On the evening of October 12, a man in a wheelchair was caught on camera
vandalizing the Pulse Memorial in Orlando, Fla. by setting it on fire
and then fleeing the scene. Now the onePULSE Foundation has released the
approximately 18-minute surveillance video in hopes that someone who sees it
can assist the police in identifying the vandal.
Using what appears to be a lighter, the suspect sets fires to the murals
hanging on the memorial’s outside wall, leaving as the blaze grows larger.
After several minutes of burning, another person approaches the memorial to
help stamp out the remaining flames.
“Three Angel banners were burned along with other items within the
affected area,” the foundation wrote in a Facebook post, urging those who know
the man to contact the Orlando Police Department.
The murals memorialized the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in which Omar
Mateen, a 29-year-old man, entered the club, barricaded the door, and opened
fire. He killed 49 people and wounded 53 more. The shooting went on for three
hours, ending when SWAT teams breached the building and shot Mateen, bringing
the death toll to 50 and marking the deadliest mass shooting in US
history.
Sadly, this is not the first time the memorial has been defaced. In May
2020 the logo for the Pulse nightclub, which is featured in the middle of the
display, was covered over by a sticker from a group called
Patriot Front, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a “white
nationalist hate group.”
Anyone with information about the man seen in the video should contact
the Orlando Police Department at 407-246-2470 and reference case number
2021-003-693-96.
SOURCE: ADVOCATE
No comments:
Post a Comment