ORLANDO, Fla. – On Wednesday, the new Pulse Advisory Committee will have its first meeting.
This will be the first step on the road to building a permanent memorial to honor the victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting.
More than 150 people applied to join the committee, and Norman Casiano is one of the 18 people selected.
Casiano is one of the survivors. The gunman shot him twice inside the club bathroom that night.
The committee’s purpose is to help create the city of Orlando’s permanent memorial with the actual help of victim’s families and survivors.
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“There are days where it feels like it was just yesterday, you know? I still deal with pain from my gunshots,” Casiano said.
Although he is better now, Casiano still has his bad days.
He suffers from anxiety and PTSD, caused by the tragedy he escaped but will never forget.
He has been waiting for the construction of a permanent pulse memorial to honor the people who didn’t escape and those whose lives were forever changed.
Casiano said he is extremely disappointed by the lack of action over the past eight years from the now dissolved, One Pulse Foundation.
He hopes to see that a memorial is finished by the 10-year mark of the Pulse tragedy now that more people impacted by the shooting sit on the committee.
However, he disagrees with some of the committee selections.
“There were a lot of mothers that were denied. There were a lot of survivors that were denied. To have people who did work closely with OnePulse be on the committee instead of mothers and survivors is a little disheartening,” Casiano said.
The first committee meeting is from 4 - 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
One crucial decision they need to make moving forward is whether to keep the original nightclub in some form as a part of the memorial or to demolish it.
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