As the Pulse anniversary approaches, it is important to remember that the City of Orlando and Mayor Buddy Dyer lied about and hid Pulse photos of a blocked exit door from the public for nine years. The redacted photos were finally released only after years of pressure and when Pulse advocates threatened legal action.
“This is unconscionable deception. Nine years later, we get the photo. Unbelievable. I don’t know how you and others involved in this coverup sleep at night. I really don’t,” victims’ advocate Dr. Zachary Blair emailed to Orlando City Commissioners and City of Orlando government employees.
It is unbelievable that nine years later, the truth finally came out, with no thanks to the City of Orlando. It is absolutely disgraceful that Orlando City Hall, Mayor Buddy Dyer, Chief of Staff Heather Fagan and Public Information Manager Ashley Papagni lied about the blocked door and hid the photos from the public.
“Luis Capo died after being trapped in this room for 30 minutes. José could see the patio through the glass and tried to move the cooler so that they could all exit to safety and get to paramedics, but it was too heavy for him to move. 5 people were stuck in here for 30 minutes,” victims’ advocate Dr. Zachary Blair recently emailed Heather Fagan. “You should be ashamed of yourself. I hope your paycheck and promotion was worth it.”
When asked for a response, Heather Fagan declined comment to West Orlando News. After the Pulse tragedy, Fagan was promoted to Chief of Staff and is now one of the City’s highest paid employees. Why is the Chief of Staff to Mayor Buddy Dyer scared to comment? She was eagerly begging for millions of dollars for the Pulse memorial from Orange County Commissioners this week, but still will not answer for her role in the scandal.
The city maintains it did not lie and did not mislead the press and the public. Despite the photographs, Orlando Public Information Manager told West Orlando News in March 2025 that the city stands by their claim that there were no blocked exits at the time of the terrorist attack. “As far as questions addressing exits, as we’ve stated previously, we have no indication there were blocked exits at the time of the incident,” Ashley Papagni told West Orlando News on March 27, 2025. She refused to answer any follow up questions asked by WON.
Dr. Zachary Blair, a Pulse advocate, was given the photos included in this article in response to a public records request. He says these must have been the photos of the blocked door that Fire Marshal Tammy Hughes referred to in her text messages, which the Office of Mayor Buddy Dyer had denied over and over again. One of the texts included saying “code enforcement is here showed me a picture where the club owner had blocked the exit with a coke machine he has pictures.” According to obtained records, when another text asked “how many exits was [sic] blocked?” the response was “maybe one or two.”
The unpermitted Pulse renovations and code violations hindered escape and rescue.
Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan was also called out, and she was directly asked if she had seen these photographs before. “I have no comment on this,” Commissioner Sheehan told West Orlando News.
“Patty, you should stop publicly denying this was not a coverup and resign too,” Dr. Blair stated. “It clearly was. You are also part of it because at any moment in the past nine years, you could have come out publicly about these issues and you didn’t. You told me privately and got me to do the hard work. You did not keep your promise that you would join us. Our anger towards you and the City is not because of grief, it is because of deception and continuous re-victimization. Again, stop publicly blaming our anger on grief.”
The Pulse victims and advocates also said Heather Fagan and Ashley Papagni lied to and deliberately misled The New York Times reporter Frances Robles when pressured about the blocked exit door back in 2016. Here are emails obtained through public records requests and shared with West Orlando News:
“Shame on all of you,” Dr. Zachary Blair said.
Residents of the City of Orlando, and even visitors to our Central Florida region, should understand that Mayor Buddy Dyer and his top staff lied to the pubic, and they hid these photos of the Pulse blocked door for nine years – what else is Mayor Dyer and City Hall lying about?
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