Orlando's Pulse nightclub to become permanent memorial, owner says

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Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The site of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, is set to become a permanent, national memorial.

Pulse owner Barbara Poma, serving as CEO and executive director of the onePULSE Foundation, which was established to create and maintain the new memorial as well as provide community grants and scholarships, announced plans for the memorial Thursday morning, nearly 11 months after the June 12, 2016, nightclub attack that killed 49 people.

The creation of the memorial will involve input from the community, including survivors and victims’ family members, Poma said at a press conference Friday morning outside the nightclub.

“The community most impacted by this horrible event in our history should determine the future of the Pulse site and how their loved ones and the events of that day should be memorialized,” she said.

The mission “is to create a sanctuary of hope around this tragic day in American history,” according to the onePULSE Foundation website.

Poma said she wants the memorial to be a place of change, education and remembrance.

“We will not let hate win,” she said.

While gunman Omar Mateen was killed in a police shootout after the attack, his wife, Noor Salman, is facing federal charges for allegedly aiding and abbetting her husband’s “provision of material support” to the terrorist group ISIS, also known as ISIL. She is also accused of misleading federal agents and Fort Pierce, Florida, police officers who questioned her about Mateen’s attack. She has pleaded not guilty.

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