PULSE in Orlando…1 year Later
From the Washington Post –
For the first time since the massacre last June, when Orlando’s Pulse nightclub went from patrons’ safe haven to nightmare in a matter of seconds, owner Barbara Poma turned on the building’s outside lights Sunday — reminding mourners what it looked like before everything closed down.
Hues of pink and purple splashed across the bar’s black exterior and blue-green spotlights illuminated palm trees. The club’s logo — a large “P” — was projected on the wall.
It had been a year since the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history stole 49 lives there and scarred countless others; a year since Pulse, a safe space for Orlando’s gay community, fundamentally changed.
From CBS News –
Church bells throughout Orlando will ring 49 times at noon Monday, a year after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Gov. Rick Scott ordered U.S. flags around Florida to be flown at half-staff, a giant rainbow flag will be unveiled at the Orange County government building, and three separate services at the Pulse nightclub will be held as well as a large evening gathering in the heart of downtown Orlando to honor the 49 patrons massacred at the gay nightclub.
The first service, closed to the public, was held for survivors, local officials and club employees, overlapping with the exact time gunman Omar Mateen began firing shots — a little after 2 a.m. on June 12, 2016 — during “Latin Night” at Pulse, reports CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG-TV.
“Just after 1 a.m. the angels walked through the parking lot and surrounded the nightclub,” the station says. “The same people dressed in wide, white angel wings protected family and friends in the days after the shooting last year so they could mourn in private. … Soft music played and the angels held candles, their backs facing the club as family gathered behind them.”
