Orlando gripped by fear of killer's potential accomplices

Rome - Orlando is experiencing a sort of collective "psychosis", due to the "fragmented information and lack of clarity from the police," said Simone Desiato, an Italian businessman who has lived in the Florida city for years. Mr Desiato described to AGI the mood among locals the day after the massacre at the Pulse nightclub: "People talk about the killer's accomplices and the police haven't clarified whether it is true or whether the murderer acted alone. And so people who have never even held a pistol are now going to the office with a gun in their pocket." The Italian community in Orlando is small, but Mr Desiato admits that they too are experiencing this psychosis.

"There is also great tension because the media appear to want to hide something. Yesterday afternoon, for example, Walmart (the largest U.S. shopping chain) in Orlando was evacuated due to a suspected ISIS parcel bomb, but the TV news has not spoken about this since. However, the news immediately spread on social networks and was shared by thousands of people with unambiguous comments: so at least they can't say it isn't true." The Italian businessman explained that the Orlando gay community believes that homophobia was not the main reason that drove the shooter to carry out the massacre, but that it was an action inspired by Islamist terrorism.

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The very choice of Pulse was also in his view significant: "Local hetero clubs are mainly downtown, the central district of Orlando, which on weekends is inaccessible to cars. However, gay ones are located in other areas, often in slightly shady neighbourhoods, like the most important, Parliament House, on OBT (the Orange Blossom Trail). This means that there are always a lot of police patrols nearby. This is not the case for Pulse, located in a good neighbourhood and near a hospital, with ample parking and no police around.".