{"id":197065,"date":"2026-03-18T23:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197065\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T23:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:09:07","slug":"orlando-demolition-pulse-nightclub-demolished-to-make-way-for-memorial-to-victims-of-2016-mass-shooting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197065\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando demolition: Pulse nightclub demolished to make way for memorial to victims of 2016 mass shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">ORLANDO, Fla. &#8212; Crews began demolishing Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday to make way for a memorial that will pay tribute to the 49 people killed in the attack at the LGBTQ-friendly club nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Construction workers began tearing down walls in the long-shuttered venue that were still scarred by bullet holes from the June 12, 2016, attack, when a gunman opened fire during a Latin night celebration, killing dozens and wounding 53 other people before police killed him following a standoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2 million and plans to build a $12 million permanent memorial that will open in 2027. Those efforts followed a botched multiyear attempt by a foundation run by the club&#8217;s former owner to buy the property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">RELATED: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc11.com\/post\/officials-denounce-removal-rainbow-crosswalk-site-pulse-nightclub-shooting\/17615890\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Officials denounce removal of rainbow crosswalk near site of Pulse nightclub shooting<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The plan for the memorial comes at a fraught time for monuments to LGBTQ+ history since President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term began. The federal government removed a pride flag outside of Stonewall National Monument last year, following a National Park Service memo that prohibits the agency from flying any flags besides the U.S. flag and the flag of the Department of the Interior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A similar battle played out in Orlando last year, when local officials clashed with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis because workers painted over a rainbow mural on the crosswalk in front of Pulse. The move came after the Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo that prohibited &#8220;surface art&#8221; associated with &#8220;social, political or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The Pulse attacker had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. &#8212; Crews began demolishing Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday to make way for a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[91407,4738,139,141,140,66728,215,2920],"class_list":["post-197065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-91407","tag-memorial","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-nightclub-demolition","tag-shooting","tag-victims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}