Qualla: Pulse Nightclub Shooting

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edburns00, CC BY-SA 4.0. Forty-nine names. They range in age from 18 to 50. They are sons, daughters, siblings, partners, parents. Akyra Monet Murray, the youngest, had just graduated from high school in Philadelphia and was celebrating with friends. Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49, was at Pulse with her son, who survived. The list reads like a cross-section of Orlando itself: Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Cuban, American-born, immigrant, military veteran, college student, retail worker, aspiring dancer. On June 12, 2016, they were at Pulse, a gay nightclub on South Orange Avenue, for Latin Night -- a weekly Saturday event that drew a primarily Latino crowd. By sunrise, all 49 were dead, and 58 more were wounded, in what remains the deadliest act of violence against LGBTQ people in the history of the United States.

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Image: Edburns00 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: The Night of June 12

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senator Tim Kaine, Public domain. Pulse was serving last-call drinks around 2 a.m. when approximately 320 people were still inside the club. The gunman arrived in a rented van, armed with a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol. He entered through the southern entrance and be...

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Image: Senator Tim Kaine | Public domain

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: A City Responds

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Senator Tim Kaine, Public domain. Orlando's response was immediate and overwhelming. The Orlando Regional Medical Center, the primary trauma center just three blocks from Pulse, received 44 of the wounded and performed 76 surgeries on 35 patients. The last survivor was discharged nearly three months later. Both h...

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Image: Senator Tim Kaine | Public domain

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Forty-Nine Flags

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the days following the shooting, Governor Rick Scott directed that 49 state flags be flown for 49 days in front of the Florida Historic Capitol in Tallahassee, each one bearing the name, age, and photograph of a victim. President Barack Obama described the shooting as both an ...

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Image: Pax Ahimsa Gethen | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pulse Nightclub Shooting: The Unfinished Memorial

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0. The site of Pulse on South Orange Avenue became an improvised memorial almost immediately -- flowers, photographs, rainbow flags, handwritten messages. In December 2016, the nightclub's owner declined the city's offer to purchase the property, instead creating the OnePulse Founda...

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Image: Michael Rivera | CC BY-SA 4.0