ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he feels strongly that the site of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting should become a permanent memorial.
“It's a decision we don't need to make today,” Dyer told News 6’s Mike Holfeld Thursday, while taping "Flashpoint." “But my initial thought would be not to reopen a nightclub there but to use it as a site for a memorial and maybe incorporate the Pulse sign in some way."
Pulse owner Barbara Poma agreed the site should become some type of memorial.
“We owe so much respect to those families, and to everyone who was in that building, and to our country, and to the community, to give them the space to grieve and to pay homage,” Poma said.
Dyer envisioned building a memorial “in a first-class way,” where artists would have a role in shaping it into a place where families of victims could pay their respects.
“A lot of religions, they need to see where their loved one lost his or her life,” Dyer said, adding that a lot of the families have already visited the site.
On Thursday afternoon, dozens of people braved the heat to visit a makeshift memorial outside Pulse and drop off flowers and other items.
“I think it would be great. I think there’d be no better place than where it actually happened,” one visitor said.