Pulse Nightclub Owners Won’t Be Charged in Fatal Mass Shooting, Police Say

Eight years after the deadly mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in June 2016, local police closed their investigation into the venue’s former owners, with no charges being filed.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, the Orlando Police Department stated it was closing its probe into Barbara and Rosario Poma after finding no probable cause for involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence.

Billboard has reached out to the Orlando Police Department for confirmation.

In 2023, multiple survivors and family members of those who were killed in the shooting filed complaints with the police department, claiming that the owners’ violations of building codes — including capacity restrictions, unpermitted renovations and inaccessible building plans — prevented first responders from being able to properly access the club after the shooting.

While interviewers were not able to contact the Pomas, the report concluded that renovations to the building did not negatively impact police’s ability to respond to the threat and that there was no sufficient proof to determine how many patrons were in the bar the night of the shooting or how the gunman was able to enter the building.

According to AP, the report states that investigators determined the owners did not act “with a reckless disregard for human life” and concluded that “they could not have reasonably foreseen or anticipated a terrorist incident taking place at Pulse.”

On June 12, 2016, a shooter entered Pulse nightclub and opened fire, killing 49 people in what was then the deadliest mass shooting on American soil. (It was surpassed the following year when 61 people were killed during the 2017 Route 91 country music festival in Las Vegas).