When authorities arrived on scene, they found him near his car. after someone spotted a man loitering and knocking on a door in a residential neighborhood. Santa Monica Police spokesman Saul Rodriguez told The Washington Post that police were contacted at around 5 a.m. “While there are no specific or credible threats received by law enforcement for the greater Los Angeles area, our personnel maintain a heightened state of situational awareness and remain vigilant in the protection of our communities.” “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families of this horrific attack which occurred in Orlando early this morning,” the release stated. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have enhanced our security presence for the event and have tactical units at the ready to prevent and respond to any circumstances,” said the statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The mass shooting was deemed the deadliest in U.S. "To my country I want to say, 'love each other.News of the arrest in California came hours after 50 people were killed and 53 others injured at Pulse, a gay bar and dance club in Orlando. "You can live here and have a boyfriend, girlfriend and you can have your own way without any discrimination," he told AFP. "We are all God's children."ĭavit Chirgadze, a 25-year-old restaurant manager from Tbilisi wearing Mickey Mouse shorts, said he flew all the way to New York just to attend Gay Pride and marry his Georgian husband, calling his country "very homophobic." "Tolerance is still a number one priority," added the 56-year-old, wearing a striped rainbow shirt and draped in colored necklaces. "Every parade has its own purpose but this year's purpose has been very profound, I would say, for not only New York City but all of the United States and I really believe the whole world," said retired teacher Pedro Lugo.
profoundly, because we came here for safety," he said.
"I felt like the accident shook our sense of safety here in the states. Subhi Nahas, a Syrian refugee who has addressed the UN Security Council on the plight of LGBT people in his home country, said the Orlando shooting had jolted gay immigrants' relative sense of security. Police lined the route, which started in midtown and culminated in Greenwich Village, home of the Stonewall Inn. Organizers said they did not have final numbers on turnout but that 32,000 marchers and more than 420 groups had been expected. Parents came with young children, tourists from overseas and exhibitionists indulged in show-stopping costumes and glittery catsuits complete with stilettos. Spectators donned rainbow feather boas and waved rainbow flags. Scouts carried 49 flags with rainbow stripes to honor the victims, while another group dressed head-to-toe in white and wore veils, the names and photographs of the Orlando dead hanging around their necks.Īlong the route, the newly created Gays Against Guns (GAG) pressure group staged a die-in, lying down on the hot road in a heap.ĭespite somber remembrance, the parade was also a giant street party with participants dancing to thumping music, a giant arc of balloons and street vendors doing a brisk trade in all things rainbow. And I have to say the response has been amazing," he added. We will stand up to those who would try to undermine our values.
"We have extraordinary NYPD presence to make sure that this will not only be the biggest but the safest parade we've ever had," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio before a commemorative moment of silence. Sunday's events, along with marches in Chicago and Seattle, were marked by tributes to the 49 people killed at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, which has once again inflamed calls for gun control. Just days before the parade, President Barack Obama designated the country's first LGBT national monument at the city's Stonewall Inn, where protests erupted in 1969 following a police crackdown. New York, which prides itself on being one of the most diverse cities on the planet, is the birthplace of the US gay rights movement.