Pulse mural honors the dead, survivors of nightclub shooting

Patrons of a Thornton Park coin laundry found a new addition to the decor outside the building Saturday: a mural with images of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

The mural actually is on the east wall of Burton’s Bar, where it is expected to remain for two or three months, then it will be displayed in the Parramore neighborhood of Orlando and then Kissimmee, cocreator Michael Pilato said.

He’s planning to refine and add to the acrylic piece, which is designed to expand and contract with the weather. It was first displayed outside Pulse a year after the June 2016 shooting.

“It gets bigger and bigger as we learn more stories,” Pilato said.

The Central Pennsylvania native moved to Orlando after being deeply touched by the shooting, which killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others at the gay nightclub.

With the help of the victims’ families, he and his longtime business partner, Yuriy Karabash, designed the mural, called “Inspiration Orlando United,” which also includes pictures of people who were not at the nightclub during the shooting.

Among them are the late Billy Manes, a well-known gay activist who died in July, Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, both strong advocates for the gay community.

“Really, what this mural is showing is the love — the positive versus the negative,” Pilato said.

He and Karabash also painted a mural at the University of Central Florida to honor student Juan Ramón Guerrero and his boyfriend, alumnus Christopher “Drew” Leitonen. Both were killed by the Pulse gunman.

Their next project is a mural to memorialize Manes, Pilato said. Manes’ husband, Anthony Mauss, has set up a GoFundMe page to finance the Billy Manes Legacy Mural.