Acting on a request from Pulse nightclub victims’ families and survivors of the 2016 killing of 49 patrons at the LGBTQ-friendly club to investigate the former club owners for possible criminal culpability, the Orlando Police Department closed its investigation without filing any charges, the Associated Press reports. No charges will be filed against former owners Barbara and Rosario Poma because probable cause didn’t exist for involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence, the Orlando police said this week in an emailed statement. About two dozen people, mostly survivors and family members of those who died in the shooting, gave statements to investigators. They said that building plans weren’t available to first responders during the three hours hostages were held in the club and that unauthorized renovations and building modifications had contributed to the death toll.
The survivors also maintained that the club was likely above capacity, that it had operated for years in violation of its conditional use permit, and that there were security and risk-management failures. Investigators concluded that the lack of building plans didn’t hamper rescuers, that it was impossible to identify how many people were in the club that night, that the city of Orlando never took any action against Pulse when the nightclub changed its interior, and that there were too many unknowns about how gunman Omar Mateen entered. None of the Pomas’ actions were done “with a reckless disregard for human life,” and “they could not have reasonably foreseen or anticipated a terrorist incident taking place at Pulse,” investigators wrote in a report. On its Facebook page, the group Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice called the investigation a “sham.” “It’s really very simple. There should be some accountability and a legitimate investigation. Not this joke report,” the post said. Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was killed after a three-hour standoff with police. The Pulse shooting’s death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.
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