A series of carefully organized visits to the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting site in Orlando by survivors and family members of those killed began Wednesday afternoon and is continuing daily through Saturday.
The families have this opportunity to visit the former LGBTQ+ nightclub for the first time before it's demolished and the city builds a permanent memorial.
Orlando Outreach Coordinator Donna Wyche said many of the families want to go inside before it's gone. In the nine years since the June 12, 2016, shooting, families did not have the chance to do that.
About 250 people are participating in the visits. The city is bringing them over in small groups by bus after helping them prepare at a hotel. Among them are family members of 25 of the 49 people killed by the gunman.
"We've heard them," Wyche said. "We've listened to them, and they've said very clearly ... we want to see it for one last time before it's gone. We want to be in that sacred place one more time where our loved ones took their last breath and it's, it is part of the journey of grief."
Family members will be able to stand in the very spot where their loved one died and see the bullet holes in the walls.
"You know, the range of emotions is very wide," Wyche said Wednesday morning. "Some people will get here and won't be able to go in. Some people will stay outside. Some people may not get off the bus. We're prepared for anything and everything."
That includes having counselors on the bus. And city officials said FBI victim specialists will walk with those visiting the site.
Christine Leinonen came over with the second group Wednesday. She lost her 32-year-old son, Christopher Andrew Leinonen, in the shooting.
"I would have regretted it if I didn't go through it," she said afterward, "and I needed to see where my son took his last breath. It's as simple as that, and as painful as it is, it's nowhere near as painful as what my son experienced that night."
Leinonen remains strongly critical of the former club owners, the police response, and the FBI's failure to stop the shooter beforehand.
With these visits, Mayor Buddy Dyer said, Orlando is thinking "first and foremost" of the victims, their families and the survivors.
"And we do everything that we have done based on what is best for them," he said. "And we're not saying you have to go in the building, but what we're doing is saying, if that's something that will help you, then we're going to make this available."
The city is also planning a Pulse Remembrance Ceremony beginning at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church of Orlando at 142 E. Jackson St.
