The City of Orlando has released additional 911 calls related to the Pulse Orlando massacre that took place on June 12, 2016.
Original story:
“I relive it every day.”
Those were the words from an emotional mother of one of the victims of the Pulse shooting during her testimony in a trial over the release of the 911 calls from that tragic shooting.
On Monday, lawyers representing the city of Orlando and multiple media outlets met in court over the release of the 911 calls made by the victims of the Pulse shooting back in June.
The lawsuit was brought forward by several news stations, including Knight News who claim that the city is illegally withholding the audio recordings from the Pulse shooting. They hope that by obtaining these audio recordings that the community will be able to have a better understanding of what happened that night, as well as determine if the police handled the situation in the best way possible.
The city, however, claims that the audio recordings are an exempt public record and would be an infringement on the privacy of the victims’ families.
Multiple family members of the victims took the stand to voice their opinions on the releasing of the tapes. While some stated that they were strongly opposed to the releasing of the tapes, others said that they wouldn’t have a problem with a written transcript of the calls being released to the public.
After nearly two hours of debate between the two sides, the Judge stated that she would need to listen to all nearly 22 hours of audio recording before she could make a further ruling.
The Judge, however, did rule that the 911 calls made by the shooter Omar Mateen that night, were to be released immediately. In those phone calls, Mateen takes credit for the killings and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State. The calls are to be released to the City of Orlando website in the near future.
