Pastor Vallo

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Pastor Paul Vallo‘s Christ Unity Church, provided immediate response to first responders in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shooting for 11 days in June of 2016.

The church was outgrowing the property they had on Orange Avenue but, when the pulse attack took place and the congregation at Christ Unity had the chance to respond, they felt like it crystalized the reason why they were there. They had a unique ability to respond to a need in the community. The church has always been about community outreach.

On the morning of June 12, 2016, Pastor Vallo was contacted and told that there was a shooting at Pulse but no one knew the extent of the incident. The Pastor, staff and volunteers arrive very early in the morning to the church. Many had trouble getting to the church since the church was behind police lines. Many had to walk on foot to try and get past police lines. There clearly was no way that there could be services that day.

Staff and volunteers gathered, and prayed for the victims. Immediately after prayers they went to the front doors and watched all the first responders who were walking up and down the sweltering street. The church has a cafe, so they took all the food and supplies and they put it out on the street. They stood outside and told people passing by that they should let people know that they had food at the church.  Volunteers worked to get more food and water to the church. The evening of the attack the church held a prayer vigil. The sanctuary was full. For the next 11 days they served first responders around the clock. A christian church needs to show compassion.

The media wasn’t allowed to come in. They wanted the church to be a sanctuary. It was a place where first responders could decompress, get out of the heat, get some good food. Restaurants began to respond and people donated amazing home cooked meals. They had enough to feed hundreds of people.

On woman from Orlando Police Department said she hadn’t slept or eaten anywhere for four days except in the church. Some people did not go to the prayer vigil because they feared the area might not be safe, but the pastor never felt fear. He sensed the anxiety, but they were behind police lines for a week and a half.  The Florida Governor Rick Scott conduced much of his work from inside the church.

Pastor Vallo was interviewed by BBC and CNN. Most of his efforts were focused on meeting the needs of first responders. At a vigil at SODO development next to the church, some people were asking, how do we make sense of this? He responded, You can’t make sense of a mad man. There is no reason, there is no logic. The only thing that could be done was to respond to it, rather than try and figure it out. We can not become the children of the shooter’s hatred. We have to respond with the opposite, with love, kindness and compassion.

A man who lives directly behind the Pulse Nightclub, had not left his home for four days after the shooting. He was having a panic attack in the yard. On the evening of the shooting it was like being in a war zone. Through the blinds he saw people running through the yard screaming covered in blood. Many people on the street hadn’t left their houses. They still were not sure what was going on outside. For weeks afterwards the pastor and others began going door to door doing wellness checks. If people needed medicine or food they helped find the resources. Some had no other need other than to talk about it.

Call Responders Audrey Davidson and Evalyn Casper

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This post discusses the shooting that took place at the Pulse
Nightclub on June 12, 2016. It contains difficult content, so please do
not read on if you feel you may be effected. 

This article and sketch have been posted with the express written
permission of the interviewees. Analog Artist Digital World takes the
privacy and wishes of individuals very seriously. 

Audrey Davidson stated that, training to become a 911 operator took five weeks followed with on the floor training for three months. Over 1000 hours of training were involved. She was a 911 operator when Pulse happened. Evalyn Casper used to watch Rescue 911 as a child religiously so growing up she thought 911 operators were pretty cool. She knew someone at the sheriffs office and they suggested she apply. Milestones in her career always seem to surrounded big events. She was hired at the sheriffs office on September 11, 2002 one year after the attack on the World Trade Center. She liked that this job allowed her to really apply herself and work her way up. All the training was offered on a platter. She was hungry for everything taking every course offered. She started training others. On June 12, 2017 she was promoted as supervisor on year after the Pulse shooting.

Being a 911operator is a stressful job. The highest stress comes when operators are inundated with a high volume of calls.  Everyone has cell phones now, so that even a back up on I-4 can generate a huge number of calls that can shut them down. An operator is supposed to systematically treat each call the same. When there are so many calls rolling it it becomes difficult. Even if you had 300 calls about the same incident you still have to process it like it is a new call. The next call might be the one that saves a life.

The day before Pulse they worked a similar overnight shift from about, 6:30pm to 6:30am. Evalyn was training a guy, it was his third day, so she was on the 911 desk. She let her trainee know that Saturday nights can get a little crazy. She advised her trainee that if things got fast paced she would move him over so she could process the calls faster. Everyone has a cell phone, and everybody is a witness so they could get flooded with calls. Most calls are verbal arguments and batteries.

Typically with a shooting there is a spurt of calls and usually the police are there within minutes. People see the lights and sirens and the calls stop. Most who call haven’t seen the incident as it happened. A 911 Operators questioning is very limited. First get the address, get the suspect description, see if the suspect is still there. The police make sure the scene is clear for fire and rescue to come in.

Audrey said that on June 12, 2016, the phones were ringing off the hook.  The fist call she got was from a guy that said, “There was a shooting at Pulse.” Pulse is not in Orange County Sheriff‘s jurisdiction, it is in Orlando Police Department‘s jurisdiction. So she transferred him over to Orlando Police. While she was waiting for Orlando Police to pick up, she thought to herself, “Pulse is a really weird place for a shooting. Pulse is just not the kind of place where a shooting would happen.” The call rang back into their com center. When OPDs phones get overwhelmed their calls all roll over to the Sheriffs call center. Their lines were overwhelmed so calls sent to them just bounced back with other another Sheriff’s operator picking up. The first time she realized it was an active shooter was when a supervisor stood up and told everyone, “There is an active shooter at Pulse.” Information needed to be picked up for every call, then move on to the next call. All the calls blurred together, “Do you have any information you can tell us? Can you tell where he is? Can you tell me what he looks like? If they said, no, the caller would be told that Sheriffs were on the way and the operator had to move on to the next call.

One call stood out for Audrey.  A woman was calling from a 7-11 in the heart of OPD jurisdiction. She was calling about a man who was drunk outside of her store. Obviously the operators had bigger problems at the time. Her information was gathered, what he looked like what he was doing. Audrey had to inform her that they were responding to a very large scale incident at the time. She told the woman to lock the door if he was outside. The very next call was from someone inside the bathroom at Pulse. Operators were informed to collect information and then hang up the phone, but she couldn’t hang up the phone on someone who was dying in a bathroom. He was someone she could have known. That could have been her, she had been to that nightclub. While talking to him, she started crying. She told him, “I’m sorry this happened to you.” She just wanted him to know that someone cared about what happened to him. She couldn’t get his name because he was whispering and the shooter was in the bathroom. It was hard. She stayed on the phone until it went silent. The call was maybe a couple off minutes but it felt like an eternity.

911 operators talk to people all the time who are very hysterical and have been in horrible situations, who have been shot, but the reality is they never speak to someone who is dying. Usually it is other people calling in. That call from the Pulse bathroom was difficult. She is glad she got a chance to let him know she cared. But it was the worst day of her life. It was the worst day for many people. It was hard.  Many family members were calling in wanting to know about their loved ones. A list was started of family names and phone numbers so families could be contacted if needed.  But they still didn’t know how many people were in the nightclub. About 4am the calls started dying off. On a short break, Evelyn called some friends to make sure they were OK. On the beak it all seemed surreal. It was so big, it was hard to process what had just happened. They were still in this limbo of not knowing the official count. They had to go back to their desks and start taking other calls until the shift was over at 6am.

Evalyn remembered that for two solid hours, no one took a break. There are 15 lines. Nobody got off the phones, no one broke down and left. It was upsetting, but everyone kept processing the calls. Usually when an operator takes a difficult call they can walk off the floor for a bit and regain their composure, but there just wasn’t time. All the calls were coming from a particular cell tower on Esther Street. So they all knew that all the calls were related. Evalyn took over for her trainee. The first call was from Duncan Donuts, They claimed that a shot came through their glass or they were hearing shooting. That call was transferred to OPD. All the circuits were busy. The next call was a mom, who was hysterical, wanting to know where her son was. She could not help her. She just wanted to stay on the phone and cry, but she couldn’t. The next call was a guy hiding in a closet inside Pulse, he kept saying, “Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?”  The guy Evalyn was speaking to was whispering. He was in
the upstairs closet. She told him “Just stay were you are. Don’t move,
don’t move, don’t move.” What else could she tell him? There is no
script.

Many were worried it would take some time to get inside. In reality compared to normal it took them very little time. Afterwards they found out what happened. At the time they didn’t have any information to give people. All they could say was, “We are there, we are coming, we are going to help you.” There had never been a active shooter in Orlando on that scale.  There is no protocol. Hang ups were not called back which they usually do. There were too many calls. They had to change their gears and triage things themselves. 400 hours of training stipulate that operators should stay on a call in an emergency situation until deputies arrive and are with the caller. But no call that night could be completed in that way. That left operators having to hang up the phone.

While Audrey cried, Evalyn remembered shaking uncontrollably. The adrenaline was running through her. She tried to make herself stop shaking but that made it worse. Despite this, she kept typing, and talking. She was on auto pilot. After their shift was over they had a debriefing. The critical incident stress management team came in and everyone talked about what just happened. It was quiet and surreal. Everyone felt numb. They stressed that it was alright open up to the feelings that would come. They shouldn’t mask anything or hide anything. There were people crying. Management also advised them to not watch the news.

When Evalyn got home she texted her mom who was asleep. “You are going to see something on the news, we worked this call, we are OK.” Around 7am they fell asleep. When they got up the next day for the next shift, they found out that a
lot more people than they thought had been killed in the club. Evalyn woke up to about 27 missed calls. They didn’t go in to work the next day. They started seeing just how many people had been shot and the reality sank in. They were angry.

They went to the vigil at Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. It felt good to be out in the community. It was somber, but also it was good to see that everyone was together. There was a feeling of collective support. The shooting directly affected everyone in that we are all Orange County citizens, not everyone was from the LGBT community but they were still there. Muslims, Hispanics, Pastors, all gathered together. It seemed that everyone came and converged into Orlando from other parts of the country. Then the church bells rang 49 times. That was brutal. That was probably the worst feeling listening to that. They went back to work the following Thursday still feeling a bit angry.

There was a lot of pomp and circumstance. It was like a circus. Many wanted to reach out and congratulate them, thank them for their service. Politician, Rick Scott, went to their com center walking around while they were taking calls. Audrey couldn’t shake his hand, she was so mad. There was no sense of normalcy. For the longest time they were getting recognition. It felt like they were getting too much attention. While they shook Rick Scott’s hand, HR was telling them that they would have to have therapy. They were required to go to 3 sessions of therapy with a psychologist. Its not just about the trauma of the shooting but everything else bubbled to the surface. They gave different ways of coping, like grounding yourself. Mainly they said, “Don’t beat yourself up for feeling the way you do.”

At the one year remembrance at Lake Eola, they got to hug the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They saw the Mural that was painted. They sang and then the angels came out and then they announced the names again. It was cool to see the families cheering when their loved one’s name was called. They recently stopped by the Pulse temporary memorial and walked around. They cried when they saw the breech in the wall, from the swat team, it was surreal to see how they it was showcased. It suggested that this how lives were saved but this is also how it all ended.

First State Witness Officer Adam T. Gruler

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 There is some sensitive content and disturbing details included
within. If you feel you may be affected, please do not read this post.

Adam T. Gruler testified in the Noor Slaman case at the Orlando Federal Courthouse. He is currently a Special Agent with Orlando Police stationed in the canine unit at
the Orlando Airport. At the time of Pulse he was a Special Agent in the Traffic Homicide and Motors Unit. Before coming to Orlando Police Department he was in the military police for 5 years and so has 22 years in total of being a police officer. His shift started at 11 pm on June 11, 2016 and was supposed to end at 3 am on June 12 at Pulse Nightclub as an off-duty officer in full uniform.

Exhibit 119 was brought in to evidence – a map of the block Pulse Nightclub is on with Pulse shaded in green and block drawn with the location of Omar Mateen’s rented van. Gruler pointed out where his vehicle was parked, on the grass curb in front of the front doors of Pulse across the street from Dunkin’ Donuts on Esther Street. At 2:02 AM he heard gunfire from inside the nightclub and immediately called, “Shots fired, shots fired” over his CB.

Exhibits 105 and 105A were CD recordings of the audio recordings and transcript as an accurate depiction of his radio activity that evening. It was played for everyone before the prosecution broke it down into pieces to ask questions. “Shots fired, multiple down.” Gruler explained the series of three tones as being an alert for Signal 43 which serves to notify others that immediate assistance is needed by an officer.

Gruler was expecting a typical nighttime night club shooting in which a specific individual is being targeted. From 22 years as an officer, he knew that the weapon being used was a long-barreled assault rifle and he only had his regular handgun on him, he was out gunned and alone. He quickly called for a perimeter, assuming the assailant would take off and try to flee. Then, “Go ahead and get chase up.” a call for the helicopter and then a street canine to assist them in apprehending the shooter.

Gruler than saw the shooter from outside, he took cover behind cars outside. The south side double doors flung open and two men came running out and were gunned down. One immediately and one after he had made it a bit. Gruler fired at the gunman. The shooter retreated into the club and went towards the north. Gruler took up a position to get to the doors. Government Exhibit 108 accepted into evidence – Dash camera video of responding officer that shows Gruler. He engaged the suspect a second time and attempted to shoot him.

Additional officers began to arrive and they worked to formulate a plan. Planned to approach and make entry through the patio, some officers went that way, though Gruler ultimately did not. He went through the front large window. He stated he was unclear about what time it was at that point. He could see that multiple people were down, some alive, some very obviously not. There was blood everywhere and they had to step over the bodies as they tried to check for signs of life, trying to rescue people while also trying to find and contain the shooter. They weren’t sure where the gunman was as he had retreated back to a bathroom by the back bar.

The triage area was set up on the South East corner of Orange and Kaley by Einstein Bagels and that is where they were directing people to go. Victims were being put into law enforcement vehicles, specifically a black truck, and being transported to the hospital just up the street. There were no ambulances as fire and rescue protocol states that those individuals wait until police give the go ahead and have the shooter contained, as they are no good to anybody if they are dead. Multiple reports were coming in, reports that their might be more than one shooter. Gruler was brought back to command at 2:45 AM to begin providing his report.

The defense began examining Gruler. Exhibit 119 brought back up (a map of the block Pulse is on) and Gruler again pointed out where his unmarked Dodge Journey police car was parked. Stated he has worked at multiple clubs in Orlando but for the past 18 months to 2 years he had worked at Pulse and was usually the only one on duty. Reiterated that he was parked on the grass curb area. When he arrived for his shift the club promoter had told him he knew there was an under 18 individual who had gotten in with a fake ID. Gruler brought him out and began to talk to him, the individual ran off and taunted him from across the street. Gruler got in his car and drove around about 20 minutes or so attempting to find him, but didn’t. When he returned he placed his car in the same location it had been. Defense asked a lot of questions about whether or not the officer could see Omar Mateen’s vehicle from where he was located, whether he had or had not seen Mateen enter or exit the club. He stated he had not to all of the above. Court adjourned for lunch.

Noor Zahi Salman Evidence Suppression Hearing.

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Noor Salman walked into the Federal Courtroom with shackles around her ankles.  She wore a suit and had her hair clipped back in a pony tail.  The two guards escorting her were in black suits.  When she was seated, they stooped below her table and removed the shackles. Noor was the wife of Omar Mateen who killed 49 people and injured 68 others in the Pulse Nightclub massacre.  Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her husband, and obstruction for allegedly misleading investigators in Fort Pierce. She has pleaded not guilty to these charges. This hearing on December 21st was being held so her lawyers could attempt to suppress evidence obtained by the FBI that would incriminate her.  The judge on the bench was Paul G. Byron.

The first witness was Andrew Brennen who, at the time of the shooting, was working as an extra security guard at Native Nightclub in Downtown Orlando.  He is now a retired Master Sargent with the Orlando Police Department who had been in charge of digital forensics and crisis/hostage negotiations.  When he heard of the shooting, he immediately shut down Native Nightclub because a mass murderer could potentially target other clubs on a shooting spree.  He immediately drove down to Pulse to help.  He was moved to the communications center.  Within minutes, a dispatcher received a call from someone claiming to be the shooter.  Exhibits 1A and 1B were presented which were audio and transcripts of Mateen’s call.  Brennan then attempted both successful and unsuccessful contact with Omar 77 times.  At 2:49 AM Omar told Brennan to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that they were killing innocent women and children.  Brennan then asked if Omar had done anything yet, in an attempt to verify that he was indeed the gunman. Brennan acquired Omar’s name and started using it, saying that using a name can build rapport and more meaningful dialogue.  In another call Omar claimed there was a bomb in a vehicle with enough explosives to take out an entire city block.

The second witness was Lieutenant William Hall from the Fort Pierce Police Department.  At 3:13 AM he received a call from the Orlando Police Department asking him to check 2513 South 17th street, Apartment 107 in Fort Pierce and to be wary of possible explosives and booby traps.  They formulated a plan and one hour later called the residence.  A female answered.  Officers wearing bullet proof vests approached the apartment from a guarded position at the end of a hall with guns drawn.  Noor Salman was requested to exit the apartment and she did, wearing pajamas. When she exited, Hall lowered his AR50 riffle and handed it off to another officer.   She was asked if anyone else was inside and she answered that just her 3 year old son was.  Police entered the residence and, after a visual check, found no explosives.  Hall wanted to evacuate her from the apartment and she asked if she could change.  He allowed her to change in her bedroom, unaccompanied by police.  When she came back out, Hall was surprised when she pulled out a cell phone which could potentially be used to detonate a bomb. In cross examination he changed his story saying the phone had been on the table and Noor asked if she could bring it along.  Noor was not touched or cuffed.  She was escorted to his unmarked Crown Victoria police car and he had her sit in the backseat with the AC running and the car door open.  Her son went to sleep in the back seat next to her.  Out of the blue, Salman said that her husband was very careful with guns and that he would never hurt anybody. No officer had mentioned guns or bodily harm by her husband.  The main point of contention during this time is if Noor felt she was was under arrest.  She was not cuffed and had not been read her Miranda rights.

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 The third witness was Mustafa Abasin, the brother in law of the shooter.  FBI had visited him on the Morning of June 12.  Salman’s son Zachariah needed to be picked up and Abasin has 2 sons, so it made sense for him to pick up her son since he already had a child car seat.  Mustafa was asked many questions about how he felt Noor was treated when he picked up her son.  He didn’t recall any aggression, officers didn’t block her from his view and they weren’t mean in any way when he was there.  That night Salman came to his home to pick up her son.  She was crying and claimed that the FBI threatened to hold her son if she didn’t tell them what was happening.

The fourth witness was Paul Ostillo who has been an Orlando Resident Agency FBI agent and bomb technician for ten years.  He also worked in counter terrorism.  At 3:40 AM he received a call from the Orange County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad and was authorized to assist.  He arrived at Pulse at 4:40 AM and saw squad cars, victims, survivors, and first responders everywhere.  He made his way to the command post south of Pulse.  Exhibit 26 was a diagram of the Pulse Nightclub.  Ostello pointed out where the gunman was barricaded and where the gunman’s car was in relation to the club.  He went to his vehicle to retrieve his tactical gear.  He heard an explosion which he later learned was an attempt to breach the club wall.  Explosive breaching is when SWAT uses controlled explosives to enter a structure, in this case the West wall of the club between bathrooms.  The explosion created a small portal and victims were quickly being extricated and being patted down for weapons or possible bobby traps.  People were assessed for injuries for about 10 minutes before gun shots were heard from inside the club.  SWAT threw in flash points and then shot Mateen.

Mateen’s vehicle was inspected for bombs.  All that was found was ammunition. A van that size could have held 1,000 pounds of explosives which would have devastated the entire club and surrounding area.  When they saw Omar’s downed body, they saw what appeared to be wires beneath his pant legs.  They could be part of an IED (Improvised Explosive Device.) All living victims had to be removed from the club before a robot could remotely inspect the body. Three robots were used to inspect the club and the car before officers could approach.  Mateen had fallen down onto an exit sign, the wires were not part of a bomb.   The robots manipulated the gunman’s body.  Images of his body were flashed on the courtroom computer screens.  Noor Salman never glanced at the screen choosing instead to write on her yellow legal pad.  The purpose of the video and photos was to show the extremity of the situation and to show that the actions of the Fort Pierce police were justified.

The judge insisted that any evidence showing victims would have to be redacted before it could be submitted as evidence. No evidence was suppressed during this morning session. Judge Byron called for a lunch break.