City leaders reflect on grim milestone
John Mina, Buddy Dyer and others remember the feelings of chaos, grief and hope for themselves and all of Central Florida in the year since the Pulse nightclub shooting.
A year ago, Orlando Police Chief John Mina was in the midst of chaos, coordinating the city’s response to the mass shooting that claimed 49 lives at Pulse nightclub.
On Monday, as the city recognized the passage of one year since the massacre, Mina met with the families of the tragedy’s victims, speaking with some of their parents for the first time, he said.
“I have taken a moment to feel some of the emotion and some of the feelings that everyone else was feeling,” Mina said. “We all went through this, as a community, together, and it’s been nice to help grieve and help others heal today.”
Mina and other Orlando leaders reflected on the milestone in a series of one-onone interviews with the Orlando Sentinel at Lake Eola Park, prior to a remembrance ceremony held there Monday night.
Mayor Buddy Dyer called it a “poignant” day, the result of weeks of intense preparations and anxiety for those organizing the day’s events, as well as the survivors. Turnout for the day’s events, he said, “far exceeded what my expectations were.”
“I’m very proud of our community [and] how we have responded, not with fear, or anger, or hatred, but with love and compassion and unity,” he said. “That showed all the way to today.”
Dyer insisted Orlando hasn’t changed in the year since the Pulse massacre — the city was already an inclusive and diverse place, he said, which lived up to its ideals in responding to the tragedy.
Orlando Fire Chief Roderick Williams said his department has changed over that span, adding training for active-shooter situations and outfitting its trucks with ballistic vests. Incidents of mass violence, he said, are “the new normal” for emergency crews.
“We have put policies in place just so our personnel can think with a different mindset,” he said. “When those calls go out now, you put your vest on, you prepare yourself for the unthinkable.”
Mina said Monday was a challenging day for Orlando’s police force, especially the officers who responded to the chaos at Pulse.
“A day like today is tough for them,” he said. “No one could prepare them for what they saw on that horrific night and, just like the rest of our survivors and community, they’ve been healing … and they continue to heal.”
Williams said his firefighters, too, are still recovering.
“We’re human, too. You try to compartmentalize it,” he said. “We have … different outlets for them to talk about what they experienced because, at the end of the day, it was a war zone. It was a war zone right here in the United States, right here in Orlando.”
Dyer said it’s too soon to say how Orlando will recognize June 12 in future years.
“Right now, we’re trying to make it through today, so we’ll see what the years and the future brings — but always, always remembering the victims and their families,” he said.