A Brooklyn man was one of 49 people a gunman shot dead during a terror attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando early on Sunday morning, and now his family are raising money to bring his body back to Brooklyn.
Twenty-five-year-old Enrique Rios was at Pulse nightclub during a vacation in Florida when Omar Mateen opened fire, according to a crowd-funding page his mother set up to cover the costs of bringing her son back home for a funeral.
“My family is torn apart and all I would like is to have my son with me so he can the funeral he deserves,” wrote Getrude Merced, who lives in the Marcy Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Rios also lived, according to an NBC report. “My son was a good kid. He was just having a great time on his vacation, until this deranged man came in.”
Rios worked at True Care, a home health-care provider based in Kensington, and was studying social work at St. Francis College, according to his Facebook page.
As of publishing, 181 people have donated to the funeral costs, raising $10,120.
Florida authorities have so far released the names of 36 of the 49 victims of the attack. Fifty-three more are in hospital.
Park Slope gay bar Excelsior is also hosting a vigil on Monday night at 8 pm, and Public Advocate Letitia James is hosting a candlelight vigil with religious at Grand Army Plaza on Tuesday evening at 7:30 pm.
Candlelight vigil at Excelsior [563 Third Ave. between 15th and 16th streets in Park Slope, (718) 788–2710, www.excel
Candlelight vigil at Grand Army Plaza (between Plaza Street West and Plaza Street East in Prospect Heights). June 14 at 7:30 pm.
