Pulse nightclub shooting memorial set on fire; man arrested in Orlando
A person was arrested Tuesday after being caught on digital camera setting a small fireplace to a number of banners at a memorial for the Pulse nightclub mass taking pictures victims, authorities mentioned.
The incident occurred final month in Orlando exterior Pulse nightclub, which because the 2016 mass taking pictures on the LGBT venue has been reworked right into a memorial for the 49 individuals who perished.
Footage posted on Facebook by the onePULSE Foundation, a non-profit shaped after the assault, reveals an individual in a wheelchair rolling as much as a big memorial that wraps across the membership and lighting a part of it on fireplace, although injury was minimal and the blaze was contained to a number of memorial banners on the web site.
Mark Anthony Henson, 64, was charged with felony felony mischief, jail data present.
The onePulse Basis mentioned the incident occurred someday round 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 12. The video shows the particular person, who’s sporting a baseball hat, rolling as much as memorial — which options a big photograph wall with banners and names of the victims — and lighting a small fireplace earlier than leaving. The fireplace principally went out by itself however a passerby stomped out the remaining embers, the video reveals.
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Within the aftermath of the 2016 assault, the homosexual nightclub was reworked right into a memorial and gathering level for the group, survivors and household of these killed. The memorial features a wall of pictures, banners and rainbow lights that wrap across the gray-concrete nightclub exhibiting the 49 victims and different photos from the group’s response to the assault. These in the neighborhood typically go away flowers, candles and balloons on the web site.
Three banners have been burned together with different objects left on the memorial, however injury was minimal and the wall remained intact.
The assault on the membership within the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, was the nation’s deadliest mass taking pictures till a gunman killed 60 individuals at a nation music competition in Las Vegas a yr later.
Extra:Read about the 49 victims
Earlier this yr, President Joe Biden signed a law designating the nightclub as a nationwide memorial. The legislation was a part of an effort to construct a everlasting memorial on the web site in honor of these killed by Omar Mateen, who was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle. Plans for the positioning embrace a reflecting pool, an open-air museum and an training heart with gardens and a public plaza.