JK Rowling ‘can’t stop crying’ after learning man who worked on Harry Potter ride among Orlando victims

Luis S. Vielma was identified as one of the 49 victims killed at an LGBT nightclub in Florida

Monday 13 June 2016 14:12

A woman offers free hugs in Washington in reaction to the mass shootings at Pulse

(GETTY)

JK Rowling has reacted with sorrow after learning one of the victims of a mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Florida worked on a Harry Potter themed ride in Orlando.

The Harry Potter author told her seven million Twitter followers how she could not stop crying after a gunman killed at least 49 and wounded dozens more at Pulse nightclub, in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

Rowling joined the outpouring of grief and shock expressed on social media on Sunday evening. In an emotive tweet, she paid tribute to one of the victims, Luis S. Vielma, who she said worked on the Harry Potter ride at the Universal Orlando Resort theme park.

This has not been confirmed by Mr Vielma’s family. A remembrance Facebook page under the name Luis S. Vielma listed him as Production Assistant at Disaster Studios, Rides Attendant at Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey and Attractions Operations at Universal Orlando Resort.

US police have named the gunman as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen born in New York and of Afghan descent who lived in Fort Pierce, Florida. Mateen had purchased guns legally in recent days.

Omar Mateen, who has been identified as the Orlando gunman by police

(Myspace)

The gunman exchanged fire with police at about 2am before a hostage situation developed inside the club. He was killed three hours later when officers stormed the building and shot him dead.

An anonymous law enforcement official told the Associated Press Mateen allegedly pledged allegiance to Isis during a 911 call before carrying out the shooting, but the extent of Isis’ involvement, if any, has not yet been determined.

In pictures: Orlando nightclub shooting

Show all 30

1/30In pictures: Orlando nightclub shooting

Friends and family grieve after a list of hospitalised victims was released, implying the death of those who weren't on the list and hadn't been heard from, outside a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel near the Orlando Regional Medical Center

AP

People mourning for victims of the mass shooting near the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando

AFP/Getty Images

Mina Justice speaks to a reporter discussing texting with her son Eddie who was in a bathroom at Club Pulse in Orlando. It has now been confirmed that Eddie Justice was among the 50 people killed in the massacre

AP

FBI agents investigate near the damaged rear wall of the Pulse Nightclub

Getty Images

Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the LGBT Center of Central Florida (C) is comforted by Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan (R) after a shooting involving multiple fatalities at a nightclub in Orlando

AP

FBI agents investigate the damaged rear wall of the Pulse Nightclub

Getty Images

Police officials investigate the back of the Pulse nightclub after a shooting involving multiple fatalities at the nightclub in Orlando

AP

A member of the Medical Examiners office wheels a body to a vehicle from the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub

Getty Images

A photograph posted by the Orlando Police Department on Twitter with the words, "Pulse shooting: In hail of gunfire in which suspect was killed, OPD officer was hit. Kevlar helmet saved his life", in reference to the operation against a gun man inside Pulse night club in Orlando

REUTERS

FBI, Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office personnel investigate the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando

AP

Annette Stubbs, a pastor at a local church, prays for victims a few blocks from a crime scene at the nightclub where a mass shooting took place

AP

Aimee McCarthy from Jacksonville, gives blood at the oneblood facility, to help the victims from a mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando

AP

Police forensics investigators work at the crime scene of a mass shooting at the Pulse gay night club in Orlando

REUTERS

An injured person is escorted out of the Pulse nightclub after a shooting rampage

AP

An injured man is escorted out of the Pulse nightclub after a shooting rampage

AP

An injured man is escorted out of the Pulse nightclub after a shooting rampage

AP

Law enforcement officials work at the Pulse nightclub following a fatal shooting

AP

Orlando Police officers direct family members away from the nightclub

AP

The scene outside the Orlando gay club where multiple people have been shot

AFP/Getty Images

The injured are treated in the street outside Pulse in Orlando following the shooting

EPA/Univision

Two witnesses, Jermain Towns (left) and Brandon Shuford, wait down the street for news following shooting and hostage stand-off at the Pulse nightclub. Mr Towns said his brother was in the club at the time

AP

Emergency services at the scene. Ambulance crews and firefighters were outside the club alongside police.

EPA

People treating the wounded on the street

EPA

Friends and family members embrace outside the Orlando Police Headquarters during the investigation of a shooting at the Pulse night club

Reuters

Law enforcement agencies and local city representatives give a news conference in the wake of a mass-casualty shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando

Rex

Orlando police officers seen outside of Pulse nightclub after a fatal shooting and hostage situation in Orlando, Florida

Getty

Friends and family console one another outside the Orlando Police Headquarters

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the worst mass shooting in U.S. history that took place in Orlando

REUTERS

Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman, the Imam of the mosqe that mass shooter Omar Mateen attended, speaks to the media in Fort Pierce. The imam said that the suspect never gave any indication he was capable of such violence.Omar Mateen attended evening prayers three or four times a week at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, bringing his son who is about four or five years old

AFP/Getty Images

Omar Mateen has killed 50 people at a gay nightclub after pledging allegiance to Isis in the deadliest mass shooting in US history

Myspace

His ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy described Mateen as a “mentally unstable” and “disturbed” man who had beat her during the four months they lived together in 2009, causing her family to travel to their home in Florida and take her home. She said today: “When he would get in his tempers, he would express hate toward everything. He was mentally unstable and mentally ill: that's the only explanation that I could give.”

His father Seddique Mateen said the attack was not to do with religion. He said his son had become angry after seeing two men kissing in Miami a few months prior to the shooting.

“We are apologising for the whole incident,” he told NBC News. “We are in shock, like the whole country.”

President Barack Obama condemned the attack as an act of terror and “an act of hate”. Florida authorities have declared a state of emergency and Mr Obama has ordered flags on federal buildings to be flown at half-mast.