ORLANDO _ Lawyers for the City of Orlando and media companies have argued for months about what to do with 911 recordings that may have captured the sounds of 49 people dying inside Pulse, an Orlando nightclub, at the hands of a gunman.
On Monday, family members of those who died told an Orlando judge what they want.
Three spoke for themselves. Two sent lawyers. Circuit Judge Margaret Schreiber listened to each.
Two said they would have no objection to a written transcript of the calls being made public.
Two urged the judge to keep them private.
One waffled.
The judge made no ruling. She'll listen to the 232 calls and decide whether any, or all, should be made public.
She also ordered the city to release the calls that the gunman made to 911 and conversations he had with police during the standoff.
The first family member to testify today was a woman whose brother died. She told the judge that she does not want any recording of her brother's voice to be made public but she, herself, wants to listen to it.
A lawyer for the parents of the youngest victim, 18-year-old Akyra Murray, urged the judge to release the calls in transcript form.
Her parents, Albert and Natalie Murray, were told that their daughter "bled out" during the standoff, Richard Klineberger III told the judge.
They had received a call from her while she was trapped inside, Klineberger said, and they had rushed to the scene.
They think the release of that information will help create a time line and allow people to better understand what happened, Klineberger said.
"We don't know what happened," he said. "When it comes down to transparency needed, in order for the family to know what occurred, the pain that will come with releasing those tapes can't be any greater than what they've already experienced in this loss."
Another woman whose brother was killed said she objects to the release of the calls in any form. "I know what happened. I don't need to hear," she told the judge.
The recordings were made June 12 when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire at the gay nightclub south of downtown Orlando, killing 49 and wounding more than 50 others.
Attorneys for two dozen media companies, including the Orlando Sentinel, have pushed for their release, saying they will allow the public to evaluate whether the Orlando Police Department responded appropriately.
Mateen started shooting about 2 a.m., holed up in the club for three hours and was killed after 5 a.m. after the Orlando police SWAT team punched holes in the back wall with an armored vehicle.
Media companies have been fighting for the release of the 603 recordings since a few days after the massacre. The city originally refused, saying they were part of an FBI investigation, but a police captain testified several weeks ago that the FBI only had use for 70 of them and that as of Sept. 2, they were no longer needed.
The city then modified its position. It released about 200 of them but said it could not release the others, arguing it was prohibited by law because they captured the sounds of people dying.
Specifically at issue now are 232 recordings that originated from the club or went to people inside.
Media attorney Rachel Fugate said many may not include the sounds of anyone dying. There's no reason for those to be kept secret, she said.
And if the calls do capture the sounds of someone dying and they are graphic, she argued, the judge could allow members of the media to listen to them but not record them.
City Attorney Darryl Bloodworth urged the judge to keep the recordings private.
"I cannot imagine a more serious invasion of privacy," he said.
It's not clear how much weight the judge will give to the wishes of family members.
