Fund to help families of victims of Orlando Pulse shooting passes $5 million
A crowd funded pot of money to help the families of those killed and injured during a mass shooting in an Orlando gay club, has passed $5 million.
The GoFundMe page for the families of the victims was set up by Equality Florida in the wake of the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre.
Within 48 hours the page had passed $1 million, making it the fastest to do so in GoFundMe’s history.
Equality Florida has opted to distribute the money through the National Compassion Fund, which is a unit of the nonprofit National Centre for Victims of Crime.
The organisation hopes to get money where it needs to be as quickly as possible.
It is unclear whether other, separate, funds will also be seeking the help of the National Compassion Fund.
Victims and their families may also be eligible to receive compensation from other funds.
49 people were killed and 53 injured on Sunday in the shocking terrorist hate crime attack, which saw a gunman open fire inside The Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida.
ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attack, which was perpetrated by US citizen Omar Mateen. The majority of the victims were Latino.
In a statement, President Obama mourned the victims of the homophobic hate crime attack and called for greater restrictions on arms sales.
In response, Republican nominee Donald Trump said Obama should resign for failing to rally against Islam in his comments.
The attack has been condemned by American Muslim leaders, who addressed ISIS in saying: “You do not speak for us.”
But millions of people around the world have showed solidarity with the victims of the shooting and the community in Orlando,
Earlier this week, a threat was posted to Craigslist in San Diego, praising the shooting in Orlando, and reading: “San Diego, you’re next”.
Two US Marines are also being investigated for posting a photo with an assault rifle with the caption “Coming to a gay bar near you” on Facebook.
