Orlando will buy Pulse nightclub and turn it into a memorial


Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced the city has reached a deal to buy the Pulse nightclub, the site of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, from its owner for $2.25 million. The club will be turned into a memorial to remember the victims of the June massacre.
Dyer told the Orlando Sentinel "the city won't rush to change the club, once a mainstay in the gay community that has become a gathering place for visiting and local mourners alike." The site will remain as-is for 12 to 18 months while the city reaches out to the community for ideas for the memorial. The city council will vote next week on the purchase and it will be finalized at the end of the year.
The Pulse nightclub shooting killed 49 people and injured 53 more. The gunman, Omar Mateen, was killed in a shootout with the police.
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Ricky Soberano is the social media editor at TheWeek.com. Her writing has appeared in Complex, Nylon, Gothamist, Maxim, and others. Previously she was the culture editor for The Stony Brook Press and contributing editor for The Odyssey. She has a B.A. in multidisciplinary studies in journalism and dance from Stony Brook University and an A.S. in dance from Queensborough Community College. She's lived in Brooklyn her whole life, eats too much ramen, and freelance models, and she enjoys writing about the undiscovered and underreported within the sphere of culture. Follow her on Twitter.
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