Businesses are now being forced to change their plans for weekend operations after Mayor Buddy Dyer called for a local state of emergency in Orlando’s Downtown Entertainment District.

“All this negative publicity for downtown Orlando is not helping anyone,” said Thomas O’Toole, managing partner of Parking Operator LLC.

The state of emergency followed a deadly mass shooting early Friday evening that immediately unleashed a rush of fear and chaos. After a 17-year-old opened fire in a crowd, he killed two and injured eight others, including one person who was trampled by the stampede of people scrambling for safety.

“Frankly, I am frustrated to have to stand before all of you and once again break the news that we have senselessly lost another life to gun violence, and that is why we are taking this serious action,” said Mayor Buddy Dyer.

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Effective immediately, businesses in the downtown entertainment district must stop selling alcohol at midnight, and the district will also have a curfew from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m

“We kind of have no control over what we can do about the situation. So for now we can only stay open until 11:45 p.m., it would be our last call or something,” said Diana Rivera, Front of the House Manager at Papi Smash’d.

The city’s immediate response to the shooting has given businesses a short period of time to adjust to the new schedule.

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“When Mayor Buddy Dyer issues an order about bars at 4 p.m. on a Friday. It makes it almost impossible to challenge. When that happens, it’s frustrating. We have already made our schedules. “We’ve already hired staff,” O’Toole said.

The mandatory curfew follows the city’s approval of a “nightclub spearation” policy in September. The policy requires new facilities to be more than 300 feet (90 meters) apart to discourage large gatherings.

The city has also added more police presence downtown on weekends and barricades in certain parts of downtown in hopes of pushing for safer nightlife downtown.

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“With everything that’s going on, we kind of have to wrap our heads around everything, you know, it just sucks,” Rivera said.

Jaylen Edgar was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.

The mandatory curfew in the downtown Orlando entertainment district is in effect until November 8th at 5 p.m. So far, the city has not said what plans it has for the future of downtown nightlife.

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