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Orlando reacts to Jacksonville shooting where gunman killed 2 people, injured 11

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PHOTO BY MONIVETTE CORDEIRO
  • Photo by Monivette Cordeiro
In what has become a painful tradition since Orlando experienced its own mass shooting two years ago, local leaders reacted with sympathy and calls to action after a gunman killed two people and injured 11 more at a video game tournament in Jacksonville.

The Florida Times-Union reports 24-year-old David Katz, of Baltimore, used a handgun to shoot people from around the country who came to participate in a Madden NFL 19 video game tournament at the Jacksonville Landing plaza, then killed himself. A witness told the Times-Union Katz's motive for gunning people down was because he had lost the tournament.  The event was live-streamed on Twitch, which captured disturbing audio of gunshots and screams from the mass shooting as it was happening. Media outlets have identified the two people killed as Taylor Robertson, 27, of West Virginia, and Eli Clayton, 22, of California.



Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando where a gunman killed 49 people, said on Twitter after the shooting, "Every mass shooting hurts like the last. The empty dinner tables that will follow. Mothers burying their children. America, how are we not enraged? Our streets are like a war zone. Please keep Jacksonville in your hearts. And be ready to vote for those taken too soon."

Christine Leinonen, the mother of Pulse victim Christopher "Drew" Leinonen, also reacted online to the Jacksonville mass shooting.



Local officials, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, also responded to the shooting, offering assistance from the city if needed.

Federal and state Democratic lawmakers from the Orlando area called for immediate action to pass regulations that would stem gun violence.


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