Orlando pauses to remember victims

  • 20/06/2016
Men hug by a giant rainbow flag during a vigil for the Pulse night club victims (Reuters)
Men hug by a giant rainbow flag during a vigil for the Pulse night club victims (Reuters)

As the FBI prepares to release partial transcripts of phone conversations with the Orlando nightclub shooter, residents have paused throughout the day to remember the 49 victims.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has told several US news programs parts of transcripts of conversations between gunman Omar Mateen and police negotiators from within the Pulse gay nightclub will be released on Monday (local time).

It comes as Orlando residents paused one week after the massacre -- at a bar in the early morning hours, at morning church services and at an evening candlelight vigil -- to remember the victims of the worse mass shooting in modern US history.

"We are hurting. We are exhausted, confused, and there is so much grief," Larry Watchorn, a ministerial intern, told the predominantly gay congregants at a sermon at Orlando's Joy Metropolitan Community Church.

"We come to have our tears wiped away and our strength renewed."

Armed with a semi-automatic weapon, Mateen went on a bloody rampage at the club on June 12 leaving 49 people dead and 53 others seriously hurt. Mateen died in a hail of police gunfire after police stormed the venue.

Lynch has told ABC'sThis Week program the top goal is intensifying pressure on ISIL -- the extremist group thought to have inspired Mateen -- while building a profile of the shooter to prevent similar attacks.

"As you can see from this investigation, we are going back and learning everything we can about this killer, about his contacts, people who may have known him or seen him. And we're trying to build that profile so that we can move forward," Lynch said.

Lynch will travel to Orlando on Tuesday to meet with investigators.

A lawyer for the Council of American-Islamic Relations said the FBI spent 30 minutes interviewing a man who worshipped at the same mosque as Mateen.

Lynch told CBS another key goal is determining why Mateen targeted the gay community.

A moment's silence was observed at Parliament House, a gay club and an Orlando resort at 2am, the time a week ago when Mateen opened fire.

Florida Governor Rick Scott, described the attack as "devastating" while praying at the First Baptist Church of Orlando.

"But here is the positive out of it ... people have come together," Scott said. "There are so many people who have done so many wonderful acts."

Balloons, flowers, pictures and posters have been left at a makeshift memorial outside city's new performing arts centre and at Orlando Regional Medical Centre where 49 white crosses were emblazoned with red hearts and the names of the victims.

A rainbow also appeared over a city park on Sunday night as tens of thousands gathered for an evening vigil to honour the victims.

AP