The city’s mayor, Mitch Landrieu, said at a press conference that the Orlando shooting was “an attack on the LGBT community and the hate is an attack on our freedom”. The city is employing local, state and federal resources to increase security for the event, organizers said, without elaborating. The parade scheduled for Saturday evening in the French Quarter will be preceded by a memorial march, the public being asked to bring signs of support for those killed and injured in Orlando. New Orleans is holding its pride celebrations this weekend. “It’s turned into this outpouring where everybody wants to show that we are strong in Boise, that we are a community that cares for each other,” said Rodney Busbee, executive director of Boise Pride Fest, adding that in order to strengthen security, the parade route had been shortened. In Boise, Idaho, organizers said attendance at pride celebrations this weekend could more than double, to 25,000. “But the training should give club owners some comfort and useful information that they never need to use,” he said. Mirabella acknowledged that it took nearly four hours for the Orlando shooter to be stopped. “It makes me sick to my stomach that we even need this training, it makes me sad.” We will probably have to add other events,” Joe Mirabella, a city spokesman, told the Guardian. “A hundred people have signed up for Monday night’s event. In Seattle, owners of bars and clubs serving the LGBT community have been invited to “active shooter training” sessions, ahead of the pride parade next weekend. It was quickly deleted, but not before members of the public had taken screenshots, according to a local report. Martha Montalvo, the city’s acting police chief, said her department and federal investigators were aware of the threat, which was posted on Twitter. On social media, a message said: “There will be a massive shooting at the pride parade in Houston, Texas.” “We’re watching out for everybody here.On Friday, as funerals began, the FBI was investigating a threat against a celebration in Houston next Saturday. “We are a little more vigilant,” officer Bond Morrow told TheWrap. One police officer guarding the area told TheWrap he was trying to keep an extra close eye on things without being too obvious, as to not scare parade-goers too much. The cameras, which can cost up to $200,000 each, can monitor areas a city block away, giving authorities a bird’s eye view of the parade.Īlso Read: After Orlando Killings, West Hollywood Pride Parade Is Still On, Security Tight The Los Angeles Country Fire Department was already gearing up for the more than 400,000 people expected to attend on Sunday, setting up three cameras equipped with infra-red capability mounted on large poles. “It’s a scary situation we’re living in today,” Freddie Cheatham, another bouncer, told TheWrap. “We just do the best we can so everyone can have a good time.” “We’re always evaluating everybody as they they come to the line,” 28-year-old Charles Carpenter, who works the door at Revolver, a popular gay bar, told TheWrap.
The lone assailant, a 29-year-old American-born man named Omar Mateen, called 911 while carrying out the massacre, pledging his allegiance to ISIS, officials said.Īlso Read: Orlando Terror Suspect Omar Mateen Pledged Allegiance to ISIS, FBI Investigated in 2014īouncers guarding gay bars on Santa Monica Boulevard where the parade is being held said they are extra vigilant. The Orlando massacre marked the worst terrorist attack on American soil since the Sept. “I have all the belief that our police forces will do will do everything they can to protect us.” “I’m a marine corps vet,” she told TheWrap.
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The suspect - James Howell - had a car full of guns, ammunition and explosives.īut even that didn’t seem to scare Tharp, who said she felt safe despite the news reports. The couple turned out despite reports that a heavily armed man from Indiana was arrested Sunday morning on his way to the West Hollywood Pride parade. We have to unite and become strong,” she said.Īlso Read: ISIS Claims Responsibility for Orlando Massacre “It was pretty shocking,” her fiancée Tina Tharp, chimed in. “But then I thought, what better way then to honor than by being here?” “When I first woke up, I was actually a little scared,” Kimberly Arellano, a cosmetologist from Los Angeles told TheWrap. on Sunday, just hours after 50 people were murdered in a mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub. Thousands of people lined the streets for the annual gay pride parade in West Hollywood, Calif.