ORLANDO, Fla. — A 64-year-old man has been charged for allegedly setting fire to the Pulse Interim Memorial last month, the Orlando Fire Department said Tuesday.
Mark Anthony Henson faces a charge of felony criminal mischief for the fire at the center of the memorial dedicated to the 49 victims of the June 2016 massacre.
His arrest came days after the onePULSE Foundation released grainy security video of a man using a wheelchair who could be seen sparking the blaze, before quickly leaving.
Pulse survivor Orlando Torres said he helped locate the man.
“I couldn’t believe that somebody would do that,” said Torres, a former auxiliary officer for the New York Police Department and former security officer for Disney. “I took it upon myself to try to find him.”
Torres said he started searching about 4:30 p.m. Monday, led by tips he received after posting his plan on Facebook.
He continued looking Tuesday afternoon, traveling between the SoDo district and the soccer stadium near downtown Orlando. He said he spotted Henson near Pulse about 1:30 p.m., matching a logo on the back of Henson’s wheelchair to one he saw in the video.
“I broke out my camera and started taking pictures of him to make sure I had the right guy,” Torres said. “Then I called the police.”
The onePULSE Foundation, the nonprofit organization that created the memorial, said in a post on its Facebook page that the fire occurred Oct. 12 about 8:30 p.m. It damaged the offering wall of the memorial, burning three banners honoring those killed in the mass shooting as well as some items left by the victims’ families and part of a fence.
“I couldn't believe that somebody would do that. I took it upon myself to try to find him."
A spokesperson for the foundation, Scott Bowman, said in an email the charity is working with the families to replace the banners.
No one was injured in the blaze.
“OnePULSE Foundation is grateful to the Orlando Fire Department’s Arson and Bomb Squad for today’s arrest,” Bowman said. “As always, we are so appreciative of all of the first responders who work to keep our community safe.”
Bowman said the foundation waited to report the fire to the Orlando Police Department until it could obtain surveillance video showing the blaze was intentionally set.
“We didn’t want to comment publicly until we knew that this was the case,” he said.
In June, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill designating the nightclub as a national memorial — a move that comes without any federal funding but does indicate historic importance.
The foundation is raising millions of dollars for a permanent memorial on the site as well as a museum about a half-mile away. The first stage of the project, a Survivors Walk, will lead from the former site of the club to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the wounded were carried the night of the shooting.
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