Orlando Police Chief John Mina woke up early June 11 to a tragedy. Singer Christina Grimmie had been fatally shot hours before while signing autographs outside The Plaza Live in the Milk District.
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He looked forward to a proper night’s sleep after a long day of briefings and fielding reporters’ questions. Then came a call after 2 a.m. on June 12 — at least 20 people were dead at the Pulse nightclub.
“My first thought was that it must be some type of gang-related thing in the nightclub,” Mina, now Orange County sheriff, said. “Then it turned into a hostage situation.”
Mina worked from a mobile command center on scene. Officers outside the nightclub traded gunfire throughout a three-hour standoff with the shooter, Omar Mateen.
One officer, Michael Napolitano, was shot in the head, the round miraculously stopped by his ballistic helmet. But 49 partygoers lost their lives and 58 more were wounded as Mateen fired relentlessly using a military-style weapon.
Mina tried to remain stoic through it all. Then he made it home, and the enormity of what had happened set in.
“I remember after that first night just sitting on the couch taking a breath and watching all the national news coverage of our agency and our city, the people in our community that had been killed,” Mina said. “That’s when I was like, ‘Wow, this is huge.’”
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It got even bigger. With Mateen pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, the FBI got involved. That led to a behind-the-scenes tussle between OPD and federal authorities about what to release to the public and when.
In the aftermath, resentment grew about how OPD responded to the shooting. There were accusations that officers delayed confronting Mateen, and that their failures were covered up, controversy that rages in some quarters to this day.
But many lives were saved that night. And Mina points to federal and state investigations that cleared officers accused of accidentally killing some victims from friendly fire. Records of the full FBI probe, however, still have not been released.
Nonetheless, Mina has sought to put the lessons of that night into practice.
Today, Mina said, OPD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office conduct active shooter trainings annually, far more frequently than prior to Pulse. He also invested in rifle-rated ballistic armor for his subordinates while pushing to acquire military-style vehicles and upgraded breaching equipment for SWAT teams.
As for the Orlando community, he sees it today as being more protective of its LGBTQ and Hispanic residents. But 10-year-old scars remain.
“I think more people pay attention to their surroundings than before,” he said, “but I also saw this community come together with love instead of hate.”
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