<\/p>\nShe said police eventually ordered nearby businesses, including the pizza shop, to shut down.<\/p>\n
Hysa said the shooting also had a lasting impact on business. In the days that followed, businesses had to close earlier, and fewer customers were coming downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a lot of people were coming out as much and it was a lot slower. It definitely changed business,\u201d Hysa said.<\/p>\n
Fabian Rene was also downtown when the shooting happened. He said he was about 30 feet away from the gunfire and took cover near a truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I did feel bad because I went home alive and breathing and okay. And somebody else didn\u2019t,\u201d Rene said.<\/p>\n
Despite what he experienced, Rene said the shooting did not stop him from returning downtown.<\/p>\n
Others celebrating Halloween Saturday said they were aware of the shooting, but still felt comfortable visiting the area.<\/p>\n
Chris Pierre, who moved to Orlando about three months ago, said he noticed a significant police presence downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like, honestly, the police presence (is) a lot more than I\u2019ve seen in my city of Philadelphia,\u201d Pierre said.<\/p>\n
Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith said the department planned a large police presence for Halloween, especially with the holiday falling on a Saturday this year.<\/p>\n
Officers were expected to be stationed throughout downtown, including on street corners and bike patrols. Police vehicles and additional security measures were also part of the department\u2019s preparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, of course, we\u2019ll have a very large presence downtown. We have a lot of security initiatives that will be in place,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Smith said the department would not publicly discuss all of its security measures to prevent people from finding ways around them.<\/p>\n
For Hysa, this Halloween is an opportunity for downtown businesses and visitors to move forward.<\/p>\n
She said that crowds have returned to the area, and she hopes the holiday brings a positive night for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of people are going to come out, dress up and have good vibes. I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s just going to go good overall,\u201d Hysa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Two years after a deadly Halloween shooting in downtown Orlando, people returned to the area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2967,274,3949,2204,115,1053,1335,768,139,141,140,277,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-444392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bryanna-howard","tag-instagram-n13","tag-news","tag-orange","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444392","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=444392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}