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| Clockwise from top left: Orlando shooting victims Edward Sotomayor, Stanley Almodovar, Luis Omar Ocasio-Ocampo, Juan Ramon Guerrero, Luis Vielma and Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera |
An American-born man who'd pledged
allegiance to ISIS gunned down 50 people early Sunday at a gay nightclub in
Orlando -- the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation's
worst terror attack since 911, authorities said.
* The gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, of
Fort Pierce, Florida, was interviewed by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 but was not
found to be a threat, the FBI said.
* Mateen called 911 shortly before
the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston Marathon
bombers, according to a U.S. official.
* Orlando police shot and killed
Mateen.
Mateen carried an assault rifle and
a pistol into the packed Pulse club about 2 a.m. Friday and started shooting,
killing 50 people and wounding at least 53, police said.
After a standoff of about three
hours -- while people trapped inside the club desperately called and messaged
friends and relatives -- police crashed into the building with an armored
vehicle and killed Mateen.
"It appears he was organized
and well-prepared," Orlando Police Chief John Mina said early Sunday.
Authorities say they haven't found any accomplices.
'An
act of hate'
There has been no claim of
responsibility for the attack on jihadi forums, but ISIS sympathizers have
reacted by praising the attack on pro-Islamic State forums.
"We know enough to say this was
an act of terror and act of hate," President Obama said in an address to
the nation from the White House.
While the violence could have hit
any American community, "this is an especially heartbreaking day for our
friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender," he said.
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was born in
1986 in New York City. Most recently he lived in Fort Pierce, about 120 miles
southeast of Orlando. He had worked since 2007 as a security officer at G4S
Secure Solutions, one of the world's largest private security companies.
Mateen's parents, who are from
Afghanistan, said he'd expressed outrage after seeing two men kiss in Miami,
but didn't consider him particularly religious.
Mateen was interviewed by the FBI in
2013 and 2014 after he expressed sympathy for a suicide bomber, FBI Assistant
Special Agent Ronald Hopper told reporters Sunday.
"Those interviews turned out to
be inconclusive, so there was nothing to keep the investigation going,"
Hopper said.
Mateen was not under investigation
at the time of Sunday's shooting and was not under surveillance, Hopper said.
In the past two weeks Mateen legally
purchased a Glock pistol and a long gun, ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge
Trevor Velinor told reporters.
"He is not a prohibited person.
They can legally walk into a gun dealership and acquire and purchase firearms.
He did so. And he did so within the last week or so," Velinor said.
'Closer
and louder and louder'
Pulse describes itself as "the
hottest gay bar" in the heart of Orlando. Hours before the shooting, the
club urged partygoers to attend its "Latin flavor" event Saturday
night. The club is a vast, open space that was hosting more than 300 patrons
late Saturday and into Sunday morning.
People inside the cavernous
nightclub described a scene of panic made more confusing by the loud music and
darkness.
Christopher Hansen said he was
getting a drink at the bar about 2 a.m. when he "just saw bodies going
down." He heard gunshots, "just one after another after
another."
The gunshots went on for so long
that the shooting "could have lasted a whole song," he said.
When the shots erupted, Hansen hit
the ground, crawling on his elbows and knees, before he spotted a man who had
been shot.
"I took my bandana off and
shoved it in the hole in his back," Hansen said, adding that he saw
another woman who appeared to be shot in the arm.
Survivors provided media
correspondents with dramatic accounts of how they avoided death. One person
hiding in the bathroom covered herself with bodies to protect herself. Some
entertainers hid in a dressing room when the shooting started and escaped the
building by crawling out when police removed the air conditioning unit.
One of the bartenders said she hid
under the glass bar. Police came in and said, "If you are alive, raise
your hand." Then police got her and others out.
After the initial shooting, police
surrounded the club while Mateen was inside with clubgoers hiding in bathrooms
and other parts of the building. People inside the club were communicating on
their phones with law enforcement from that time until around 5 a.m., when
authorities used an armored vehicle to break down the door of the
building.
Hospital
swamped with victims
Thirty-nine people and Mateen were
pronounced dead at the scene, with two bodies found in the parking lot, Mayor
Buddy Dyer said. Eleven people were taken to hospitals and pronounced dead
there, he said.
The City of Orlando is posting names of the deceased on a website after
next of kin are notified.
Forty-three of the wounded people
were patients on Sunday afternoon at Orlando Regional Medical Center, a
hospital spokesperson said, with 26 operations being performed.
Before Sunday, the deadliest
shootings in U.S. history were at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook
Elementary School in 2012, with 32 and 27 killed. Fourteen people were killed
December 2 in an attack in San Berardino, California.
National media attention was already
focused on Orlando over the weekend because of Friday night's fatal shooting of Christina Grimmie
while she signed autographs after a show. She was an up-and-coming singer who
had appeared on NBC's "The Voice." Her shooter then killed himself.
The Pulse shooting happened only a few miles from the Plaza Live theater, where
Grimmie was killed.
Dyer, the mayor, called for the city
to come together. "We need to support each other. We need to love each
other. And we will not be defined by a hateful shooter," he said.
President Obama called for flags to
be lowered to half staff and Florida Gov. Rick Scott called for a moment of
silence across the nation at 6 p.m. Sunday. States of emergency were declared
for the city of Orlando and for Orange County.
Santa
Monica arrest
Also on Sunday, authorities in West
Hollywood, California, took a suspect into custody after discovering an arsenal
in his car that included explosive powder, assault weapons and a camouflage
outfit, KABC reported, citing
unnamed authorities.
The suspect told authorities he was
there for the Los Angeles Pride festival, which is underway this weekend.
There was no indication the arrest
was related to the Orlando attack.
Eleven Orlando police officers and
three sheriff's deputies who exchanged gunfire with the suspect will be
temporarily relieved of duty pending an investigation.
One officer suffered an eye injury
when a bullet struck his Kevlar helmet, said Danny Banks, special agent in
charge of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Orlando bureau. The
helmet saved the officer's life, Banks said.
'This
is a hate crime'
The attacks were denounced on Sunday
by numerous groups, including the Vatican, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf
Ghani and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"This is a hate crime, plain
and simple," CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said.
"We condemn it in the strongest possible terms."
Nadine Smith of Equality Florida
said groups are planning vigils around the nation. "It has just been a
devastating day but people are starting to rally," she said.
Barbara Poma, owner of the Orlando
nightclub Pulse, released the following statement on Sunday:
"Like everyone in the country,
I am devastated about the horrific events that have taken place today. Pulse,
and the men and women who work there, have been my family for nearly 15 years.
From the beginning, Pulse has served as a place of love and acceptance for the
LGBTQ community. I want to express my profound sadness and condolences to all
who have lost loved ones. Please know that my grief and heart are with
you."
Extracted from CNN.
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