New Hope, Bucks County remembers those lost in Orlando shooting

NEW HOPE, Pa. (WPVI) -- In New Hope, Bucks County people also mourned for the victims in Orlando.

Hundreds attended a candlelight vigil Monday night on the banks of the Delaware River near the Bucks County Playhouse.

They also read the names of all the victims before holding a moment of silence.

"I still cannot believe it. It's still very shocking to me and I'm still in a little disbelief about it," Chip Luck of Rahway, NJ told Action News earlier in the day.

The vigil in gay-friendly New Hope, where rainbow flags hang everywhere during Pride Month in June, was organized by a local group called New Hope Celebrates, which runs the annual Gay Pride Parade.

"It will be an opportunity for the community to gather together and remember those that were lost as a result of this tragic shooting," New Hope Celebrates president Sharon Fronabarger said.

"Tonight, I'm hoping that it's a time of mourning, a time of anger and also a time for action," Fr. Michael Ruk of St. Phillip's Episcopal Church said.

Many people Action News spoke with Monday talked about the need to press legislators to outlaw assault-type rifles like the one used in the Orlando massacre.

"This time we really have to do something. I mean, even though it's affected my community, the gay community, it's affecting Americans," Herb Millman of New Hope, Pa. said.

One of the vigil organizers had a friend who was inside the Pulse club when the gunman opened fire.

"He was posting while it was going on and he just said there's blood and bodies everywhere. I texted him and he just said I'm alive and just in shock," Jennifer Wohl, New Hope Celebrates vice president, said.

The Raven is a well-known restaurant and popular gay bar in New Hope. Owner Steve Lau met with New Hope's police chief Monday to do discuss security at the club in the wake of the mass shootings.

"What we are doing now going forward is making sure that all of our bartenders and everybody that works here, our servers as well as our security team, is just being more vigilant," Lau said.

"It just underscores the fact that as far as we think we've come, there is still a long way to go," The Raven manager Jeffrey Meier said.