![white house press release orlando gay bar shooting white house press release orlando gay bar shooting](https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/C2FBDWGFPJID7DBCP35WUKRDD4.jpg)
Gay later pleaded guilty to multiple charges against him, including murder. The Roanoke Times reported that, among other things, Gay told police “God told him to do it” and that he once wrote that there was an evil inside of him telling him “to shoot or have no rest.” In the weeks following the shooting, news media outlets, including the Washington Blade and the Washington Post, reported findings of an investigation by local police that Gay told police he went to Backstreet specifically to target gay people because he became bitter after years of being taunted and teased for his last name of “Gay.” Six others, who were wounded by bullets fired by Gay, later recovered, but they and many others who were present and witnessed the shooting were left emotionally scarred, the Roanoke Times reported. Overstreet, a beloved regular patron at the Backstreet Café, died at the scene of the shooting. 22, 2000.Īccording to an account by an eyewitness to the incident who spoke last week with the Roanoke Times newspaper, after ordering a beer and standing next to the bar for a short time, Gay reached into the long trench coat he was wearing, pulled out a 9mm pistol, and fired a round “straight into the chest of 43-year-old Danny Overstreet, before opening fire on the rest of the bar.” Witnesses and law enforcement officials reported at the time of the shooting that a middle-aged man later identified as Gay arrived alone at Roanoke’s Backstreet Café, a popular gay bar, on the night of Sept.
#White house press release orlando gay bar shooting tv#
15, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.Ī spokesperson for the Department of Corrections told WSLS 10 TV News that Ronald Edward Gay died while being treated at a hospital near the Deerfield Correctional Center, a state prison where he had been living as an inmate. 29, 2000)Ī man sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison for the September 2000 shooting at a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia, in which one man lost his life and six others were wounded, died of natural causes on Jan. The legislation also faces long odds in the chamber.Ronald Edward Gay died while serving life sentences for attacking a Virginia gay bar. We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women - especially transgender women of color.”īiden also called on the Senate to “swiftly” pass the Equality Act, which would bar discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “We must also acknowledge gun violence’s particular impact on LGBTQ+ communities across our nation. “Pulse Nightclub is hallowed ground,” Biden said in the statement. Since the shooting, Biden has “stayed in touch” with survivors and victims families, he said in the statement Saturday.īiden said in the statement that he will soon sign a bill that will make the nightclub a national memorial. To mark the five-year anniversary of the mass shooting, the victims are being honored with a number of events, including a remembrance ceremony Saturday. Biden also called on the Justice Department to put forward “model” red flag law legislation, which it issued earlier this week.Ī lone shooter at the gay Florida club killed 49 people in June 2016, when Biden was serving as vice president. In April, Biden went it alone on gun reform, issuing executive actions to slow gun violence, including reforms aimed at reining in so-called ghost guns, and ordering the DOJ to produce a new annual report on gun trafficking. At least 13 people were injured in a shooting in Austin, Texas, early Saturday.
![white house press release orlando gay bar shooting white house press release orlando gay bar shooting](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/06/14/us/14highlights-trump/14highlights-trump-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg)
Biden has repeatedly called for gun reform legislation in the wake of mass shootings this year, including ones in Indianapolis and San Jose, Calif.