ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Hundreds of law enforcement officials from across Central Florida and across the state and country responded to help during and following the Pulse nightclub shooting 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
At that time, current Seminole County Undersheriff Ron Hopper was FBI Special Agent in Charge and responded to the Pulse scene early that Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into Sunday morning about 2:30, I get a text message on my bureau cellphone. It said, ‘Hey boss, not sure if this is legit, but hearing there is a hostage situation in Orlando and the guy is claiming to be ISIS,’\u201d Hopper said.<\/p>\n
After getting that message, Hopper says he started reaching out to law enforcement contacts in Orlando. One of those calls was to his friend, then Orlando Police Chief John Mina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally then picked up the phone and called John Mina. What I got when I called that number was something completely different. The best way I could describe it was a long, thick, dark silence, and John just says, ‘Hey Ron, it\u2019s bad. There\u2019s over 25 dead.'”<\/p>\n
“My response was, ‘I\u2019m on my way,’\u201d Hopper said.<\/p>\n
When Hopper arrived at Pulse, the scene was still active, still unfolding. Victims were being moved to safety as first responders raced to save lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was organized chaos for lack of a better term. We were still moving through what we call the warm zone. People were being extracted and taken to a casualty collection point,\u201d Hopper said.<\/p>\n
As law enforcement worked to resolve the hostage situation inside the club, Hopper says investigators discovered eight people hiding behind a thin wall in a dressing room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spectrum News anchor Curtis McCloud asked Hopper, \u201cWhat would you say was probably one of the most difficult things for you personally?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopper replied, \u201cIt was the cell phones that were ringing on the ground inside the club because I knew what it was. It was people\u2019s loved ones, it was family members, significant others trying to find out if their loved ones were OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s a sound that still resonates with him now, a decade later. Through the pain and horror, it was the way Central Florida came together in a time of tragedy that he will never forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I saw the community come together immediately, that day even, the outpouring of love, the response from volunteers,” Hopper said.<\/p>\n
The old Pulse nightclub is now gone; in its place, a memorial is starting to take shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this memorial is important,” Hopper said. “It will give them a place to grieve and to remember what happened. When I reflect back on that night, I am confident, and to this day I\u2019m proud of the way everyone responded, given the intelligence we had at the time and the situation we were dealing with.”<\/p>\n
Never forgetting the memory of the 49 lives lost and the unwavering spirit of a community continuing to heal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Hundreds of law enforcement officials from across Central Florida and across the state and country responded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1011,2967,274,28293,1190,115,1335,139,141,140,277,16956,278,835],"class_list":["post-306743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-curtis-mccloud","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-safety","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306743","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=306743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}