That the gunman targeted a gay club adds to the sense of violation. Gabrielle Antolovich, Billy DeFrank’s board president, called the shooting an attack on “our own people.” Maribel Martinez, who heads Santa Clara County’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, read the names of the first known victims-almost all of them Latino. In San Jose, 300 people lit candles outside the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center Sunday in tribute to the lives lost. News of the tragedy prompted an outpouring of grief across the globe with people unfurling rainbow flags and holding vigils to honor the victims. He was killed by police after an hours-long standoff and is excluded from a revised victim count. The shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, reportedly targeted Pulse nightclub out of homophobia. 'This was an act of terror and act of hate.' - on the tragic shooting in #Orlando It was also a hate crime against the LGBT community.
A gunman’s rampage on a gay nightclub in Florida killed 49 people and wounded 53 more, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history and the worst domestic terror strike since the Twin Towers fell.