President Obama and VP
Biden meet with the families of the
Orlando victims who were killed at
Pulse night club and lay flowers at the memorial.
The first of 49 goodbyes: The long procession of funerals after Orlando massacre begins as families prepare to bury their dead
The flag flew at half-staff at a cemetery outside Orlando as the first of the 49 victims who perished in the massacre at the Pulse nightclub was laid to rest.
Dozens of mourners surrounded a black hearse as the body of
Kimberly 'KJ'
Morris was loaded in and taken for burial at
Osceola Memory Gardens Cemetery in
Kissimmee, Florida.
Morris, 37, originally of
Torrington, Connecticut, moved to Orlando months ago from
Massachusetts and worked at the club as a bouncer.
She died in the early hours of
Sunday morning when a gunman wielding an
AR-15 rifle and a handgun stormed the gay nightclub and opened fire, killing 49 in what became the deadliest mass shooting in
American history.
'She'd just started working there and told me how she was thrilled to get more involved in the
LGBT community there,' her ex-girlfriend Starr
Shelton told the
Orlando Sentinel. 'She was so excited.'
Jessica Frazier knew Morris from Pulse and said she was always very positive, no matter what was going on.
But even as the families of the victims prepare to bury their dead, it's unclear exactly what led
Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old Muslim born in
New York to
Afghan parents, to open fire in a gay nightclub where some have claimed he was a regular patron
.
In the final hours of his life, Mateen reportedly called
911 to pledge allegiance to
ISIS and also apparently made a series of
Facebook posts in which he raged against the 'filthy ways of the
West.'
That's according to a
Senate committee, which has asked Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerburg for help uncovering the trail of hate Mateen left behind in cyberspace.
The call came as
President Barack Obama arrived in Orlando with
Vice President Joe Biden to offer solace to the grief-stricken city.
Orlando was 'shaken by an evil, hateful act,'
Obama said on Thursday, as he and Biden laid flowers at a makeshift memorial for victims of the shooting after hugging their families. The president said he told them: 'Our hearts are broken, too, and that we stand with you.'
Carrying two bouquets of white roses, a flower for each of the 49 victims, a somber-looking Obama and Biden, his eyes hidden behind shades, put the flowers underneath a red, white and blue wreath outside Orlando's
Phillips Center, adjacent to
City Hall.
In Orlando, Obama is meeting with families of the victims, as well as with the doctors, paramedics and other first responders who came to their aid.
'Their grief is beyond description,' Obama said this afternoon. '
These families could be our families. In fact, they are our family. They are part of the
American family.'
- published: 16 Jun 2016
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