Travel agent amongst victims of Orlando shootings
A travel agent and a Universal Studios worker were among the 50 killed by a gunman who opened fire in a gay nightclub in Florida on Saturday night.
Edward Sotomayor, national brand co-ordinator for ALandCHUCK.travel died protecting his boyfriend from shots fired by 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who was later shot dead by police.
Another of Mateen’s victims was 22-year-old Luis Veilma who worked on the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios, prompting a tweet from Potter author JK Rowling.
A state of emergency has been called in Florida and in the tourist hotspot of Orlando following the incident.
Another 53 people were injured in the shooting at the Pulse club.
During the incident, the club posted on its Facebook page telling partygoers to ‘get out’ and ‘keep on running’.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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