49 Pulses

By Charlie Minn

On June 12, 2016, a gunman walked into a crowded nightclub in Orlando, Florida and shot 102 people, murdering 49 of them. At 2:00 AM, the Pulse nightclub was winding down its weekly Latino night. The building was dark, crowded, and loud. Patrons were making plans to leave when they were ambushed by a gunman, who began firing in every direction. Customers tried to escape, but the killer followed them. For the next three hours, the gunman terrorized victims while playing a cat and mouse game with the police. Join acclaimed filmmaker Charlie Minn as he tries to answer several questions that remain unanswered about this tragedy, including why the perpetrator chose Pulse nightclub and why it took over three hours for police to stop the shooter. Through his interviews with the survivors, police, family members, and city officials, Minn pieces together how one of the largest mass shootings in American history took place. Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Mar 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781974908271

Charlie Minn

Charlie Minn is a documentary filmmaker who splits his time between El Paso, Texas and New York City. He has sold films to Lions Gate and Investigation Discovery and once worked for the TV series America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988). From his films about the violence in Juarez, Mexico, to the arrest of drug kingpin Joaquin Loera Guzman (aka Chapo Guzman) and other unsolved crimes, Charlie's daring movies represent innocent people who have been murdered.

Book preview

49 PULSES

By

CHARLIE MINN

Adapted for eBook by Sven Gustafson and John Holkeboer

This edition published by Dreamscape Media LLC, 2018

www.dreamscapeab.com * [e-mail]

1417 Timberwolf Drive, Holland, OH 43528

877.983.7326

Contents

A Regular Saturday Night

Dancing to Gunshots

Everyone was just stunned

First Response

Huddled In Stalls

The Shooter Speaks

Confusion and Carnage

Aftermath

3 hours and 12 minutes

Remembering the Victims

The Healing

Conclusion

A Regular Saturday Night

Those who survived will never forget that night — try though they might.

An ordinary Saturday night in June, it started out promisingly. Tiara Parker was at the house with her cousin, Akyra Murray, and friend, Patience Carter. They were debating whether to go out—and where, since Parker at the time was only 20.

We wanted to experience something new altogether, Carter said. We looked up some clubs, and we saw Pulse was one of the options. We loved the pictures

They didn’t know it was a gay club at first. They didn’t care. They were giddy to go out, running around acting like fools, Parker said. It was 11:30 PM. Later on, Carter was struck by how friendly the people were in the club. A girl gave her her ‘plus one’, which got her in the club for free. They were dancing on a bar, on the poles on a stage, and there was one empty pole, and my cousin actually jumped on it and started dancing, Parker recalled. Everybody was having a ball. They loved us. We loved them. We had the time of our lives.

It started out like a regular Saturday, and actually, it was slow, so I was like, ‘Eh, I’m gonna leave early,’ Norman Casiano recalls. And then, all my friends started showing up, so that’s when I was like you know, ‘Oh, I’ll stay, I’ll stay.’

It was Chris Hansen’s first time at Pulse.

I told myself, ‘Wow, I came to Orlando to settle roots,’ because I’d been all over the country traveling. I told my dad, ‘Hey, I’m gonna find that community you wanted. It’s gonna happen here.’

The night wore on much like any Saturday at a dance club. Everyone was drunk at around 1:50, 1:55, 2 AM, Casiano recalled. Everyone was going home, Ubering home, taking a Lyft home, taxi, something. They’re all drunk.

Carter looked at the time: 1:58 AM. Almost time to go. Parker planned to get an Uber back so she wouldn’t have to bother her family. Right when I ordered it, she said, we hear the gunshots.

Dancing to Gunshots

The mechanical popping noises didn’t register immediately to many revelers. Hansen, who was against a wall, thought the gunshots were just music.

"And I’ll never forget, I could feel the vibrations in my feet and in my