ORLANDO, Fla. — Nine years after the Pulse nightclub mass terror shooting, survivors and victims’ families will meet with FBI agents next week to ask any final questions before the case is closed.
Forty-nine people were killed, and dozens of others were injured during the tragedy on June 12, 2016.
Survivors received an email about the June 11 meeting where they can ask questions, meet with others and bring one support person with them.
The meeting is closed to the public.
The city of Orlando will also hold a remembrance meeting next week, including planned time inside the former nightclub, giving people who wish to go back one last time the chance to grieve before the site is demolished.
The city’s meeting is separate from the FBI meeting with survivors and family members.
Orange County commissioners recently approved $5 million to go toward construction of a permanent memorial after Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer sent a request for funding to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.
Orlando had previously committed $7.5 million to the project, which brings the total to more than $12 million.
Demings issued a statement on Tuesday saying, “Orange County is proud to support the city of Orlando in creating a permanent memorial to honor the 49 lives lost in the Pulse nightclub tragedy. As Orange County Sheriff on that awful day, I promised the victims’ families we would find a way to honor and remember their loved ones. I never imagined I’d help fulfill that promise as mayor. I hope that this memorial offers healing, honors those we lost, and brings comfort to those who grieve.”
The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse site in late 2023 and has been working toward bringing a memorial to fruition after almost 10 years since the tragic night.
In July 2024, the city announced the creation of the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee consisting of 18 members from the community.
Over the course of eight months, the committee worked on the conceptual design for the memorial, which was presented to city officials in February 2025.
The city is now working to find a contractor to help design and build the concept.
The chosen firm will take the conceptual design and related documents that were decided upon by committee members and essentially bring them to life.
The contractor submissions will go before a committee of experts who will rank the firms.
Then those final rankings, which are expected in summer 2025, will go before the Orlando City Council for approval.
The firm that is selected is also responsible for the construction of the memorial, which is projected to be completed by the end of 2027.
“I’m hoping there’s closure. It’ll be past the 10-year mark that we finally get a memorial done. The city’s only been involved in this for a little more than a year-and-a-half. I guess after the foundation failed to get it done, but it’s critically important to our community that we finish this memorial,” Dyer said.
The FBI stated that the Pulse shooting was a terror attack by Omar Mateen that left 49 dead and 58 injured.
