Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

Jim Burroway

June 30th, 2016

We Are Orlando

Stanley Almodovar

Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old.

Stanley-Almodovar-III_CLAIMA20160612_0161_17Stanley was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and he moved to Florida with his family in 2003. He graduated from high school in Clermont, Florida, in 2011 and was studying to be a pharmacy technician at Anthem College. He was constantly changing his hair color and style. He had dyed his hair again earlier that day before heading to Pulse. His pastor remarked at his funeral, “There was one picture where he had a perm and straight hair at the same time. How that happened, God only knows.” One photo he posted on his Facebook page included the message, “Yes i wear makeup and i’m still a man about it tho.”

At about 2 a.m., Stanley’s mother got an urgent phone call. “Come quick, hurry,” a woman’s voice on the other end of the phone cried. “You need to be here quick.”

According to one witness, Stanley was coming out of the men’s room as the shooter was spraying the nightclub with bullets. He shoved people out of harm’s way, possibly saving several lives. Rosalie Ramos rushed to the night club as soon as she got the call. “I was hoping maybe [he was shot in] the hand or the leg,” she said. “You can survive [a gunshot to] the leg.” He was shot in the chest, stomach and side, and he died at the hospital, just two weeks shy of his 24th birthday.

Earlier that evening, Stanley posted a video to Snapchat, showing him laughing and singing as his friend drove to Pulse “I wish I had that to remember him forever,” his mother said.

 

EricIvanOrtiz-Rivera

Eric Ivan Ortiz Rivera, 36 years old.

Ivan Dominguez (left) and Eric Ivan Ortiz Rivera (right)

Ivan Dominguez (left) and Eric Ivan Ortiz Rivera (right)

Eric was originally from Dorado, Puerto Rico, and graduated from Universidad Central de Bayamón in 2006 where he was president of the Association of Student Journalists. He moved to Florida in 2007 for a chance at a better life after Puerto Rico’s economy sank into a severe recession. He lived in downtown Orlando with his husband, Ivan Dominguez. They started dating in 2014 after being friends for many years. They became engaged the following year and picked a date. By a happy coincidence, the date they chose was June 26, the very same day the U.S. Supreme Court made marriage equality legal nationwide.

Eric rarely went out. He preferred to stay at home watching TV and cooking, especially slow-roasted pork, beans and rice. But that night he went to a friend’s housewarming party, and when the group decided to go to Pulse, they convinced him to tag along. “I am really in shock that he was in the club, because he was not usually a club-scene person,” said his former roommate. Eric’s husband had stayed home because he had to get up for work the next day. His ex-roommate said he learned about the shooting from Ivan. “His husband called me in the morning… He was hysterical trying to find him.”

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