Newly Released Investigative Photographs of PULSE Document the Nightclub Before Demolition
- Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice
- Aug 12
- 2 min read
These photographs, taken on July 17, 2025, document PULSE 9 years after the shooting—after the building sat rotting for nearly a decade. It was cleaned years before and has been repeatedly raided by the City of Orlando, the owners, and the Orange County Regional History Center for various museum projects that, thankfully, have never come to fruition.
This is what remained and what the City of Orlando refused to allow us to photograph when we toured the building a month earlier.
We immediately noticed a few things:
The "Coke machine" (beverage refrigerator) that blocked the exit had been moved off the premises. The remaining one in the back had been there the entire time (there were two blocking what should have been exits/egress).
The glass door that the beverage refrigerator blocked had been replaced with plywood board that was used for air conditioning venting.
No photographs were taken of the front door hardware, which violated life safety codes.
No measurements were taken, especially of hallway or door widths.
Three photographs of the latched exit gate, which had to be drop-kicked by a PULSE employee to allow trapped survivors to escape.
These photographs were just released about an hour ago. We will continue to analyze them, but we wanted to post them so that they become part of the public record as soon as possible.
There is no reason why the City of Orlando prevented us from documenting PULSE. These photographs are not re-traumatizing. Rather, they give those of us who were unable to physically enter the building an opportunity to see it in our own environments and under our own control.
The City's re-victimization, on the other hand, has been extremely harmful to us all.
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