You can’t help but think that you could potentially be the next target. A dramatic shootout at a resort in Mexico left guests and hotel employees scrambling for shelter and two apparent gang members dead. The New York-based location scout had just begun a photography mentorship with the legendary Alex and Rebecca Norris Webb, and was on the look-out for stories to shoot. "I’m scared as a bartender, especially a bartender in the LGBT community. Pulse, the first gay bar Gonzalez said he ever went to, was among a few establishments where he describes feeling truly safe and welcome, a place he called “home.” Now, he said, he is frightened to go out. Gonzalez said Orlando has a very tight LGBT Latin community. “They were letting their families know where they were, so it doesn’t matter how careful you are anymore.” As in the far bloodier Orlando attack, an AR-15. “There were people that were keeping in contact with family members up until the very last moment before they were killed. Florida man Omar Mateen left the nation in shock when he forced his way into Pulse, an Orlando gay bar, early in the morning of June 12, 2016, and launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. That happened on May 21, when a group of heavily armed men opened fire on patrons at the city’s La Madame gay bar, killing seven and wounding 12. The problem is that being careful doesn’t always work, Gonzalez said. But, the draw is the panoramic view of the whole place.
The incident took place outside the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun resort in Puerto Morelos, south of. For much of the LatinX community of Orlando, that means a new reality – the places they once thought were safe are not.Ĭhristopher Gonzalez, a resident of Orlando and member of the millennial LatinX community, recalls watching the news with his dad, before his dad turned to him to offer some fatherly advice: "Chris, you have to be careful.” Perched above the dark room and the bathrooms is a small lounge with comfy armchairs where there’s also a bar. Two men died on Thursday near the Mexican city of Cancun in a shooting outside of a luxury resort. Like Juan Guerrero, many of the victims’ families are coming to terms with the fact that a gay nightclub, on a Latin night, was the shooter’s choice of target. His son was a 22-year-old graduate of the University of Central Florida, "a great son, hard working, sweet," and deeply in love with his boyfriend, Christopher Leinonen, who was also gunned down that night.