ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando police have closed their investigation into the former owners of the Pulse nightclub without filing charges. Families of the victims and survivors of the killing of 49 patrons of the LGBTQ-friendly club had asked police to investigate them for criminal liability.
No charges will be filed against former owners Barbara and Rosario Poma because there is insufficient evidence to justify manslaughter, Orlando police said in an emailed statement this week.
About two dozen people, mostly survivors and family members of the victims of the 2016 shooting, gave statements to investigators. They said that during the three hours the hostages were held in the club, no building plans were available to rescue workers and that unauthorized renovations and remodeling were carried out. They also claimed that the club was likely overcrowded, that it had operated for years in violation of its conditional use permit and that there were safety and risk management deficiencies.
Despite all efforts to contact the Pomas, investigators were unable to question them.
They concluded that the lack of blueprints did not hinder rescue workers. It was impossible to determine the number of people who were in the club that night. The city of Orlando never took action against Pulse when the nightclub changed its interior. And there are too many unknowns about how the shooter, Omar Mateen, entered the club.
None of the Pomas' actions were “conducted with reckless disregard for human life” and “they could not reasonably have foreseen or anticipated a terrorist incident at Pulse,” investigators wrote in a report.
Mateen opened fire on June 12, 2016, during a Latin Night celebration, leaving 49 dead and 53 injured. It was the worst mass shooting in modern US history at the time. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the terrorist militia “Islamic State,” was killed after a three-hour standoff with police.
The death toll from the Pulse shooting was surpassed the following year, when 58 people were killed and over 850 injured among 22,000 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas.
The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property last year for $2 million.
Before the Pomas and another businessman sold the property, Barbara Poma was executive director of the onePulse Foundation, the nonprofit that had led efforts to build a memorial and museum. The original project, unveiled by the onePulse Foundation in 2019, called for a museum and permanent memorial that would cost $45 million. That estimate eventually rose to $100 million.
Barbara Poma resigned as executive director in 2022 and left the organization entirely last year after facing criticism for conflicts of interest and expressing her stated desire to sell the Pulse property rather than donate it.
The city has since presented more modest plans for a memorial. The original idea of a museum was abandoned, and city officials formed an advisory board to help decide what the memorial should look like.
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