The Orlando nightclub where 49 people were massacred in the worst mass shooting in modern US history should be a preserved as a place to honor their lives, the city’s mayor says.
Advertisement
The Mayor of Orlando says that the city may take ownership of the Pulse nightclub to ensure a permanent memorial on the site.
The onePULSE Foundation, a nonprofit established by the club’s owners to provide victims with financial support, said in a Facebook post Sunday it was collecting donations for a “permanent memorial that will be built on the Pulse Orlando site”. “I think we need to determine some period of time that we leave it exactly as is, with some adequate fencing, because there will be people”.
He added: “People are traveling from all over the country, really all over the world…”
On Wednesday, Dyer toured the Pulse site with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who is now visiting Orlando with his husband.
A Pulse spokesperson told the Orlando Sentinel the club’s owner had recently met with city officials about the idea but talks are still “very preliminary”.
“We wouldn’t be having these discussions if the mayor wasn’t serious in our interest in acquiring the property”, she said.
Omar Mateen opened fire at Pulse on June 12, leaving 49 people dead and injuring 53 others.
In the weeks after the massacre, mourners also left items at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando Regional Medical Center and Lake Eola Park, many of which were gathered up and collected by the Orange County Regional History Center.
Advertisement
FOX 35 obtained paperwork last week that indicated that the site of the Pulse Nightclub shooting could be turned into a permanent Orlando memorial. Bettel is openly gay.
