ORLANDO, Fla. — Ten years ago minus one day, the city of Orlando was dealing with a tragedy. Late Friday night, June 10, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after a concert at The Plaza Live at Colonial Plaza, just east of downtown Orlando.
The Saturday morning news was overflowing about the horrific murder of a young celebrity in The City Beautiful’s own backyard. It was incomprehensible that someone would do such a thing, and then the incomprehensible was followed by the unimaginable. Some 27 and a half hours after Grimmie’s murder, another gunman opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub on South Orange Avenue in the SODO section of Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 58 others. When daylight came, the numbers were staggering.
Forty nine people were gone. The place where it happened, the Pulse Nightclub, gone, but what’s not gone are the memories and the stories, not only of those who were ruthlessly stolen from us that horrible night, but of the survivors who, still inside the nightclub, feared for their lives as minutes felt like hours. The first responders who ran not away from danger, but toward danger, and the families whose lives were forever changed in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016.
This is The Stories of Pulse: Ten Years Later …
QUICK LINKS
— Choose a Section —
Pulse Nightclub Attack Timeline
— What happened on the night of June 12, 2016 —
 
ONEBLOOD
— Remembering Rodolfo Ayala Ayala —
(Courtesy: One Blood)
In the days that followed the shooting at Pulse, many rushed to donate life-saving blood, and the team that processes that blood never imagined the tragedy would hit so close to home and change their lives forever.
Rodolfo Ayala Ayala, who worked as a platelets supervisor at OneBlood and whose co-workers affectionately called Rody, died in the June 2016 shooting.
OneBlood honored him in the best way they knew how… →
Suvivor Story
— ‘God gave me that second chance’ —
Orlando Torres (Spectrum News)
For Pulse survivor Orlando Torres, it is hard to believe nearly 10 years have passed since the nightclub shooting. But it only takes a second for him to remember what he went through inside the club that night, hiding in a bathroom stall as the gunman moved through the building.
Torres was not shot, but he was injured when law enforcement eventually rescued him through a narrow hole in the nightclub’s outer wall — one of several holes law enforcement made to reach survivors trapped inside. →
Scars that remain
— ‘I can’t explain it, I’m just thankful I’m still here’ —
(Spectrum News)
Nearly a decade after the Pulse nightclub shooting, survivor Keinon Carter is still carrying both the emotional and physical scars from that night.
Carter was critically injured in the June 12, 2016, attack. He said that in the hours after the shooting; he was declared dead and his family was told to say their goodbyes.
But Carter said his sister, who was holding his hand at the hospital, refused to let him go. →
OnePulse Watchdog
— What did and didn’t happen regarding a permanent Pulse memorial —
Former temporary Pulse memorial (Spectrum News)
For ten years, the question after the Pulse nightclub tragedy was simple: How does a community honor and remember the victims? Initially, the answer seemed simple. Build a memorial.
Then came discussions about something larger: a museum that could tell the story of what happened on June 12, 2016, preserve the memories of the 49 lives lost, and educate future generations. But the hard part came when money became involved. What began as a shared mission quickly became more complicated. The onePulse Foundation was placed in charge of making the vision a reality. For a while, everything appeared to be moving forward, until it wasn’t… →
Memorial
— When will it be ready? —
This rendering shows one view of the visitors’ pavilion of the Pulse memorial released in May 2026. (Courtesy of Borrelli+Partners and Gomez Construction Company)
After years of delays and controversy marred the future of a permanent Pulse Memorial, the work is now in the hands of Orlando officials and community leaders to find the best way to honor 49 angels and the loved ones their lives touched.
Design and construction teams are offering new updates. Renderings show an Angel Ellipse that will form an outer ring around the memorial to honor each of the 49 individuals. →
Crosswalk Controversy
— Fighting to bring it back —
The Florida Department of Transportation repainted a rainbow-colored crosswalk in Orlando overnight, which honored the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub attack. (Courtesy: Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer)
After the Pulse nightclub tragedy, the crosswalk leading to the memorial site was painted with rainbow colors to honor the 49 lives lost. The project was approved by the Florida Department of Transportation in 2017, but then, in the summer of 2025, FDOT crews painted over the colors with black paint to comply with new state guidelines.
The sounds of chalking on the crosswalk can be heard just about any time of day, for more than 250 days, as people work to bring back the rainbow colors through chalk. James Houchins and Maryjane East have come to the crosswalk nearly every day since August 21, 2025. But the battle between the people, the state and the city continues. →
Remembering Pulse
— A closer look —