Orlando Tragedy

12 June 2016 – Sunday

I woke up in England this morning to soon learn the news of a mass shooting in Orlando. The shooting was at Pulse Nightclub just south of downtown and only two miles from my house.

I needed to return the rental car to the agency in Preston today. While Khoa and I were doing a walk about the city and visiting the University of Central Lancashire where he studies and teaches I started getting messages from my friend BJ in Jacksonville asking me if I knew about the killings? He was watching the news and telling me more every few minutes. It grew more and more unbelievable. As the day unfolds the word is now that 50 were killed by the lone gunman with 42 seriously wounded. It’s so hard to imagine. I have never been to that club. It’s a popular gay club but is mostly a very young clientele and I’m not much of a bar/club person anyway.

It’s hard to think of fun today. I will be very surprised if I am not at least acquainted with any of the victims. Praying for everyone involved. It turns out that the first six victims’ names published had a familiar name at the top of the list… Edward Sotomayor. I told Khoa that I know that name; maybe it’s a student from my former school. I looked on Facebook and it turns out he worked for the travel agency that held the cruise I had been on in 2014. I had only been introduced to him with the other staff. He was only 34.