ORLANDO, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott attended a funeral Thursday for Eric Ortiz-Rivera, one of the 49 people who died in a shooting at an Orlando nightclub.
He stood beside the 36-year-old's coffin, along with the victim's mother.
"My daughter's about the same age as a lot of these individuals that were slaughtered, murdered," Scott said. "It's frustrating. Your heart goes out to them because it's people."
Ortiz-Rivera's funeral was one of several held for the victims of Sunday's massacre, which has been deemed the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
"He was a loving brother, husband, cousin, and he left behind a lot of people who care for him, and our family is just never going to be the same without him," Orlando Gonzalez, the victim's cousin, said.
Across town, mourners wore shirts with Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo's smiling face during his funeral service.
"It feels like a semi-truck ran over your heart a million and one times" Alberto Capo, the victim's uncle, said.
Seeing his 20-year-old nephew in his casket was too much for Alberto Capo to bear.
"I don't want to remember him in a box," he said. "I don't want to remember having to bury him."
Later in the day, a memorial service was held at a Publix in Orlando's College Park neighborhood, where Cory Connell worked.
His girlfriend wanted to teach him how to salsa dance, so they went to Latin night at Pulse Orlando. She remains in a hospital.
"These are people, 49 people, with families that they left behind, and they were killed in a way that was so gruesome and unfortunate and uncalled for," Gonzalez said.
