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| 'We're just praying': Friends and family wait for news after Orlando shooting | 'We're just praying': Friends and family wait for news after Orlando shooting |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| People waited outside Orlando hospitals on Sunday, to learn whether their family and friends were victims in the Pulse nightclub attack in Florida, which left 50 people dead and 53 others injured. | People waited outside Orlando hospitals on Sunday, to learn whether their family and friends were victims in the Pulse nightclub attack in Florida, which left 50 people dead and 53 others injured. |
| Related: Florida nightclub shooting: 50 killed and 53 injured in 'act of terror' – latest updates | Related: Florida nightclub shooting: 50 killed and 53 injured in 'act of terror' – latest updates |
| By late afternoon Sunday, authorities had only released the names of six victims: Edward Sotomayor Jr, 34; Stanley Almodovar III, 23; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36; and Peter O Gonzalez-Cruz, 22. | |
| Sotomayor was a brand manager at a travel agency that specialized in vacations for the gay community, and company owner Al Ferguson wrote on Facebook that he was with the victim’s family at the hospital. “One of the saddest days of my life,” he wrote, adding that he felt “empty”. | |
| Almodovar lived in Clermont, Florida, and worked as a pharmacist, writing on Instagram: “pharmacy is my talent, drug life chose me.” His own social media pages were filled with tributes from friends and family. | |
| Tragic news also seeped through the police cordon in South Orange Avenue, where officers kept the public back about 200 metres from the Pulse nightclub. | |
| Three women, regular Pulse visitors who by a quirk were not there last night, learnt via text message that one of their close friends did not survive the massacre. “They didn’t make it, they didn’t make it,” the women said. | |
| Amy, 28, Xiomara and Janice Rivera, both 24, are visibly distraught. But above all they are angry. Angry that their community was picked on for no reason. Angry that while they wish nobody else any harm, they have themselves become targets. Angry that once again they will have to be looking behind their backs in case of another attack. | |
| “There were never any problems in Pulse,” Amy said. “It was never dangerous. Gay people don’t care what straight people do in their beds, so why does it matter in ours.” | |
| “This was the first club I’d ever been to where we were welcomed. Everybody would dance with each other – straight, bixexual, trans, anything. It doesn’t matter who you were, everyone will love you in there,” said Rivera. | |
| Xiomara said that “now we have to go in fear. We have to hope this doesn’t happen to us again. We aren’t bad human beings, we just love our own sex. So why so much hatred?” | |
| There was little information about the other victims of the deadliest shooting in American history as authorities worked to identify those whose bodies remained in the nightclub into Sunday afternoon. | |
| Nearly 12 hours after the shooting began, the White House waived certain parts of the national health privacy rule so the hospital could speak with family members. Longtime Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer said he had contacted the White House to request the change. He said all victims in the hospital had been identified. | Nearly 12 hours after the shooting began, the White House waived certain parts of the national health privacy rule so the hospital could speak with family members. Longtime Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer said he had contacted the White House to request the change. He said all victims in the hospital had been identified. |
| At Orlando police headquarters, Maria Arocha, 17, told the Guardian her cousin Martin Torres, 33, went to the club with his husband Michael Morales but had not been heard from since. | |
| Morales escaped with a bullet wound to his knee and was recovering in the Orlando regional medical center. But of Torres, Arocha said, there was no word. | Morales escaped with a bullet wound to his knee and was recovering in the Orlando regional medical center. But of Torres, Arocha said, there was no word. |
| “We’re just hoping and praying,” Arocha said. “We’ve been to the hospital trying to find out anything we can, but nobody knows anything. Michael is OK but we’re worried about Martin, of course.” | “We’re just hoping and praying,” Arocha said. “We’ve been to the hospital trying to find out anything we can, but nobody knows anything. Michael is OK but we’re worried about Martin, of course.” |
| Torres was at the club celebrating and had been looking forward to a night out with his husband, excitedly posting about it in a Facebook post, Arocha said. He was not a regular at Pulse, she added. | Torres was at the club celebrating and had been looking forward to a night out with his husband, excitedly posting about it in a Facebook post, Arocha said. He was not a regular at Pulse, she added. |
| Brian Vieoma has been texting and calling his brother Luis’s mobile phone since his family learned this morning about the Pulse shooting. He had no reply and now feared the worst. | Brian Vieoma has been texting and calling his brother Luis’s mobile phone since his family learned this morning about the Pulse shooting. He had no reply and now feared the worst. |
| “He came over for Latin Night, Venezuelans love to go dancing,” Vieoma said of his 22-year-old brother. | “He came over for Latin Night, Venezuelans love to go dancing,” Vieoma said of his 22-year-old brother. |
| “We know he was at the club with a female friend, could be a girlfriend, could be a friend, but we don’t know, and we haven’t heard from him. There’s been no answer on his phone.” | “We know he was at the club with a female friend, could be a girlfriend, could be a friend, but we don’t know, and we haven’t heard from him. There’s been no answer on his phone.” |
| Luis Vieoma, who works at Universal Studios’ theme park, was visiting the club from Sanford, a city north of Orlando. His father went to the Orlando Regional Medical Center to search for his son while Brian looked for information at a victim support center set up at a nearby hotel. | Luis Vieoma, who works at Universal Studios’ theme park, was visiting the club from Sanford, a city north of Orlando. His father went to the Orlando Regional Medical Center to search for his son while Brian looked for information at a victim support center set up at a nearby hotel. |
| “My mom is out of the country and it’ll be hard for her,” said Brian, 19. “We’re just praying.” | “My mom is out of the country and it’ll be hard for her,” said Brian, 19. “We’re just praying.” |
| Witnesses described being in the club when they heard bangs that sounded like music only to realize it was gunfire as they and people close to them were splattered with blood. Police and citizens said they received calls and texts from people inside the club asking for help. | |
| Mina Justice told the Associated Press that her 30-year-old son, Eddie, had been in the club when the attack took place. She said he texted her to ask that she call the police, then sent a message that said “he’s coming”. | |
| His next text said: “He has us, and he’s in here with us,” she said. “That was the last conversation.” | |
| Related: ‘Everyone get out and keep running': how the Orlando attack unfolded | Related: ‘Everyone get out and keep running': how the Orlando attack unfolded |
| Police directed relatives to a crisis hotline for more information. Facebook activated its Safety Check feature so those in the area could broadcast that they were safe to their family and friends. People also used social media to seek information about their missing friends and family. | Police directed relatives to a crisis hotline for more information. Facebook activated its Safety Check feature so those in the area could broadcast that they were safe to their family and friends. People also used social media to seek information about their missing friends and family. |
| Christine Leinonen cried as she told ABC News that she had been outside the hospital since 4am waiting to hear what had happened to her son, Christopher, who had been at Pulse with his friends. | Christine Leinonen cried as she told ABC News that she had been outside the hospital since 4am waiting to hear what had happened to her son, Christopher, who had been at Pulse with his friends. |
| “They said there’s a lot of dead bodies in the club and that it’s a crime scene ... so it could be hours and hours before we find out,” Leinonen said. | “They said there’s a lot of dead bodies in the club and that it’s a crime scene ... so it could be hours and hours before we find out,” Leinonen said. |
| She said her son’s friend, Brandon, told her he did not know where her son was but had seen Christopher’s boyfriend taken by ambulance from the club with multiple gunshot wounds. | She said her son’s friend, Brandon, told her he did not know where her son was but had seen Christopher’s boyfriend taken by ambulance from the club with multiple gunshot wounds. |
| Leinonen said: “I left him with ‘I love you’.” | Leinonen said: “I left him with ‘I love you’.” |