Pulse Night of Remembrance

49 lives were lost on the 12th of June 2016 at the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Pulse was a gay bar, dance club and nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The venue was founded back in 2014 by Barbara Poma and Ron Legler. Pulse was well known for hosting themed performances each night with monthly programs which featured educational events towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Pulse offered something different every night whilst having some very impressive drag shows. Due to having three main areas, Pulse was often known as three nightclubs all in one with it being herald as “ultramodern”.  On the 12th of June 2016, Pulse nightclub was the scene of the second worst mass shooting by a single shooter in US history whilst being the second deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since the events of September 11th with 49 people being killed and another 53 people injured from the shooting.

The night of the shooting, Pulse nightclub was celebrating Latin Night, one of the clubs many themed nights that attracted hundreds of people. The club was full of people from all around the world in which was supposed to be a fun and celebratory night which soon became a nightmare after Orlando police first received reports of shots being fired at 02:02. The shooting saw around three hours of fighting, negotiation talks and violence which finally came to an end after SWAT accompanied by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Hazardous Device Team began breaching bathroom walls to clear way for an entry. When the walls began to fall, hostages emerged alongside the shooter now known as Omar Mir Seddique Mateen. After firing at police, Mateen was shot dead at the scene shortly after with police reporting the shooter to be down at 05:15.