ORLANDO, Fla. — As the city of Orlando plans a visit to Pulse for survivors and victims’ families, a Parkland father whose son died in that shooting says he has advice for Orlando.
“Parkland is here for the Pulse community,” said Max Schacter, whose son, Alex, was killed during the Parkland school shooting. “I brought hundreds of people through the site of the Parkland shooting.”
Schacter said there were counselors both inside and outside of the building to help deal with grief during their visit, which was left as it was after the shooting for evidence in court.
“It’s fraught if it’s not done right, and nobody wants to cause more pain,” said Zachary Blair of the group Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice, which is also trying to avoid the visit.
“For the city to invite Pulse survivors and families into the building without an inspection is not only irresponsible, it’s revictimizing,” he said.
Blair says he’s concerned about survivors and families of victims going into the building, giving us a memo and photos from back in 2016, that he recently received from a public records request. It states the building is unsafe and warrants emergency condemnation.
“The SWAT team made multiple holes in the wall, which was a load-bearing wall, and the city’s never done an inspection,” said Blair.
There are also walled-over windows that have never been addressed,” he said. We asked the City for documentation showing the building is safe but were told, “We don’t have any indication that the building is unsafe to enter.”
The City released a statement regarding the memo, saying: “There was an emergency condemnation on the building. This was done at the time because the building was deemed unfit due to biohazards from the shooting and to ensure the building was properly secured in the aftermath of the tragedy.”
A city spokesperson added, “While the Pulse building has been unoccupied for several years, there are no structural concerns with the building. We also believe it is safe for small groups to enter for short periods of time.”
Pulse survivor Darelis Torres said, “My physical health will be at risk there. But it’s something I have to do.”
“There could be mold, black mold, which for people who are compromised with their breathing that could be a problem,” she said.
Architect Tony Ewen, president of E Design Management, says that even if it is deemed safe, people still need to be careful because it’s a risk, saying, “You don’t know what’s loose in the building, and it doesn’t take much for something that’s attached to the wall up high or an exterior wall to cause a problem.”
“It’s a hard decision,” said Schacter, noting that while it’s up to the individual person, he says he doesn’t regret going in.
“I had questions that I wanted to understand. I sit on the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS Public Safety Commission,” he said.
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