Jewel Box and Adonis Room

The interior layout of Pulse

The perpetrator walked from behind Pulse and along the patio fence with two semiautomatic firearms (a military-style assault rifle and a pistol), which he kept lowered at his sides until he re-entered the club's main entrance between 2:01 and 2:02 a.m. EDT. He immediately began killing people in the front hallway and the Jewel Box. Amanda Alvear posted videos on Snapchat up until her last one recorded her reacting to the first gunshots. Some people who recognized the live gunfire initially thought it was another "club shooting" that targeted one or more specific people before stopping, including Detective Gruler. Others who heard the sounds did not immediately identify them as gunshots; they seemed to be part of the music, a sound effect from the DJs, or a problem with the audio equipment. DJ Simon2001 lowered the volume when he heard the gunshots on the dance floor below. He realized he was trapped upstairs and hid in the storage room with the club's lighting technician. They were soon joined by another man who had climbed up the ladder despite being shot in the arm. Five or six other people also came up and hid in the manager's office. Outside on the patio, DJ Infinite turned the music down to listen closer and shut it off when he recognized gunfire; he yelled, "Run! Get out! There's a guy with a gun!" In the early minutes, general manager Brian Reagan was hiding on the patio and used the club's Facebook message system to warn anyone connected to Pulse's WiFi hotspot, "Everyone get out of pulse and keep running."

Satellite overview (from March 2016) of Pulse and surroundings. People fled to Orlando Fire Station 5, 7-Eleven, and the parking lots of Einstein Bros. Bagels, Wendy's, and Dunkin' Donuts. The Einstein Bros. Bagels parking lot became a makeshift triage area.

The perpetrator walked back and forth between the Jewel Box and Adonis Room and reloaded multiple times. Dozens of people attempted to hide behind the bars or inside storage areas, dressing rooms, and restrooms. Some dropped to the floor, including people who had been shot but were alive, and pretended they were dead among those who were dying or already deceased. Many fled on their own to nearby businesses or parking lots, such as the Dunkin' Donuts on the other side of Esther Street and the nearby 7-Eleven. A video taken at the latter captured clear audio of gunshots and was soon shared online and by media outlets.

Five of Pulse's seven marked exits led to fenced areas with locked gates rather than allowing escape. Some patrons, such as Joshua McGill and Marcus Godden, climbed onto furniture to haul themselves over the patio fence. Other people who could not find a way out of the crowded patio pushed the fence down. Imran Yousuf had been doing his security rounds near the dressing rooms when the gunfire began. He saw people flee into the outdoor corridor and get trapped as they packed together, unaware there was a latched gate they could escape through if someone opened it. As the gunfire approached, he decided to risk entering the gunman's sights. He broke through the crowd, opened the gate, and yelled at people to go. When someone would freeze or duck at the corner, he used his voice to keep them moving. He estimated several dozen people fled through that opened gate.

Jasmine Jimenez and Luis Rojas had just reached an exit when they heard the first gunfire and immediately ran to get into her car. She called her manager to tell him what was happening and he told her to go to his house nearby. As she called her mom, Rojas contacted his partner, Eddie Sotomayor, who told Rojas not to come back inside and that he was hiding but safe. Sotomayor sent his final message that he was still hiding 25 minutes later, sometime before he died.

Lead entertainer Angelica Jones, who was not performing as Angelica Sanchez that night, was out with her roommate, former Pulse cast member Chevelle Brooks. The gunshots sent Brooks running but Jones went into the club; her thought was to open doors to help people escape. She ended up leading six people into dressing room #1 on the left side of the hallway at the back of the Adonis Room. Michael Belvedere dropped to the floor when he heard the gunshots but ran as the shooter came closer. Belvedere chose not to use the outdoor corridor and instead inputted the lock code for the same dressing room as Jones. In total, eight people hid together there. Pulse dancer Milan D'Marco, two other dancers, and a patron hid in the other dressing room on the right.

Angel Santiago and Jeff Xcentric dropped to the floor to take cover at first, then ran into the south restroom and joined at least 15 other people in the accessible stall. As the gunfire continued and grew louder, everyone tried to shush each other and stay quiet. Santiago attempted to hide under the sink.

Alex Barr, Antwine Jenkins, and Javád Whigfall initially thought the gunfire was just a fight or someone showing off and that the police officer working security would contain it. When the shots continued, the trio intended to get out with Fred Johnson and DJ Burt but lost sight of them in the rush of people fleeing. Johnson ran to one of the restrooms to search for his friends, but he was unable to find them as more people packed into it. He realized he could be shot if he stayed, and when he saw someone lying on the ground, he decided to run for the nearest exit. He was hit by multiple bullets as he made it outside. A stranger tried to stop his bleeding with a bandana and distracted him from his injuries while waiting for transportation to the hospital. Even though Johnson had been shot critically in the arm, at some point he texted his friends that he was fine and had made it out; he also told them Burt was fine. Barr, Jenkins, and Whigfall thought they were moving towards an exit that turned out to be the dead-end hallway to the restrooms. They piled into the south restroom's accessible stall with the others hiding there. The four surviving friends did not learn for more than a day that Burt was killed that night.

Demetrice Naulings also got separated from a best friend who died that night, Eddie Justice. They initially ran together to the north restroom but decided they could not hide there and would instead find a way out. Naulings tried to get them both past the panicked crowd and outside through a hallway, but after he made it out, he realized Justice was not with him. Unable to escape, Justice hid in the restroom where he later died.

Orlando Torres and Bobby Rodriguez were in the north restroom when they heard the gunfire start; Torres said Rodriguez thought it was a sample on a track, but he recognized it from experience. They went into the non-accessible stall, sat together on the toilet, and put their feet against the door so the gunman would not see them if he came in. After the shooting began, Akyra Murray and Patience Carter initially escaped together through a nearby exit, but the latter realized Tiara Parker remained inside. Murray and Carter went back inside to find Parker, then the trio hid with the other people in the north restroom's accessible stall, adjacent to the one Torres and Rodriguez were hiding in.

First responders on scene

Within the first minute, people began texting or calling loved ones and 9-1-1 to report the shooting. Detective Gruler, already on scene, did not see the armed perpetrator enter the building, but he heard the first gunshots. Seconds later, Gruler radioed "shots fired!" to OPD dispatch, which broadcast a signal 43 (officer needs immediate assistance), and he soon added "multiple down!" He took cover outside since he could hear (and soon see) a long-barreled assault rifle that "outgunned" his handgun. Since he initially thought it was a "typical" nighttime nightclub shooting with one or more specific individuals targeted, he assumed the shooter would flee after firing at their target; thus, he called for a perimeter, a chase helicopter, and a street canine. According to the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) for the Critical Incident Review, additional law enforcement officers (LEOs) from multiple agencies began to arrive within 80 seconds of the signal 43. Other LEOs also expected while en route that the gunfire would be over by the time they arrived.

As injured and terrified people ran out of the exits, Gruler yelled at them to keep running away from the nightclub. Lieutenant Scott Smith, an OPD special weapons and tactics (SWAT) commander and the on-duty watch commander that night, began issuing orders via radio within the first two minutes, including telling Gruler, "If he is still shooting and there are people in there, you need to go contact them." From outside, Gruler witnessed the gunman fatally shoot two patrons who fled through the open emergency exit doors. Gruler fired his handgun in the gunman's direction but did not hit anyone, possibly striking the doorframe instead. As the shooter remained inside and returned to the Jewel Box, Gruler moved outside in the same direction. By 2:05 a.m., Gruler was near the Pulse sign and could see the gunman again through the open patio gate and exit door. The perpetrator shot people who had fallen, were dying, or had already died on the dance floor. When the gunman crossed into Gruler's field of view and was the only person still standing, Gruler fired three times at him.

Second wave: Restrooms

The gunman's first wave of shooting ended in less than five minutes, then he went directly into the restroom hallway and entered the south restroom for the first time. After shooting a woman and a man outside the stall, he fired through the stall door. Angel Santiago and Norman Casiano Mojica were some of the survivors of those gunshots. When the shooter went to the north restroom, the people still alive in the south tried to stay as quiet as possible in the hopes he would not return. Santiago dialed 9-1-1 multiple times, trying to explain what was happening as the gunfire continued in the north restroom.

Some of the people hiding in the north restroom wanted to rush the gunman when he came in, but they did not. The shooter opened fire with his rifle for a few seconds; after it jammed, he switched to his handgun. Carter and Tiara Parker were non-fatally shot. Akyra Murray was shot three times and initially remained conscious, but she died sometime during the next hours. Multiple people pretended they were dead among those who actually were. At some point, a dying man crawled from the accessible stall into the limited space in the other stall. Bobby Rodriguez hid beneath his body. Orlando Torres fell off the toilet seat and the sound alerted the shooter, but he kept still and silent for the next three hours, including when the shooter entered the stall and touched him.

About six minutes into the shooting, while the gunman was actively firing in the south and north restrooms, the first LEO contact team walked into the outdoor patio to approach the Jewel Box. They entered the room and counted twenty clearly deceased people on the floor, along with numerous injured, but their initial priority was locating the shooter. Lt. Scott Smith arrived during that time and formed a second contact team on the south side of the club.

The gunman returned to the south restroom and laughed at the people trapped inside. They begged him to stop, insisted they did not know who he was, and told him they had not seen his face or heard his voice. He fired his handgun over and under the stall. After Jeff Xcentric was shot, he learned his friend "V" was also hiding in that stall. She was uninjured and used her medical experience to keep him conscious and prevented him from bleeding to death.

While the gunman was shooting people in the restrooms, the second contact team broke through the large window/fountain in the reception area to enter through it, then began "clearing" the main entrance and entry hallway as they moved towards the Adonis Room. The gunman stopped firing while the team was clearing those areas and he barricaded himself in the north restroom. As Torres heard the police arriving but not yet taking action to rescue the hostages, the gunman washed his hands and used the hand dryer.

The team took positions around the Adonis Room bar and aimed their guns into the narrow hallway to cover both restroom doors. At that point, they did not know which one the shooter was in, his physical description, or his name. One of the injured 9-1-1 callers said the shooter was in the restroom with them but they were unable to clearly identify or describe which (the north restroom's accessible stall); however, this call confirmed to emergency responders that the shooter was holding hostages in the restrooms, not barricaded alone. Further callers during the hostage situation pleaded with 9-1-1 operators to send medical attention for themselves or others who were shot and bleeding out.

Survivor mistaken for suspect

Despite his injuries, Norman Casiano Mojica climbed over the bathroom stall and landed on the floor, then hid under a sink until he saw police flashlights. When he first attempted to leave the south restroom, Lt. Smith yelled, "Get your hands in the air! You in the bathroom, let me see your hands. Now!" When Casiano Mojica was unable to do so—he could barely stand and could not raise his arms—the police attempted to shoot him. He later said he believed the officers had expected to see the gunman to emerge and perceived a suspect when Casiano Mojica did not put his hands up. Their gunfire did not hit him.

Lt. Smith and Sergeant Jeffrey Backhaus both shot into the hallway. In sworn interviews five days later, they stated they had fired on the actual gunman, and the 2017 Critical Incident Review maintained that the officers had fired shots "at the suspect", not a victim. The 2019 shooting review by the State Attorney's Office confirmed Casiano Mojica's account, but said it was justifiable and reasonable for LEOs to fire at him because he had not complied at first with the orders to show his hands and they believed he was the gunman. When Casiano Mojica was eventually able to comply with their instructions, he low crawled towards the LEOs and they checked him for weapons before taking him away from the nightclub and to the hospital.

Extrication and triage

At 2:03 a.m. EDT, around one minute after the first shots, Orlando Fire Department (OFD) dispatch sent an initial radio message about a caller with a gunshot wound and began dispatching multiple units, including rescue units. The lieutenant at OFD Station 5, located directly across the street from the Pro-Tint & Detailing lot, radioed about the nearby active gunfire and locked down the station. As injured people fled there for help, firefighters inside could see them but continued to follow protocol; they remained on lockdown until OPD secured the scene. OFD also sent emergency units to stage at Gore Street and South Orange Avenue, about one mile north of Pulse and past Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC). Parademics Carlos Tavarez and Joshua Granada happened to be dropping off a patient at ORMC when Granada heard what sounded at first like fireworks and Tavarez overheard a police officer's radio about the shooting. Although they had not been officially dispatched, Tavarez and Granada broke protocol and self-deployed, arriving at 2:12 a.m. to begin helping victims outside Station 5. After an OPD officer cleared the fire station at 2:13, firefighters opened the bay door and began triage and treatment as well. At 2:16, Granada and Tavarez conducted OFD's first patient transport to ORMC. Because that patient was not in critical condition, the paramedics were shocked after that by how many more severe injuries they saw.

In the Jewel Box and patio area, additional LEOs joined the first team's efforts to clear those areas. They searched for survivors and extricated the most critically injured and otherwise incapacitated people. Sylvia Serrano, Katherine Patricio, Leydiana Puyarena, and other people were hiding in that room's restroom and survived; however, some of them had been injured by bullets before they ran there. When LEOs located those twenty-two patrons, an officer provided cover for them while another escorted them outside through the patio. Another person was found hiding behind the patio bar and he was led out towards the street. At least seven other people were led out from the dance floor through the main entrance or the patio.

Kate Maini, one of the first bartenders hired at Pulse, remained hiding under the bar rack and holding onto her co-worker Juan until LEOs led people out to Dunkin' Donuts. Stanley Almodóvar III, one of Maini's regular customers, had been shot and she helped carry him to a police officer's pickup truck to be rushed to ORMC. She urged him to keep his eyes open, but she found out later that day Almodóvar had died.

After Smith fired his gun at "the suspect", he initiated a full SWAT callout at 2:18 a.m. Via radio, Smith told arriving LEOs not to enter the already-packed Adonis Room; he instead gave instructions to set up another triage team to help people who could not walk get outside. He also shifted out of his watch commander role to put on his SWAT gear and began briefing SWAT members who arrived.

Between 2:18 and 2:28 a.m., LEOs rescued at least 14 incapacitated people from the dance floor. OPD established its triage area in the parking lot at the Einstein Bros. Bagels, located to the northeast and on the opposite side of Orange Avenue. Aside from taking the injured there to assess the severity of their injuries and prioritize emergency transportation, LEOs were "going to secure" people they escorted out of the club. By that, the LEOs meant they would initially treat the survivors who were uninjured or not critically injured as possible suspects, telling them to put their hands above their heads and frisking them for weapons. The officers often switched from aggressively yelling at victims to reassuring them. The critical incident review later observed it was a mistake for LEOs to not identify and not search every person in their haste to provide aid and save lives. From that law enforcement perspective, too many witnesses and victims remained too close to Pulse for too long.

LEOs also were unaware or chose to ignore recommendations to move further away from the club for their own safety. Patrol officers and others who were not part of specialized units like SWAT did not have body armor that could sufficiently protect them against the gunman's rounds. Some who did have appropriate helmets and vests did not equip themselves before entering the club. Many did not have rubber gloves; at least one whose patrol vehicle had a box of gloves made multiple runs to retrieve and distribute them.

All critically injured people in the Jewel Box and patio area had been extricated by about 2:35, but not the hostages in the dressing rooms or the restrooms, including critically injured hostages.

During the hostage situation

The people hiding in dressing room #1 could hear the gunshots, screams, and voices in nearby rooms. Over the next three hours, Michael Belvedere sent texts to his family and best friends, just in case, then answered a phone call from event manager Neema Bahrami, who was with the police. Through that call, Belvedere described to police exactly where he, Angelica Jones, and six other people were hiding.

Inside the south restroom, Miguel Leiva recorded and sent cellphone videos to his girlfriend. He later shared them with media outlets and described how people were trying to show their families that they were still alive but had to stay quiet and not answer their ringing phones. People also rinsed and passed around one cup of water. Alex Barr, Antwine Jenkins, and Javád Whigfall had not been shot and began texting Fred Johnson and "DJ" Burt. Before Burt died, he told them he was still inside the club. Through the 9-1-1 calls, Barr got instructions from emergency responders to apply pressure to people's wounds and to try to keep people calm. Whigfall eventually connected with an investigator who wanted pictures and descriptions of what was happening in the south restroom. He counted a total of 19 people but some of them had died outside the stall.

Since the shooter had stopped firing his guns, law enforcement no longer considered it an active shooter situation, instead approaching it as an armed suspect barricaded with hostages. The surviving hostages in the north restroom overheard the gunman himself call 9-1-1 at 2:35 a.m., followed around 2:45 by a call to local station News 13, both to say he was the shooter and claim allegiance to terrorists and their organizations. This changed law enforcement's view into a terrorist holding hostages. By 2:47, LEOs had used his cell phone to identify him. An OPD crisis negotiation team (CNT) sergeant began repeatedly calling the gunman at 2:48, reasoning that the gunman was not shooting while he was talking. In several phone calls answered by the gunman, which law enforcement categorized as three separate hostage negotiations, the CNT sergeant attempted but was unable to solicit any further information, convince the shooter to surrender, or negotiate the release of any hostages.

During the three hours they were held hostage, people's cellphones continued ringing and making text alert sounds. Orlando Torres' phone was not silenced and began ringing as friends tried to see if he was okay, but to his relief, the gunman did not return to the stall Torres was playing dead in. The shooter repeatedly told the hostages to shut off their phones and not talk or text on them. Whenever he heard one, he would demand that hostages hand them over. Despite that, some people were able to retain them; they continued making calls and sending texts to 9-1-1, friends, and family. Among the 13 people who died in the restrooms, at least five made calls, sent text messages, or both before they were shot or succumbed to their wounds. Akyra Murray told her cousin Tiara Parker and friend Patience Carter that she was losing feeling in her arm after she was shot. She called 9-1-1 at 2:36 a.m. and told a dispatcher she was losing her eyesight and feeling in her body before her death.

Eddie Justice texted his mother, Mina Justice, beginning at 2:06 a.m. to tell her he loved her and to call police; he was trapped in a shooting and was going to die. They spoke on a phonecall and she hoped she was saving Eddie's life when she told him to get off the call and text her instead so the shooter would not hear it. Until his last text to her at 2:50 a.m., he continued saying the shooter had trapped people in the bathroom and they needed the police. Eddie also sent texts to Demetrice Naulings, asking for help and saying he had been shot and was going into shock.

Although Deonka Drayton and Emily Addison were no longer romantically involved, they were raising their two-year-old son together and Drayton was stepmother to Addison's teenage daughters. Drayton, Addison, and their children had a last meal on June 11. After waking up on June 12, Addison saw Drayton's text messages about the shooting and tried to call her, but the phone went straight to voicemail. In the messages, Drayton told Addison that people were shot, she was scared and in the bathroom, and she asked Addison to call the police. Her last message was: "If I die, please call my mom."

One of the hostages in the north restroom recorded the events on their cell phone for around an hour and a half. Between the gunman's phone calls with the CNT sergeant, the recording captured him speaking as if on calls with a friend/accomplice and directly addressing the hostages. It was unclear at the time if he was talking to himself or genuinely had accomplices he was speaking to, but it was very clear to the survivors that the gunman would not stop killing them until he was killed.

In the first CNT call, the gunman (falsely) implied he was wearing an explosive vest and that he had improvised explosive devices in vehicles outside. (K-9 units were soon requested to sweep the area and attempt to locate any possible explosives.) He told the sergeant that bomb dogs would not be able to smell them before the call ended. The hostages heard his one-sided conversation pretending he had a "suicide vest" on and would blow it up, as would accomplices also wearing vests. Some minutes later, he again demanded phones after hearing one outside the stalls. When nobody responded, possibly not knowing it was their own phone or because the owner was already shot or dead, Patience Carter tossed her phone out to him. The shooter said he did not have a problem with her or with black people and asked how many of the hostages were black. Carter was too afraid to respond, but one of the black men in the stall answered and said there were seven. A phone rang after that answer and the shooter asked, "Who's DJ?" Two people responded to him, "I think that was the person who's unconscious" and "He's black." The gunman talked about another mass shooting with many black victims, referring to the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina, survivor Richard Aiken's home state. The gunman again claimed to have no problem with black people and that it was nothing personal. [Media outlets widely reported on these words. The shooter killed, injured, and traumatized multiple black people and continued to do so until his death, with no attempt to spare anyone on any basis. He murdered at least ten black people.]

Sometime after hearing the police yelling and firing shots, and before the next call between gunman and CNT, Angel Santiago began moving towards the stall wall to escape the south restroom. He did not want to wait there with the possibility of the gunman returning. Some of the survivors tried to convince him that he would be killed if he tried, but he did not hear any more gunfire and decided to move. Since he could not walk, he dragged himself under the stall, down the hallway, and across the floor. An officer who spotted Santiago did not approach him, instead ordering him to drop anything in his hands and continue crawling towards the LEOs. Santiago said he had been shot, there were fifteen people in the bathroom and two of them were dead. At times as he was still crawling, he asked for reassurance that he could do it. When he got close enough to the SWAT officers, they grabbed him by the arms to drag him outside for triage. He gave them instructions about the exact location of the restroom before they put him in an ambulance to transport him to Florida Hospital; the FDLE timeline said this occurred at 3:06 a.m.

During the shooter's second and longest rambling conversation with CNT that began around 3:03, he hung up, and the phone recording captured him seemingly tell someone he was in a mess the other person would not want to get involved in but would see. Aiken managed to call his mother at some point, and around 3:14 a.m., he texted a friend who had escaped and was outside with the police. At Aiken's request, his friend asked the police what they were doing and if the hostages could help. Aiken shared the shooter's ongoing (but false) claims to the CNT sergeant and the hostages regarding explosive vests, and his friend relayed them.

At 3:20 a.m., OPD sent a tactical robot inside to provide live images and used its public address system to inform those in the south restroom that police were working on a rescue; the robot could not enter the stall due to at least one victim's body. Leiva was concerned that it may have been loud enough for the shooter to hear it. Around 3:24, the shooter's brief and last CNT call ended with repeating his message once more. SWAT team members helped four people hiding in the north dressing room (#2) get out at 3:42.

Around 4:30, SWAT officers determined that the only safe way to get the people in dressing room #1 out was through a hole in the exterior wall that held an air conditioner unit. Those hiding inside had considered the AC unit but were not sure how to take it out and how to do it quietly; LEOs also wanted to avoid alerting the gunman to their escape. Belvedere coordinated a plan on the phone with one of the officers, Tim Stanley. LEOs outside pushed the AC unit into the hands of the people inside and they quietly lowered it to the floor. They climbed up, crawled through the hole, and were safely caught by waiting LEOs. Belvedere was worried for Angelica Jones, who described herself as "not a little girl", being able to get through, but she made it through as well. After he helped the other seven get out, he was the last one to confirm that everyone inside the dressing room had escaped.

Roughly 45 minutes after the last CNT call, the gunman had another one-sided conversation, saying he needed 15-20 more minutes and three other people were outside waiting to act as snipers and start shooting cops. Several minutes later, the gunman seemed to tell someone they and two others should detonate their vests when the cops came in. He said LEOs did not know a woman was waiting on the side and a man was lying down by the bar.

One of the hostages sent a text to her brother at 4:29 a.m. EDT, which he relayed to the SWAT team, that the shooter claimed he would attach four bomb vests to hostages and would soon detonate them. At the command level, LEOs decided to break off further attempts at negotiation due to imminent loss of life and prepare to rescue the remaining hostages. As storming the restrooms through the hallway posed risks to LEOs and the hostages, LEOs began preparing to breach the west exterior wall.

Parker later said of the police response, "They waited too damn long for me. If they had moved faster, they would have gotten us out of there and everybody could have possibly lived." Torres said, "I'm thinking, when are they going to come in here? It took forever. I'm like, did they forget about us?" Aiken also wondered later why the police had waited to pursue and confront the gunman.

Breaches

Command personnel decided that the first target for the breach was the south restroom because more survivors were there and the shooter was in the north. However, their initial positioning was off and the explosive charge instead opened a hole in the hallway between the restrooms. Via loudspeaker, police told the hostages around 5 a.m. EDT, "Move as far away from the walls as you can." They put two holes in the south restroom wall, bursting a water pipe in the process. SWAT did not enter through the holes. They instructed survivors to attempt to climb out; Alex Barr said one did this by pointing a gun inside and yelling at the hostages to get out. Other LEOs helped pull survivors through and run with their hands up to another group of police, who kept their guns ready in case any of the survivors were actually the shooter or an accomplice.

Soon after the first breaches, the shooter opened the accessible stall door in the north restroom to look inside at the hostages. He walked away before returning to fire at them again. The State Attorney's Office said that when the gunman fired around 5:13, those three-to-five rounds hit people who were already deceased. This is contradicted by survivors from that stall who witnessed him killing at least three more people then. Tiara Parker identified two of them as Deonka Deidra Drayton and Tevin Eugene Crosby. Jason Josaphat and Patience Carter did not know each other, but he grabbed her and put himself between her and the shooter, sacrificing himself to save her life. She later learned his name.

After SWAT and other LEOs further breached the wall and drew the perpetrator out into the hallway, he fired at least two rounds, hitting an officer's helmet and the right leg of a survivor fleeing from the south restroom, Miguel Leiva. Multiple law enforcement agents returned fire and dropped the shooter with their gunfire. Because his handgun was within reach and they believed he may have a detonator, Lt. Smith shot the killer in the head to ensure he was dead. The shooter was reported dead by 5:17 a.m. EDT.

After the shooting

Law enforcement wished to question witnesses as soon as possible. Uninjured witnesses were placed on buses and sent to OPD headquarters. This included those who had been trapped in the dressing rooms or held hostage in the restrooms. In the main lobby of the station, the latter were put in two groups based on which restroom they had been held in.

After their questioning, a police officer drove Alex Barr, Antwine Jenkins, and Javád Whigfall back to the hotel room they had rented with the now-hospitalized Fred Johnson and with DJ Burt, still believing he was alive. The following day, they contacted Burt's family and unsuccessfully searched hospitals for him. While watching the news, Barr learned from the scrolling names of victims that Burt had died.

Victims and survivors

49 people were murdered by the gunman on June 12, 2016; additionally, 53 survivors were shot and 5 people had non-gunshot injuries treated at a hospital. Other survivors were not physically injured but were traumatized.

Deaths

Each of the 49 is listed with their age when they died. Multiple sources were used to compile complete names and nicknames. There are inconsistencies between sources in use of accent marks and hyphens, as well as disagreements on alphabetizing when someone is listed by their complete name (nombre completo), which includes their first given name (primer nombre), optionally a second given name (segundo nombre, called a "middle name" in English), and both their first and second surname (primer apellido and segundo apellido).

The faces of the 49 people killed in the Pulse shooting

Stanley Manolo Almodóvar III, 23 Amanda Lizzette Alvear, 25 Oscar Ambiorix Aracena Montero, 26 Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, aka "Rody", 33 Alejandro Barrios Martínez, 21 Martín Benítez Torres, 33 Antonio Davon Brown, aka "Tony", 30 Darryl Roman Burt II, aka "DJ", 29 Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 Ángel Luis Candelario-Padró, 28 Simón Adrian Carrillo Fernández, 31 Juan Chávez-Martínez, 25 Luis Daniel Conde, 39 Cory James Connell, 21 Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 Franky Jimmy DeJesús Velázquez, 50 Deonka Deidra Drayton, aka "Dee Dee"/"Zeus", 32 Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 Peter O. González-Cruz, aka "Ommy", 22 Juan Ramón Guerrero, 22 Paul Terrell Henry, 41 Frank Hernández, aka Frank Escalante, 27 Miguel Ángel Honorato, 30 Javier Jorge Reyes, aka "Javi", 40 Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19

Eddie J. D. Justice, aka "Brycen Banks", 30 Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, aka "Alanis Laurell", 25 Christopher Andrew Leinonen, aka "Drew", 32 Brenda Lee Márquez McCool, 49 Jean Carlos Méndez Pérez, 35 Kimberly Jean Morris, aka "KJ"/"Daddy K", 37 Akyra Monet Murray, aka "Kira", 18 Jean Carlos Nieves Rodríguez, 27 Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25 Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 Joel Rayón Paniagua, 32 Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 Juan Pablo Rivera Velázquez, 37 Yilmary Rodríguez Solivan, 24 Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, aka "Eman Valentino", 35 Gilberto Ramón Silva Menéndez, aka "Culi"/"Junito", 25 Edward Sotomayor Jr., aka "Eddi"/"Top Hat Eddie", 34 Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 Leroy Valentín Fernández, aka "Indara Valkayre", 25 Luis Sergio Vielma, 22 Luis Daniel Wilson-León, 37 Jerald Arthur Wright, aka "Jerry", 31

Survivors

Patrons

Patrons of Pulse who survived include:

• Richard Aiken — held hostage (north restroom)
• Alex Barr — held hostage (south restroom)
• Answai "Swizzy" Bennett — shot and held hostage (south restroom)
• Patience Carter — shot and held hostage (north restroom)
• Norman Casiano Mojica — shot and held hostage (south restroom), almost shot by police
• Angel Colon — shot (Jewel Box)
• Marissa Delgado — shot and held hostage (south restroom)
• Amanda Grau — shot and held hostage (north restroom)
• Miguel Leiva — held hostage (south restroom) and last survivor shot
• Chris Littlestar — shot and held hostage (south restroom)
• Felipe "Tony" Marrero
• Leo Melendez — shot
• Javier Nava Coria — shot (Jewel Box)
• Tiara Parker — shot and held hostage (north restroom)
• Brett Rigas — shot
• Bobby Rodriguez — held hostage (north restroom)
• Angel Santiago — shot and held hostage (south restroom)
• Jeff Xcentric — shot and held hostage (south restroom)

Employees and other workers

Kimberly "KJ" Morris was the only Pulse employee killed. All other employees and contract workers who were present for the shooting survived it. Most were working a shift and some were visiting on a night off; many were uninjured but others were shot or held hostage. The surviving employees include:

• Bartenders: Kate Maini, Michael Belvedere (trapped inside dressing room #1), and Rodney Sumter, Jr. (shot)
• Barback: Victor Guanchez — shot
• Club promoter: Orlando Torres — held hostage (north restroom)
• Deejays: Simeon Alberto Roman Barria aka "DJ Simon2001", Kraig Matthews aka "DJ Flawless", and Ray Rivera aka "DJ Infinite"
• Security head: Neal Whittleton
• Doorman/bouncer: Imran Yousuf
• Lead entertainer: Angelica Jones (drag persona: Angelica Sanchez; off-duty) — trapped inside (dressing room #1)
• Dancer: Dylan Kratky (stage name: Milan D'Marco) — trapped inside (dressing room #2)
• VIP hostess: Venus Envy
• Managers:
  • Brian Reagan (off-duty)
  • A'zsia Dupree (on-duty)

Aftermath

Immediate impacts

Within a day, the Pulse shooting prompted various businesses in the United States, from shopping malls to concert halls, to reexamine their security protocols. Police forces announced plans to increase security on LGBTQIA+ landmarks, such as the Stonewall Inn, and during Pride events.

Memorials at Pulse

A makeshift memorial at Pulse formed organically as family, friends, and the community mourned.

On the day of the shooting, the FBI erected a barrier fence around the crime scene. Temporary memorials at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) and the front lawn of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts did not last. At the Pulse site, the sidewalks and parking lot around the chainlink fence, and the fence itself, organically became a temporary memorial with photographs of the victims, small shrines of candles, flowers, and other items. Mourners used chalk to write messages on the black material hanging from the fence. The Orange County Regional History Center collected and archived non-perishable items for the One Orlando Collection. When the City of Orlando eventually determined the makeshift memorial was unsafe for pedestrians and drivers, it announced that the security fence would be removed and replaced with a new one closer to the building to create more space; the majority of the tribute items would be collected beginning on September 16, 2016. The new fence was covered with a "commemorative screen wrap" with rainbow stripes and local artwork.

The City of Orlando announced in November 2016 that it had negotiated buying the Pulse property for $2.25 million to build a permanent memorial on the land; however, Barbara Poma announced on December 5 that she had decided she could not sell it. She had started the non-profit onePULSE Foundation and it would set aside funds not already promised to the National Compassion Fund for a permanent memorial at the existing location of Pulse. The makeshift memorial remained for over a year as the onePULSE Foundation planned and designed its replacement with an interim memorial surrounding former nightclub, which was meant to last until the future construction of a permanent memorial at the site. Once again, the temporary memorial was dismantled and the surviving objects were preserved in the One Orlando Collection. The Pulse interim memorial opened to the public on May 8, 2018. That year, Orange County awarded $10 million of Tourism Development Tax (TDT) dollars to purchase land and design the onepULSE museum. The foundation purchased a 1.75-acre parcel of land about one-third of a mile from Pulse at 438 West Kaley Street with $3.5 million of the TDT money in September 2019 and later spent roughly $3.5 million on museum design costs. On June 25, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the unanimously-passed legislation that formally established Pulse nightclub as a National Memorial.

The interim memorial at Pulse features an artistic wall with tributes to the victims.

Around 8:30 PM on October 12, 2021, a man set fire to one of the memorial banners and the fire spread quickly to other items on the offering wall. Gary Prettyman, a manager at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street, said he initially believed the fire was caused by one of the candles and ran with a bucket of water to help put out the fire. The act of arson was captured on surveillance camera. After the onePULSE Foundation shared the footage on Facebook in November, Pulse survivor Orlando Torres worked with other friends to identify a suspect, who was reported to relevant law enforcement. On November 9, the suspect was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief.

In February 2022, the public defense counsel assigned to the defendant submitted a motion that the defendant was not competent to proceed, based upon two separate evaluations that were not court-ordered. After subsequent court-ordered evaluations in March, the defendant was found incompetent to proceed on May 23, without ruling out an intellectual disability. An intellectual disability competency hearing was set for August 30, which he failed to appear for, resulting in the state issuing a capias warrant on the following day.

Barbara Poma moved from executive director to a national fundraising role called "keeper of the story" in 2022. On April 4, 2023, the onePULSE Foundation announced that Poma was no longer with the organization. On May 2, the foundation announced that the planned permanent memorial would not be built at the Pulse site; after months of negotiations, an agreement could not be reached for a full donation of the property by owners Barbara and Rosario Poma and business partner Michael Panaggio. The foundation stated it would move on with memorial plans at another location. Barbara Poma said she and her husband had decided and were willing to donate their share of the property and had informed the foundation verbally and in writing, but Panaggio chose not to donate his remaining parcel. Panaggio told WESH 2 Investigates that he had never received money for his investment in Pulse and was "totally blindsided by the request to donate my collateral for the money I invested".

Some of the victims' families and survivors held a press conference on Mother's Day 2023 to call for the 49 families of the deceased and the 53 survivors of serious gunshots to have control of the onePULSE Foundation. They have alleged that the private nonprofit has exploited them for fundraising, lied to them, twice changed its mission statement to eliminate financial assistance, and referred them to nonprofits that do not provide financial assistance or no longer exist. Through the Victims First organization, the group has also demanded a federal criminal investigation into claims compiled by the Community Coalition Against a Pulse Museum regarding unpermitted renovations and code violations that reportedly hindered victims' ability to escape or be rescued during the shooting. Poma and the onePULSE Foundation have responded that the allegations are false. The executive director of onePULSE, Deborah Bowie, stated that the board of directors had determined the pre-COVID museum plans needed to be rescaled for economic changes, the existing 44,000-square-foot building on the 438 West Kaley Street parcel should be reused, and they would rethink the portion used for the museum versus communal space. The foundation also said they would discuss building a memorial that would not be located on the actual Pulse property, such as the adjacent land or adjacent to the museum.

Other memorials and tributes

Friends and family of the deceased have created projects in honor of their loved ones. Amanda Alvear's brother, Brian Alvear, began a "Hugs, Not Hate" campaign in his sister's honor to spread love and hugs. Friends of Christopher "Drew" A. Leinonen created The Dru Project, named after his online pseudonym, to honor him and continue his legacy of empowering LGBTQ youth. #ActLoveGive is a movement launched by the One Orlando Alliance to encourage acts of love and kindness across 49 days, from April 25 to June 12.

Memorial artwork includes:

• 49 crosses: Greg Zanis crafted white wooden crosses for each of the deceased victims and drove them from Chicago to Orlando a few days later. The crosses were set up in a park at the Orlando Regional Medical Center with a red heart, the victim's name, and a photograph. They soon accumulated letters, candles, and other memorial objects, along with messages written directly on them. The items were collected for preservation at the Orange County Regional History Center. In a somber handoff ceremony on July 12, 2016, the 49 crosses were placed in a truck by family members of the victims, volunteers, and public officials; two police motorcycles then led the crosses to the museum about a mile and a half away.
• LOVE mural: By Michael Owen, featuring 49 orange blossoms and purple hands spelling "LOVE". Located across the street from Pulse on the Einstein Bros. Bagels at 1901 South Orange Avenue in Orlando.
• Pulse labyrinth: A circular labyrinth with 49 pavers, each with the name of a victim, and a rainbow-colored "Orlando United" heart in the center. Located in Colonialtown Square Park, 820 North Fern Creek Avenue in Orlando.
• You Mattered: A wall mural by Andrew Spear, featuring 49 rainbow-colored birds flying out from the Pulse logo. Located at 1200 East Colonial Drive in Orlando.
• The LGBT+ Center murals: Two murals painted on the sides of the building, an "Orlando Strong" mural and another with rainbow-colored heart outlines and the number 49. Located on The LGBT+ Center at 946 North Mills Avenue in Orlando.
• #OrlandoStrong: By Jeff Sonksen, a rainbow #OrlandoStrong with outlines of Orlando landmarks. Located at 1050 North Mills Avenue in Orlando.
• Diversity Mural: Overseen by the Luna Mosaic Arts team, a hand-assembled mosaic made of hearts created by and sent from artists around the world. During building renovations by a new property owner, the mosaic mural was damaged. Located at 1336 North Mills Avenue in Orlando.
• Mural at UCF: Boyfriends Christopher Leinonen and Juan Ramon Guerrero both had connections to the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Leinonen as an alumnus and Guerrero as an enrolled student. In June 2017, Michael Pilato and Yuriy Karabash installed a mural at UCF's Student Union that featured the couple and was created in collaboration with their families. Located at the University of Central Florida, 12778 Aquarius Agora Drive in Orlando.
• Inspiration Orlando United: Artists Pilato and Karabash also collaborated with Chimene Hurst to create another mural featuring the 49 with their family and friends. They revise it according to feedback from those loved ones.

Long-term responses and effects

Survivors of the shooting need ongoing support for long-term and permanent conditions, including: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, survivor's guilt, permanent nerve damage, and hearing and vision loss. Many survivors and family members have had difficulties accessing services due to concerns about immigration status, language barriers for Spanish speakers when service providers only know English, low income or loss of income due to disability or quitting work to become a survivor's caretaker, or not having health insurance.

The One Orlando Fund raised and distributed $31.6 million for the families of those killed and for survivors before it closed. In 2021, its website directed visitors to donate to the Better Together Fund, which ran out of money and closed in 2019. Donations to onePULSE are used for educational programs and the memorial/museum fund, not distributed to survivors.

By May 2017, 90 people were utilizing the free Pulse-related counseling program offered by the nonprofit Mental Health Association of Central Florida, which operated the service with very limited funding. The Humana Foundation and actress Glenn Close each contributed $50,000 to pay for a coordinator and counselors on contract, and the Better Together Fund provided $1,500 for support groups.

The Orlando United Assistance Center (OUAC) was created with a federal grant from the Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program to provide culturally competent mental health counseling, legal assistance, and other services. The LGBT+ Center operates the OUAC without stable funding. The federal grant expired in 2019 after three years. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has vetoed state funding passed by the legislature for the OUAC, $50,000 (USD) in 2020 and $150,000 on June 2, 2021. The timing of the 2021 signing and vetoes, which occurred on the first days of Pride month and shortly before the fifth annual remembrance of the events at Pulse, was criticized locally and nationally.

Resources

Websites

• Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice
• Community Coalition Against a Pulse Museum
• Dear Orlando — Dear World photo series and stories from survivors, friends and family, first responders, and others connected to the event
• The Dru Project — Curriculum for high school Gay-Straight Alliances and scholarships for students in honor of Christopher "Drew" Leinonen
• One Orlando Alliance — Coalition of Central Florida organizations serving the LGBTQ+ community, formed to support families and survivors of the Pulse tragedy
• The One Orlando Collection — Curated by the Orange County Regional History Center, with a searchable gallery
• OnePulse Memorial — Virtual tour of the interim memorial

News media

• Orlando Weekly — Greater Orlando alternative news
  • Pulse topic and tag
  • "Remembering the Orlando 49"
  • "Remembering Pulse through the heartfelt artifacts left behind"
• Orlando Sentinel — Greater Orlando daily newspaper
  • Pulse Nightclub shooting tag
  • Pulse Victims (archived version, multiple articles)
• Spectrum News 13 — Pulse topic
• "The Victims: Family, friends recount details of the lives of those killed in the Orlando attack" (archived version) by Tampa Bay Times
• Watermark Online — Orlando- and Tampa Bay-based LGBTQ+ news
  • Pulse tag
  • "Read their names, see their faces: remember all 49 victims of the Pulse mass shooting"
• 90.7 WMFE — National Public Radio station in Central Florida
  • Pulse Shooting tag
  • Remembering the Victims of the Pulse Nightclub Shooting
• The Advocate — LGBT+ news since 1967
  • The Pulse Shooting tag
  • "The 49 Orlando Victims and Their Stories"

Other media

• 49 Pulses (2017) — Documentary
• Disarm Hate (2020) — Documentary
• Jeannette (2022) — Documentary about Jeannette Feliciano's life after surviving
• Lifeline: The Untold Story of Saving the Pulse Survivors (2018) — Documentary focused on the importance of blood donors
• Surviving Pulse: Life after a Mass Shooting (2022)
• True Life: We Are Orlando (2016) — MTV special episode of True Life
• S1.E5 "Orlando, Florida" (2017) — Episode of Active Shooter: America Under Fire
• "Surviving the Pulse Nightclub Mass Shooting" (2017) — Episode of Iyanla, Fix My Life with six survivors
• Survive Then Live: The Patience Carter Story by Patience Murray (née Carter) — Memoir and motivational book

References

	Content warning
	The linked articles may be triggering or disturbing, with contents that include graphic details of what people personally experienced or witnessed, images of injured people, and information about the perpetrator.