Orlando shooter had been removed from his job as a courthouse security guard
Ken J. Mascara, the sheriff of St. Lucie County in Florida, said Thursday that the man who carried out the massacre at an Orlando nightclub was removed from his job as a security guard at the county’s courthouse in 2013 after he made inflammatory comments about women, Jews and the mass shooting at Ft. Hood.
Here is Mascara’s statement:
“Omar Mateen was one of multiple contracted security guards that rotated through the St. Lucie County Courthouse as part of a contract with G4S Secure Solutions USA Inc.
“In early 2013, our staff was made aware of inflammatory comments made by Mateen. Our courthouse supervisor first requested that G4S management transfer him out of the courthouse rotation permanently. That was immediately granted. Our agency then made the appropriate notifications to inform our federal partners. It was at this time that the FBI began an investigation into Mateen that was later deemed inconclusive.”
Obama on gun violence
The motives of this killer may have been different than mass shooters in Aurora or Newtown, but the instruments of death were so similar.
— President Obama
‘Most of all, there is love,’ Obama says in mourning Orlando victims
Orlando’s response to the Pulse shooting massacre is a reminder “of what is good” about America, President Obama said in an emotional tribute to the victims Thursday.
After hours-long meetings with their families and survivors of the deadly attack, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden traveled to a makeshift memorial to leave bouquets of 49 white roses -- one for each life lost -- among the other flowers, balloons and photos that have collected there.
In brief remarks to reporters after, Obama said those lost “showed us what is best about humanity.”
“It will carry us through this atrocity and other challenges,” he said as a light rain began to fall. “Out of this darkest of moments, that gives us hope.”
Though the city was “shaken by an evil, hateful act,” the president added, “most of all, there is love.”
Obama: Notion that being armed would have saved Orlando victims ‘defies common sense’
In Orlando, Fla., President Obama referred to Donald Trump’s recent claim that more lives could have been saved at Pulse if more patrons were armed themselves. Such a notion “defies common sense,” he said, without naming Trump.
Obama said he was pleased the Senate would hold votes on gun safety measures, one day after Democrats waged a filibuster to force the issue.
Earlier, Obama met with the owners and staff of the Pulse nightclub, a place, he said, to “be who you truly are.” The attack, an “act of hate,” was an opportunity for Americans to reflect on how we treat one another, Obama said.
“Hatred toward people because of sexual orientation, regardless of where it comes from, is a a betrayal of what’s best in us,” he said.
Obama: ‘Lone wolves’ require different approach
Obama said the nation would continue to be relentless in its fight against terrorist networks like Al Qaeda and Islamic State. But he noted that attacks in Orlando, Fla., and San Bernardino were perpetrated not by sophisticated cells but so-called lone wolves, requiring a different approach.
“We can’t anticipate or catch every single deranged person who may wish to do harm,” he said. “But we can do something about the damage they do.”
As he embraced the victims’ families, Obama said they pleaded for him to do more.
“They don’t care about the politics, and neither do I,” he said.
Mateen’s ex-wife: When he was angry, he would ‘continuously make gay comments’
Sen. John McCain: Obama ‘directly responsible’ for Orlando shooting
Republican Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that President Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla,, because Obama has allowed the growth of Islamic State group on his watch.
McCain — who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election — made the comment to reporters while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday’s attack and some of the survivors.
“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, Al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq,” a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill.
“So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain said.
However, McCain later sought to clarify his comments, saying over Twitter: “To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama’s national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself.”
— Associated Press
This post was updated to reflect McCain’s clarification of his earlier remarks. The original post was published at 12:06 p.m.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson also meets with victims’ families
Medical examiner kept gunman’s body separate from victims’
The medical examiner who oversaw the autopsies of the 49 victims in the Pulse nightclub shooting says he kept their bodies separated from the gunman’s body.
Dr. Joshua Stephany said in a statement Thursday that the remains of gunman Omar Mateen were being held in a building separate from the victims.
He also says the gunman’s autopsy was conducted in a separate building from the victims’.
Stephany says he decided to do that not because of any requirement but because he thought it was the right thing to do.
The medical examiner says his staff was able to identify and conduct autopsies on the all victims within 72 hours after Sunday morning’s shooting.
— Associated Press
Obama arrives at the Amway Center
An Orlando cop’s gesture of solidarity with the city’s Puerto Rican community
Nearly half of those killed in the Pulse nightclub massacre had ties to Puerto Rico.
CIA director predicts more terrorist attacks like those in Orlando, Brussels and Paris
CIA Director John Brennan warned Thursday that as Islamic State loses ground in Syria and Iraq, it probably will use “guerrilla tactics” to launch more terrorist attacks like those in Orlando, Fla., Brussels and Paris.
The CIA has seen “no sign” that Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, was in contact with Islamic State or any other terrorist group, Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Like the married couple who killed 14 people on Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, Mateen appears to have been self-radicalized online, in part by listening to jihadist sermons and watching videos of beheadings by militants.
Islamic State inspiring ‘DIY terror’
Islamic State supporters “have accounted for 67 homegrown violent jihadist plots” in the United States between 2014 and early June 2016, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service, although only a handful were carried out.
The plots, in which Americans either joined terrorist organizations abroad or committed violent attacks at home or overseas, involved more than 100 individuals, the 18-page report said.
A total of 13 homegrown attacks were carried out in the United States since 2001, the CRS found, five of which involved people inspired by the Islamic State. The analysis said these attackers, which include the Orlando shooter and the couple who gunned down 14 people in San Bernardino, often acted alone and did not have “sustained, substantive, in-person contact with foreign terrorist organizations,” rather they “scraped together ideological justification” from online and social media sources.
“In essence, these attacks involved do-it-yourself — DIY — terrorists,” the study said. “Largely isolated from the operational support of terrorist organizations, they acquired violent skills (however rudimentary) by themselves or relied on abilities that they had developed prior to becoming violent jihadists.”
Vigil for Orlando shooting victims held in politically conservative Orange County
The comfort of words flowed, as smooth as their spirits.
A vigil for the victims of the Orlando mass shooting, the largest in U.S. history, took place in a gay nightclub in Santa Ana — the seat of famously conservative Orange County.
“This is the church of the LGBTQ community, our safe space,” Sian Wiltshire of Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church said Wednesday night, standing under rainbow-colored spotlights at the Velvet Lounge.
About 100 people, many of them holding flickering candles, intoned the names of the dead.
He shattered a veneer of safety that we all had constructed. I feel like we have to go back and reclaim that.
— Rev. Kent Doss of Tapestry Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Mission Viejo
Obama’s Orlando visit will be different than previous trips following mass shootings
President Obama has arrived in Orlando, Fla., to meet with the family members of victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre.
But unlike some of the president’s previous trips for memorial services after mass shootings, this one will be decidedly low-key: no address to a large crowd, but simply “a few personal reflections” to the press after spending time with mourners.
The White House has worked closely with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to coordinate the visit, spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with the president, and did not want to overburden local law enforcement officials strained by the attacks.
The quick visit, though, was a way for both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to show that “Americans stand shoulder to shoulder” with the people of central Florida. “There’s no more tangible way to show support than by traveling to the city where this horrific incident occurred,” Schultz said.
The shooting has quickly become fodder for the presidential campaign, but Obama’s visit has a bipartisan note. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida joined Obama aboard Air Force One to travel to Orlando. And among those greeting Obama upon arrival was Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Obama arrives in Orlando
Couple killed in shooting to be buried together
Family of victim arrives at Amway Center
Alex Honorato just arrived at the Amway Center. His son, Miguel, was killed in the shooting. He was 30 and a father of three.
The elder Honorato arrived with several women who appeared to be family members. They walked in silently.
You can read more about Miguel Honorato here.
More from the Amway Center in Orlando
A young Latino man arrived wearing a rainbow ribbon and bracelet. He clutched a framed photo to his chest. Asked if he had anything to say, he looked down and shook his head. An escort lead him through a brief rain and into the building where those invited waited just inside the door, guarded by police.
Shooting victims, emergency workers arrive at Amway Center, where Obama is set to speak
Obama is about to arrive at the Amway Center, a venue in downtown Orlando.
A Florida Hospital ambulance is parked outside, and Ariel Santiago, 32, one of the people wounded attack, was wheeled inside on a gurney.
Nurses in blue scrubs are arriving, and some of them hug each other as they’re waiting to enter. Some people walk in, arm in arm, teary, with escorts from a nearby parking lot.
Obama to meet with shooting survivors
Update on status of hospitalized Orlando shooting victims
Twenty-three Pulse shooting victims were still hospitalized at the Orlando Regional Medical Center as of Thursday morning. Six of them were in critical condition, three were in “guarded” condition and 14 were stable. Florida Hospital also has five patients in fair condition.
Three more surgeries on victims were scheduled for Thursday. Since Sunday, surgeons have performed 50 operations on the victims of the shooting.
Mateen searched on Facebook for news of his rampage as it was happening
Shortly before he was shot and killed by police at about 5 a.m. Sunday, Omar Mateen searched on social media for news of his homicidal rampage at the Pulse nightclub, according to the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Apparently using a phone, Mateen searched Facebook for “Pulse Orlando” and “Shooting,” committee staff found, after uncovering five Facebook accounts they believe Mateen had used.
Mateen also posted his ostensible political agenda on Facebook from the gay nightclub where he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
“America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state..I pledge my alliance to [Islamic State leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me,” he wrote.
He also wrote: “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west” and “You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”
The final post on Facebook reads, “In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa.”
A complex web of issues to address as Obama heads to Orlando
President Obama is a reluctant veteran of memorial services for victims of mass killings, yet no single one of those he’s presided over prepares him fully to mark the Orlando massacre he will mark Thursday.
The deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history, the attack stands distinct in the president’s experience not only for its scope and scale, but also for the complex web of issues it brought to the forefront — fear of terrorism and radicalism, worries about political fallout and the vulnerability of targeted communities.
Aides anticipated that Obama’s address on Thursday will be brief and focus on principles upheld by the victims and the responders.
They exemplified pluralism and unity, said one aide, ideals the president wants to promote as more powerful than the extremism espoused by their killer. And he will set aside the partisan rancor that he addressed in a searing critique Tuesday of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s anti-terrorism agenda, including a proposed ban on Muslims from entering the U.S.
FBI says it is confident it can recover data from Orlando shooter’s damaged cellphone
FBI agents reviewing Omar Mateen’s electronic communications and call records have had difficulty accessing data stored on the cellphone he used during the Sunday massacre because it was damaged by water and blood, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.
But FBI analysts are putting the device through a drying process and are confident they ultimately can recover phone numbers, texts, photos and other data, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss progress in the investigation.
A second law enforcement official said FBI analysts had determined that Mateen downloaded jihadist propaganda to his laptop computer, including videos of beheadings by militants.
Despite scrutiny of the hard drive, the FBI has found no documents written by Mateen that shed light on why he chose the Pulse nightclub for his attack, or why he chose Sunday.
Wands raised in tribute for employee at Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Universal Orlando staff and guests gathered outside Hogwarts Castle on Monday to pay tribute to one of their own in a vigil straight out of “Harry Potter.”
Luis Vielma was one of the 49 people killed when a gunman opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday. The 22-year-old was an attraction operator at the theme park whose responsibilities included running the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride and was described by a co-worker as “a funny, sweet, nerdy guy without a mean side.”
During the tribute, Vielma was remembered as “one of the bravest and best Gryffindors the world has ever known” and that “he was kind and he was brave and he was one of the kindest souls you will ever meet in your life.”
Omar Mateen appeared in 2012 documentary about the BP oil spill, CBS reports
Omar Mateen appeared in a 2012 documentary about the 2010 BP oil spill called “The Big Fix” while he was working as a security guard during the cleanup.
“Everybody’s just, get out to get paid,” he said in the documentary, according to CBS News. “They’re like hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain so they’ll have jobs. They want more disaster to happen.”
Mateen worked for the security company G4S when the documentary was filmed and was still employed there at the time of the massacre. Here’s the trailer for “The Big Fix:”
Craigslist ad warns, ‘San Diego you are next’
San Diego police are investigating an ominous post reported on Craigslist that referred to the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and warned that “San Diego you are next.”
KGTV-TV reported Tuesday night that a viewer had brought the item, posted in the “men seeking men” section of the free ad website, to the station’s attention.
The post, which has since been removed, featured a photo a handgun firing a bullet with the title “We need more Orlando’s [sic]”.
— Debbi BakerRead More
U.S. plans tighter security to counter threat of ‘homegrown violent extremists’
Travelers, sports fans and concertgoers may see more police and tighter security screening at airports and events this summer in the wake of Sunday night’s mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., according to a Department of Homeland Security bulletin issued Wednesday.
While no intelligence indicates a “specific and credible” threat of an impending terrorist plot, the bulletin cites the shooting at an Orlando nightclub, as well as recent attacks at a county building in San Bernardino, at an airport and subway in Brussels, and at restaurants and a concert all in Paris as examples of terrorists targeting of crowded public spaces.
“In this environment, we are particularly concerned about homegrown violent extremists who could strike with little or no notice. The tragic events of Orlando several days ago reinforce this,” the bulletin states.
The wording of the one-page advisory, called a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin, is similar to a notice issued in December under a revamped terrorism alert system that replaced the widely mocked color-coded threat alerts. Last year’s notice was set to expire on Thursday.
The new bulletin urged Americans to continue to travel and attend public events but to be vigilant and report suspicious activity to police.
“Make a mental note of emergency exits and locations of the nearest security personnel,” it says. It also recommends that Americans carry a list of emergency contacts and keep cellphones in their pockets instead of in bags, so they aren’t lost during a violent incident.
Democrat mounts gun-control filibuster on U.S. Senate floor
Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who made gun control one of his priorities following the massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, has taken control of the Senate floor.
He wants the Senate to vote on a measure banning anyone on the no-fly list from purchasing weapons, and says he won’t yield his time until the vote happens. Murphy’s Democratic colleagues, including Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, have been joining him on the floor in support of the effort.
Nelson has been talking about the Orlando shooting rampage and pointedly noted that the assault weapon used Sunday morning to kill 49 people would have been banned had Congress not allowed the Assault Weapons Ban to expire in 2004.
As we have been reporting, Democrats in Congress have been pushing the issue in the U.S. House as well. The debate has led to high emotions and some lawmakers have been visibly angry as they attempt to force a vote.
C-Span has a livestream you can watch above, and some excerpts of Murphy’s remarks are below.
Mateen’s wife could face federal charges if she knew about attack
The investigation into the massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., is now turning toward one of the people who was closest to the gunman: Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman. Federal authorities are using a grand jury in Florida that would be a vehicle to file federal charges against Salman if she knew the attack was going to occur but failed to alert authorities.
Salman has told FBI investigators that she warned her husband not to commit the shooting and that she accompanied him when he purchased ammunition, the official said. She also told the FBI that she had driven with him to the Pulse nightclub at least once before.
Mateen’s father described Salman as a “very sweet lady” who attended family affairs and took care of his grandson. He had no knowledge of whether she had known about Omar’s plans, he said, referring all questions to the FBI.
She could face federal charges ranging from prison — the intentional concealing of knowledge of a felony — or aiding and abetting a crime, or even conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, depending on her level of culpability. A federal law enforcement official said prosecutors were in no rush to charge her with a crime — if they deem one has been committed — because she does not pose a threat.
Sarah Schall, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, said Wednesday that her office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida would not comment on any grand jury investigations. She declined to confirm or deny the existence of any grand jury proceedings related to the Orlando mass shooting and would not say which district would handle it.
Details emerge about Orlando gunman’s wife
Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, grew up in a hilly neighborhood of tract homes in Rodeo, Calif., a small suburb of just 9,000 people in Contra Costa County just east of an oil refinery next to San Pablo Bay.
Neighbors said Salman celebrated her wedding to Mateen a few years ago in the neighborhood and then moved away to Florida. After her marriage, she rarely visited.
Salman’s mother has been saddened and depressed since she heard of what happened.
— Ron Lin
NRA: It should be harder for people on terror watch list to buy guns
Full statement from Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action:
More than 1,000 miles from Orlando, a mother makes preparations to see her son’s remains
Rufina Paniagua, 54, mother of one of the people killed at Pulse, said she was doing the paperwork to travel to Florida from Mexico and see her son’s remains. Her son was Joel Rayon Paniagua, 36.
“My son was a good kid,” she said. “He always worried about me, sent me money. His father abandoned us, and Joel was always taking care of me money-wise. ... I don’t understand how someone could do this.”
Paniagua said her son lived and worked in Florida for about nine years, then returned to their home in Mexico’s Veracruz state several years ago. There he worked at a fruit stand in the market, but made so little money that he wanted to return to the U.S., his mother said.
“I told him to stay, to work here, but he had his dreams, his goals,” she said. Joel returned to Florida in August.
Paniagua spoke to her son on Friday. He was worried about her, she said, because he had heard terrible news about “people killing each other in Mexico.”
Paniagua said her son worked as a gardener, and was saving money to help her get a passport and travel to the U.S. Thanks to him and his earnings, she said, she has been able to buy a house and a car.
“The [state] government contacted me [about the killing], and I prayed to God that it was not him,” she said. “I just want to have him here, to bury his body here, although I still have a hope that it may not be him.”
‘Yeah, I have a lot of bullets,’ gunman told hostages
Orlando Torres, 52, one of the promoters at Pulse, was trapped in a neighboring stall of the same bathroom with a drag queen friend. Torres said he drew upon his experience as a former auxiliary police officer in Queens, N.Y., and security guard at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he and other victims would later be treated.
“Three hours in that bathroom with that gunman; I’m surprised that we don’t have a bullet wound on us. We were protected. We were saved. It was just a miracle,” he said in an interview.
Torres said the gunman called police to say, “America needs to stop bombing ISIS in Syria.”
Torres added: “He just wanted to repeat, only to get the message across. They were trying to ask him other questions and he wasn’t liking it. He wasn’t ready to give answers and so he hung up on them.”
Later, he heard the gunman brag, “Yeah, I have a lot of bullets.”
Media push for release of 911 tapes in Orlando shooting
Two dozen news agencies, including the Los Angeles Times, have joined forces to demand the release of recordings of 911 callers frantically reporting a gunman on a deadly rampage early Sunday at a gay nightclub just south of downtown Orlando.
Shooter Omar Mateen’s “cool and calm” exchange with a 911 dispatcher while he was carrying out the assault that left 49 dead and 53 injured is among the requested recordings. Mateen, 29, died in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Citing an “ongoing investigation,” Orlando police have refused to release the tapes.
“Even in critical and challenging times, transparency is important,” said a four-page letter sent Tuesday to Orlando’s city attorney from media lawyer Rachel Fugate of Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa. “It helps the citizens … have a better understanding of what transpired and try to come to grips with the horrific and unimaginable tragedy.”
The Pulse nightclub attack, carried out over three horrific hours early Sunday, is the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
“We’d prefer to release those tapes, but we have to follow the law and the law is clear,” Orlando City Atty. Mayanne Downs said by telephone Tuesday afternoon.
Other publications joining in the demand for release of the material include the Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, the Associated Press and others. Included in the request were dispatch and scanner recordings.
— Tonya Alanez, Orlando Sentinel
Orlando gunman sought out Islamic State videos
Omar Mateen increasingly sought out Islamic State videos and other radical Islamist propaganda in the months leading up to his deadly rampage at a gay nightclub Sunday, investigators have found.
A counter-terrorism official said investigators uncovered the material while reviewing Mateen’s searches on the Internet. Their inquiry so far has revealed that Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman, drove him to Pulse nightclub at least once in the days before the attack, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Investigators are looking closely at how much Salman knew in advance of the attacks, and whether she could have warned law enforcement. They also are scrutinizing Mateen’s visit to a Disney World property early this month, apparently during the Gay Days Orlando festivities, and other potential targets.
“It is fair to say there was a considerable amount of planning involved and scouting of potential locations,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a telephone interview Tuesday after a closed-door briefing for House members by FBI Director James B. Comey and other officials. Schiff would not give further details.
At this point, the FBI doesn’t think Mateen had any accomplices in carrying out the massacre, but it’s possible others knew about his plan, Schiff said.
“The investigation is continuing into whether anyone provided logistical support or material support or had knowledge of the attack,” Schiff said.
Late-night TV hosts react with grief, outrage and calls to action
As has become routine in moments of national tragedy, the late-night conversation on Sunday and Monday was dominated by the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla.
The attack left 50 people dead, including the perpetrator, and stands as the worst mass shooting in modern American history. Late-night comedians including Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon reacted to this grim milestone with grief, outrage, pleas for tolerance and, in some cases, calls to action.
‘Sam Bee wants to take your guns away.’ Yes! The ones that mow down a room full of people in seconds? Yes, I do want to take those guns away!
— Samantha Bee, host of “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee”
Twenty bodies released to a funeral home
The Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office said 20 bodies of the 49 deceased from the shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., have been released to a funeral home.
All 49 victims of the shooting have been identified. Their families have been notified as well.
Ann Marie Varga, communications division manager for Orange County, said the county does not have the power to release the shooter’s body.
“The FBI would be the only one to release Mateen’s body,” she said.
Varga said she did not know when the FBI would release it.
— Alexia Fernandez
California lawmakers move forward with a dozen gun-control bills
With emotions still raw over the massacre in Orlando, Fla., tempers flared Tuesday as divided state lawmakers advanced a dozen gun-control bills, including proposals to outlaw the sale in California of semiautomatic rifles with easily detachable magazines.
The bills originally were introduced in response to a mass shooting in San Bernardino in December, but the killing of 49 people in an Orlando nightclub Sunday was invoked over and over Tuesday by Democrats as state legislative committees heard testimony before voting to send bills to the floor for votes.
At one hearing, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) angrily confronted National Rifle Assn. lobbyist Dan Reid, accusing his organization of being responsible for the Orlando shooting because of its lobbying against gun control.
“Less than 72 hours ago, 49 people were slain in a nightclub in Orlando,” Low said during the hearing. “It’s very difficult for me to sit here and look you in the eye and have respect for you, Dan.”
Mateen’s father tells media to leave
‘He wasn’t going to stop killing people until he was killed.’ Survivors of Orlando shooting recount their ordeal
Angel Santiago and Patience Carter, who were both trapped in a restroom during the Orlando nightclub shooting, recount their ordeal. “He wasn’t going to stop killing people until he was killed,” Carter said.
As Patience Carter and two friends cowered inside the handicapped bathroom stall, injured and pinned by a crush of bleeding bodies, the gunman who opened fire in the Pulse nightclub kept talking.
“He said, ‘Are there any black people in here?’ I was too afraid to answer,” said Carter, who is African American.
Carter continued: “There was an African American man in the stall with us ... he said, ‘Yes, there are about six or seven of us.’ The gunman responded back to him saying that, ‘you know, I don’t have a problem with black people; this is about my country. You guys suffered enough.’”
Biden: Federal officials ‘getting to the bottom of the tragedy’
Vice President Joe Biden says the attack on a gay nightclub in Florida is becoming “clearer and more straightforward.”
Biden said he had been briefed at a national security meeting shortly before making the comments at an unrelated event in New York City.
He said federal officials were “getting to the bottom of the tragedy.” He says it is “becoming clearer and more straightforward than a lot of us even thought.”
He did not elaborate on that comment, but said President Obama would say more in the coming days.
Biden also praised the work of the New York Police Department. He says the agency surpasses every other city in the nation in terms of cooperation and intelligence sharing.
— Associated Press
GLAAD responds to speculation about gunman’s sexuality
LGBT rights group GLAAD issued the following statement Tuesday:
Media set up outside Mateen’s father’s house
Mateen’s wife escorted by police back to her home
The Times’ sister paper in Florida, The Sun Sentinel, reports:
Accompanied by a police escort on Tuesday, Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, returned to the apartment she shared with him, and officers were investigating a reported burglary at the home early Monday morning.
Fort Pierce police spokesman Ed Cunningham confirmed the police escort to Mateen’s address in the 2500 block of South 17th Street, but did not say who was escorted.
In an interview at his Port St. Lucie home, the shooter’s father, Seddique Mir Mateen, confirmed Salman was escorted by police to the apartment.
Miami news station WSVN-Channel 7 captured video of the woman being escorted at the apartment. In the video, the woman is seen hiding her face with a hoodie.
Cunningham also said the department is looking into a reported burglary at the house Monday.
He said the FBI left the home secured at 5 a.m. Monday. At 10 a.m., the department got a call from reporters that the back door of the apartment was open.
Mateen’s wife drove with him to Pulse at least once before shooting
Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, has told FBI agents that she drove with him to the Pulse nightclub on at least one occasion before Sunday’s mass shooting and that she also accompanied him to shop at a firearms dealer.
Mateen purchased a Glock handgun and an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle during two separate visits this month to the St. Lucie Shooting Center, several miles from PGA Village, a gated community where he worked in Port St. Lucie, Fla., as a security guard.
The FBI is investigating whether Salman had knowledge of her husband’s plan to attack and kill patrons at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
If Salman knew of her husband’s intent to commit terrorism and didn’t report it to law enforcement, she could face criminal charges.
But a federal law enforcement official said the Justice Department is in no rush to file charges because no evidence has emerged to suggest the gunman had accomplices, and there is no imminent threat of another attack.
Orlando gunman may have visited Disney World during Gay Days
Omar Mateen had visited a number of Disney properties since April and most recently was spotted early this month in Disney Springs, an outdoor shopping and entertainment complex in Walt Disney World, according to a U.S. law enforcement official briefed on the investigation into the Orlando shooting.
Another U.S. official said that information provided to the FBI by Disney made it clear that Mateen was not simply a tourist visiting Walt Disney World two or three months ago.
U.S. officials say Mateen may have been casing the sites for a potential attack but reaching a firm conclusion on that theory would be difficult.
It’s possible that Mateen’s visit overlapped with Gay Days Orlando, which went from May 31 to June 6. The annual event brings thousands of LGBT individuals and families to Central Florida.
The organizers of Gay Days arrange some ticket packages at Disney parks during the weeklong event and designate parks to attend on certain days.
Scenes from last night’s vigil in Orlando
Madeline Lago, 15, and her mother, Carmen Lago (center), were among the thousands who gathered for a memorial rally at the Plaza at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center in downtown Orlando, Fla., on Monday to honor those killed and wounded in the Pulse nightclub attack. They bowed their heads as a bell tolled.
— Carolyn Cole
FBI investigating whether Omar Mateen was a regular at Pulse
The FBI is investigating reports that Orlando gunman Omar Mateen had been a regular at the gay nightclub he attacked and had used gay dating apps, a U.S. official briefed on the case said Tuesday.
A number of possible explanations and motives for the bloodbath that left 49 victims dead have emerged, with Mateen professing allegiance to the Islamic State group, his ex-wife saying he was mentally ill, and his father suggesting he was driven by a hatred of gays.
The picture grew more complex as patrons of the Pulse came forward to say that they had seen the 29-year-old American-born Muslim there a number of times or that he had been using gay dating apps. Mateen had an ex-wife and 3-year-old son.
Jim Van Horn, 71, said Mateen was a regular at the club. “He was trying to pick up people. Men,” Van Horn told the Associated Press. While acknowledging he didn’t know Mateen well, Van Horn said: “I think it’s possible that he was trying to deal with his inner demons, of trying to get rid of his anger of homosexuality.”
The official who said the FBI is looking into those reports was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
— Associated Press
Gunman’s current wife talking to the FBI
Omar Mateen’s current wife, Noor Zahi Salman, is being interviewed by the FBI, said a law enforcement official who is not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Among other things, investigators are looking at whether Salman helped Mateen plan or scout the location of his shooting rampage at the Pulse nightclub, or knew about his plans in advance.
If Salman had knowledge of the plot and failed to alert law enforcement, she could face criminal charges for aiding and abetting the attacks, the official said.
More details about the terror databases Mateen was placed on
Omar Mateen was once placed on the Selectee List of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, which the bureau describes on its website as “a single database of identifying information about those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.”
He was placed on the list while being investigated for 10 months starting in May 2013 for potential ties to terrorism. His co-workers reported to the FBI that he had scared them with talk of having family connections to Al Qaeda and being a member of another terror group. The FBI later concluded — after interviewing Mateen — that he was mostly full of bluster and had no such ties. Even so, during the investigation, he was added to the terror watch list and FBI agents would have received an alert if he had tried to buy firearms during that period. Being on the list would not have prevented those purchases, and he was removed shortly after the FBI closed its investigation in 2014.
About 42,000 people are in the overall Terrorist Screening Database, also known as the Terrorist Watchlist. About 98% of them are foreigners. About 16,000 of those in the database are on the Selectee List, a subset of potential terrorists deemed to be serious threats. Those on the Selectee List generally get a closer look from law enforcement during investigations and are subjected to additional screenings from airport security officials before getting on planes.
The Terrorist Watchlist also contains the more well-known and selective “No Fly List,” a database of about 16,000 people deemed so dangerous that they are barred from boarding commercial airliners. About 500 on the “No Fly List” are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Sacramento Baptist church pastor praises massacre of 49 people at gay nightclub
A YouTube video in which a Sacramento Baptist church pastor praised the massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida and called the victims pedophiles and predators was removed Tuesday for violating the website’s policy on hate speech.
The videotaped sermon by Pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church touched off a firestorm shortly after it was posted on Sunday. In it, Jimenez said that when he learned the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history had occurred at a gay club, he wasn’t sad. In fact, he felt quite the contrary.
“I think Orlando, Fla., is a little safer tonight,” he told his congregation, equating members of the LGBT community to sexual predators. “The tragedy is more of them didn’t die…. I’m kind of upset he didn’t finish the job!”
Read More— Joseph Serna
Obama accuses Trump of ‘doing the terrorists’ work for them’
President Obama accused Donald Trump of undermining American values through his proposals to ban Muslim immigrants from the country and said that such ideas were “doing the terrorists’ work for them,” as he issued his most direct attack to date on the presumptive Republican nominee.
“Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently” than other citizens?” Obama asked. “Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?”
If the U.S. goes down down that path “we would have betrayed the very things we’re trying to protect,” the president said.
Obama: ‘Stop making it as easy as possible for terrorists to buy assault weapons’
President Obama called for lawmakers to reinstate the national assault weapons ban in a speech Tuesday about the shooting in Orlando, Fla. The attack was carried out with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, by a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a 911 call.
Stop making it as easy as possible for terrorists to buy assault weapons. Reinstate the assault weapons ban. Make it harder for terrorists to use these weapons to kill us.
— President Obama
Nightclub owner: Pulse will be rebuilt as a tribute to victims and survivors
The owner of the Orlando nightclub where dozens of people were massacred says her club will be rebuilt as a tribute and will honor those who were killed, wounded or left grieving.
Barbara Poma told the Today show’s Matt Lauer that she “will not let hate win” in the aftermath of the shootings.
Poma said she named the club Pulse in honor of her brother, who died from AIDS in 1991. The name was a way of keeping his heartbeat alive. She wanted Pulse to be “a safe place” for the gay community.
— Associated Press
Civil rights group: Orlando attack happened in an LGBT ‘safe haven’
The Orlando shooting was a direct attack on the LGBT community in a place they called their own, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday, calling for state legislatures to shift focus from proposals the group sees as targeting the community.
“The massacre there was an attack on freedom in America,” said James Esseks, the director of the ACLU’s LGBT rights project. “It was also an attack specifically on LGBT people, and it happened in a context that has been a safe haven for LGBT people.”
In the year since the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, Esseks said, opponents have begun trying to use religious exemptions to pass laws “that would allow people to discriminate against LGBT people.”
He cited North Carolina’s law requiring people to use the government-owned restrooms and facilities that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate, and a law in Mississippi allows businesses and faith-based groups to deny jobs, housing and adoption services to individuals on the basis of sexual orientation.
On a state level, state policy council Eunice Rho said she hopes the Orlando attack “might change certain state legislatures’ priorities from shifting away from further stigmatizing LGBT people within their state and actually affirming that LGBT equality is an American value.”
—Jill Ornitz
Doctor says he would be surprised if Orlando shooting death toll doesn’t rise
This is the largest disaster that we probably could have imagined.
— Dr. Michael Cheatham of Orlando Regional Medical Center
Dr. Michael Cheatham of Orlando Regional Medical Center says hospital and trauma centers prepare for disasters, but “you can never prepare adequately.”
Doctors at a Tuesday news conference praised the work of staff at the hospital, where six people remain “critically ill.”
Cheatham said the facility escalated from two operating rooms to six within 30 to 60 minutes to care for the flood of patients.
He added, “I would be surprised” if the death toll from the nightclub shooting holds at 49.
— Associated Press
Are gun injuries getting more deadly?
Just days after the nation’s worst mass shooting, the Journal of the American Medical Assn. published the findings of a study showing that between 2000 and 2013, injuries sustained by victims of firearms grew more severe and more deadly,
The study focused on close to 30,000 trauma patients who were treated at a single hospital system in Denver. Tracking the types and severity of traumatic injuries in patients brought to the hospital over 14 years, the new research found that the death rate for hospitalized gunshot victims climbed an average of 6% every two years.
The rising fatality rates occurred against the backdrop of gunshot wounds that were also escalating in severity. Over the study period, ambulances brought in an increasing number of firearms victims with two or more bullet wounds and injuries over more regions of their bodies.
Injuries grew progressively more severe among victims of stabbing and pedestrian accidents as well. But unlike those hurt in firearms incidents, patients who were stabbed or run over were not progressively more likely to die of their injuries during the study.
More than 2,000 gather at L.A. City Hall to mourn ‘those amazing, precious souls in Orlando’
They came to pay their respects, to mourn, to comfort one another.
A crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered Monday evening at the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to honor the victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend.
Singer Lady Gaga, whose surprise appearance drew gasps from the crowd, called the shootings “an attack on humanity itself” and urged everyone to remember “these innocent, beautiful people.”
Rabbi Denise L. Eger of Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood told the crowd. “We must mourn those amazing, precious souls in Orlando.”
— Emily Alpert Reyes, Jason Song and Ben PostonRead More
A harrowing account of the Orlando attack: ‘He was shooting everyone who was already dead’
He was shooting everyone who was already dead on the floor, making sure they were dead.
— Angel Colon, shooting survivor
A man who survived the nightclub shooting in Orlando says he thought “I’m next, I’m dead” as the gunman fired toward his head.
Angel Colon described the horrific night he survived during a news conference on Tuesday at the hospital. Appearing in a wheelchair with the doctors and nurses who treated him nearby, Colon talked about what happened early Sunday at the Pulse nightclub.
He says the gunman shot a girl next to him and then shot his hand and his hip. He says he pretended to be dead and the gunman kept firing his gun.
Colon says at times the gunman was shooting people who appeared that they had already been killed.
He thanked the hospital staff and said “I will love you guys forever.”
— Associated Press
The latest from Orlando Regional Medical Center
Shooter’s ex-wife says it’s possible Mateen hid feelings about being gay
The ex-wife of the shooter at a gay Florida nightclub says the man enjoyed nightlife, but she’s not sure if he had any homosexual tendencies.
“When we had gotten married, he confessed to me about his past ... that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife, and there was a lot of pictures of him,” Sitora Yusufiy told CNN Tuesday from Denver. “I feel like it’s a side of him or a part of him that he lived, but probably didn’t want everybody to know about.”
The comments follow reports from customers at the gay nightclub that shooter Omar Mateen was seen there regularly. One told The Associated Press that Mateen tried to pick up men there.
Asked whether she thinks her ex-husband was gay, Yusufiy said: “I don’t know. He never personally or physically made any indications while we were together of that. But he did feel very strongly about homosexuality.”
She says it’s possible he hid feelings about being gay.
The couple were married in 2009 and divorced two years later. Yusiufiy has said he was abusive.
Gunman joked about Sept. 11 attacks, high school acquaintance says
A high school acquaintance of the gunman in Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando said Omar Mateen was a “regular dude” until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“He started acting crazy, joking around the fact that 9/11 happened, making plane noises on the school bus and pretending he was slamming into the building,” said Robert Zirkle, who rode the school bus every day with Mateen in Stuart, Fla., 15 years ago.
“He was happy that Americans were dying. He made that very clear. I don’t know if he was always a Muslim radical, but he was excited, hyped up. We were all, like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Zirkle recalled.
Zirkle said he and other students warned Mateen that he needed to stop. “We told him if he didn’t stop making noises, we were going to beat him up.”
Zitkle, who now lives in Tennessee, was a freshman at Martin County High School at the time. Mateen, he said, attended Spectrum Alternative School, a separate public school.
“He was really out there,” he said of Mateen. “He had no friends. He had people who were cordial with him or would ask him how he was doing. Only a few people spoke to him. I was one of the few who would. He was a ‘Seinfeld’ kind of guy.”
— Jennie JarvieRead More
CNN’s Anderson Cooper breaks down during reading of Orlando victims’ names
CNN reporter and anchor Anderson Cooper had trouble making it through a reading of the names of the 49 victims of Sunday’s shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando -- his voice breaking with emotion as he recited the list of the dead.
Cooper, one of the few openly gay major television news personalities, made a point of refusing to name the gunman who carried out the massacre, 29-year-old former security guard Omar Mateen.
“We begin tonight with their names, the names of the 48 out of 49 people who have so far been identified, victims of the deadliest mass shooting in American history,” Anderson began.
“There’s one name I want to tell you that you will not hear during this broadcast tonight, one picture of a person you won’t see,” he went on. “We will not say the gunman’s name or show his photograph. It’s been shown far too much already.”
The victims ranged from photographers to nurses to those who dreamed of becoming emergency medical technicians.
--Times staff
Mourning the dead in Orlando
Church bells tolled 49 times, once for each of the dead, as thousands of people gathered in downtown Orlando Monday night to mourn.
The crowd hoisted rainbow flags on the lawn outside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, where community leaders -- Muslim, LGBT and Latino -- spoke about the Sunday morning massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub.
Brittany Torres, 18, made a sign honoring two friends killed in the shooting: Oscar Aracena and Simon Adrian Carillo.
Aracena had been her manager when she worked at a local McDonald’s, and as she talked about the way he encouraged her to succeed, Torres started to cry.
Her sister Lesly Colon, 26, also brought a sign for the victims, and recalled Pulse as a special, safe space. It was the first club she went to when she came out five years ago.
Her mother, 44-year-old Madeline Baez, said she goes to gay clubs with her daughter. She said that other families have not been as accepting but thought that might change in the wake of the shooting.
“A lot of families are coming together just because, what if it’s my child?” she said.
Jaime Soto, 28, also knew some of the victims, including a man killed with his boyfriend, who left behind a 5 year-old son.
He spotted the boy’s mother in the vigil crowd, wearing a shirt bearing a picture of the couple arm in arm. She began to cry, then so did Soto as they embraced.
“It really shows you it’s just one community. It’s not just LGBT -- it’s affecting us all,” Soto said.
Thousands gather in Orlando in vigil for mass shooting victims
Thousands gathered in downtown Orlando late Monday to mourn those killed in a deadly shooting at a nearby gay nightclub, listening as church bells tolled 49 times in honor of the victims.
Hoisting rainbow signs and flags on the lawn outside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the crowd heard from Muslim, LGBT and Latino community leaders, and others affected by the Sunday morning attack on Pulse nightclub.
Brittany Torres, 18, of Orlando had made a sign honoring two friends killed in the shooting: Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez and Oscar Aracena-Montero, who had been her manager when she worked at McDonald’s. As she talked about the way he encouraged her to succeed, Torres started to cry.
Her sister, Lesly Colon, 26, also brought a homemade sign for the victims, and recalled Pulse as a special, safe space. It was the first club she went to when she came out five years ago.
Madeline Baez, 44, said she goes to gay clubs with her daughter and accepts who she is. She knows other families have not been as accepting, but that may change in the wake of the shooting, she said.
“A lot of families are coming together just because, ‘What if it’s my child?’” she said.
Jaime Soto, 28, of Orlando also knew some of the victims, including a man killed with his boyfriend who left behind a 5-year-old son. He spotted the boy’s mother in the vigil crowd, wearing a shirt bearing a picture of the couple arm in arm. She began to cry, as did Soto, as they embraced.
“It really shows you it’s just one community. It’s not just LGBT -- it’s affecting us all,” Soto said.
--Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Obama will go to Orlando on Thursday to ‘pay his respects’
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced Monday night that President Obama will travel to Orlando, Fla., on Thursday “to pay his respects to victims’ families, and to stand in solidarity with the community as they embark on their recovery.” No more details were available. Obama spoke on the shooting earlier Monday in the Oval Office:
A view of the vigil in downtown Orlando
Orlando shooter frequented the club where he killed 49 people and used gay dating app, witnesses say
The gunman who carried out Sunday’s massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando had been a customer there many times and used a gay dating and chat app, according to people who frequented the club.
Kevin West, a regular at Pulse, said Omar Mateen messaged him sporadically over the last year using the app Jack’d.
But they never met – until early Sunday morning.
West was dropping off a friend at the club when he noticed Mateen crossing the street wearing a dark cap and carrying a cellphone at about 1 a.m., an hour before the shooting.
“He walked directly past me. I said, ‘Hey,’ and he turned and said, ‘Hey,’” and nodded his head, West said.
At least four regular customers of Pulse told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that they believe they had seen Mateen there before.
“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” said Ty Smith, who also uses the name Aries.
He saw Mateen at the club at least a dozen times, he said.
“We didn’t really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times,” Smith said. “He told us he had a wife and child.”
As soon as West saw photos released of Mateen after the shooting, he said, he drove to his local police station, where FBI officials showed him a photo of Mateen on a computer screen. “I said, ‘That’s him,’” West said.
He said he turned over his phone and Jack’d login to the FBI and as of late Monday still had not received it back.
Asked if shooter was gay, ex-wife responds, ‘I don’t know’
Sitora Yusufiy looked nervous in her CNN interview as host Erin Burnett asked her why she thought her ex-husband had frequented the gay club Pulse before his attack there Sunday.
“When we had gotten married, he confessed to me about his past -- that was recent at that time -- and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife,” said Yusufiy, who divorced Omar Mateen in 2011 and said he was abusive and unstable. “So, I feel like it’s a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn’t want everybody to know about.”
“Do you think he was gay?” Burnett asked.
Yusufiy was silent for three seconds. She glanced to the side, shook her head a little, and said, “I don’t know.”
“He never personally or physically made any indication while we were together, of that,” Yusufiy continued. “But he did feel very strongly about homosexuality.”
Waiting for confirmation of the worst kind
At a seniors’ center not far from the Pulse nightclub, families of victims were being summoned and, in most cases, given the formal notice that their child or sibling was among the dead.
They would file in, as couples clinging onto each other desperately, or in larger groups of extended relatives, passing under a large awning that read “Welcome,” and next to a hand-lettered sign saying “Pulse families.”
Hours later they would leave, some sobbing, embracing or rushing away. A black funeral parlor van arrived at one point.
“We know a little bit, that she was hiding in the bathroom,” Cesar Flores said of his daughter, Mercedez, 26.
Unlike some parents, Flores said he did not receive a frantic last-minute email or any other indication of what happened but started to look for Mercedez when he did not hear from her Sunday. He spoke to reporters after emerging from the center.
Sadness rang in his weak voice. He said he dreaded having to take his wife to identify their daughter’s body.
Trump broadens his call for ban on foreign visitors after Orlando shooting
Donald Trump tried to claim the mantle of unity and inclusiveness — while simultaneously calling for an expansion of his ban against Muslim immigrants — in a scathing speech Monday in the aftermath of the Orlando, Fla., nightclub massacre.
Trump offered few policy specifics, mostly attacking Hillary Clinton and President Obama for mismanagement, political correctness and what he portrayed as liberal immigration policy.
His most notable policy shift involved a further extension of his indefinite ban on Muslims entering the country to include even more people.
3 Mexican citizens killed in Orlando massacre
Mexican authorities confirmed Monday that at least three Mexican citizens were among those killed in the Orlando club shooting. Officials were trying to confirm if another of the fatalities may have also been a Mexican citizen, the Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretariat said in a statement.
In addition, officials said, one other Mexican citizen -- identified as Javier Nava Coria, a native of Mexico City -- was injured in the mass shooting and remained in “stable” condition. Authorities provided no other details about the Mexican casualties.
In a statement, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto expressed “solidarity for the relatives of the victims of this act of horror and terror.” Mexican officials said they were in touch with the families and providing assistance.
West Hollywood gay bar now considering armed guards
After the mass shooting in an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub Sunday, a well-known West Hollywood gay bar is considering making armed security guards a regular presence.
The Abbey Food & Bar upped its security presence during L.A. Pride celebrations in West Hollywood on Sunday, hours after the Orlando attack. The bar had 36 guards on duty, including visible, armed guards at the front and back entrances at all times, said Brian Rosman, a spokesman for the bar.
The Abbey is considering making armed guards a regular presence, especially during peak times such as the Pride event, Rosman said.
“It’s something we’re looking at, moving forward,” he said. “We’re going to talk more with the sheriff and City Hall to figure out the appropriate safety precautions.”
Sound of gunfire captured in victim’s final Snapchat video
Amanda Alvear wanted to go to Pulse on Saturday night to sip on drinks and dance with her friends. Gay and lesbian clubs like Pulse were among her favorite bars because they were fun places where she felt safe to be who she was, her family said.
In a Snapchat video posted by one of her friends on Sunday, the 25-year-old is dancing to the beat of the music permeating the club. In a series of posts, she sipped on her drink and toasted the people watching her feed. Her crew of friends danced around her against the backdrop of glowing purple and blue lights.
But the next video set a different tone. Alvear held the camera close to her face, her brows furrowed and her eyes filled with confusion.
“Shooting,” she said.
More than 15 rounds fired off around her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was her final post.
‘Massacre’ to ‘Waking to Terror’: Headlines capture the horror of the Orlando attack
The headlines of leading newspapers across the country convey, in just a few words, the tragedy of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
“Most Deadly Night,” said Stars and Stripes. The Daily News in New York took a more political approach with “Thanks, NRA.”
In Florida, the Daytona Beach News-Journal summed up the attack in a single word: “Unimaginable.”
The Orlando Sentinel assembled a collection of front pages from coast to coast. To see a gallery of pages, click here.
— Steve Padilla
Why the White House is dismissing Donald Trump’s complaints over the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism’
The White House is not about to dignify Donald Trump with a response.
Asked about the presumptive Republican nominee’s attacks on how President Obama handled the Orlando, Fla., nightclub massacre, Press Secretary Josh Earnest dismissed Trump’s criticism.
“When you are focused on something as big as helping the country respond to the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history ... it’s important not to get distracted by things that are so small,” Earnest told reporters at his daily briefing.
Update on the conditions of the wounded
Florida Hospital has discharged six of the 11 Orlando, Fla., shooting victims who were admitted there, spokesman David Breen said. They are still treating five of them, who are all in fair condition. Breen said Florida Hopsital and Orlando Regional Medical Center are the only hospitals treating those wounded at Pulse.
The White House is skeptical that Orlando shooting will result in tighter gun laws
Though President Obama blamed lax gun laws Monday for the Orlando gunman’s ability to buy weapons, the White House is skeptical that the massacre will result in tighter restrictions on purchasing guns.
“It’s difficult to assess,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, but then he ventured that, if lawmakers weren’t moved to tighten gun laws after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012, they probably won’t change their minds now.
“Seeing 20 first-graders get massacred in their classroom … might have [had] sufficient pull,” Earnest said. “And it didn’t.”
He called on those who backed efforts to curb gun violence to press lawmakers for a renewed legislative push.
“The only way we’re going to see the kind of change to our gun safety laws,” he said, “will be when individual Americans make clear to their representatives in Congress that this is a top priority.”
Asked whether Obama is “resigned” to the idea that he’s powerless to stop the epidemic of mass shootings, Earnest said he is not.
Obama, he said, is “quite intensely frustrated.”
Nearly all victims of Pulse nightclub shooting identified
The City of Orlando has now released the names of 45 of the 49 shooting victims on its website. The city is only naming people who were killed in the attack once their next of kin have been contacted.
— Braden Goyette
Watch: Hillary Clinton addresses Orlando shooting in Cleveland
To view Clinton’s speech, click to 44:00 in the video.
Gun stocks soar on morning after Orlando massacre
Gun stocks soared Monday morning in the first U.S. market opening since the Orlando massacre, as investors likely anticipated stronger gun sales in the face of calls for stricter gun control.
Sturm, Ruger & Co. stock surged about 10%, and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. stock jumped more than 6% after the opening bell on Wall Street.
Investors have called it the “Obama surge”: When there is a mass shooting, PresidentObama calls for stricter gun control and gun sales soar.
Democrats will try again to block terrorism suspects from buying guns
Senate Democrats will again try to ban gun purchases for terrorism suspects on the no-fly list, promising a renewed — if modest — political debate about gun violence in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting.
Even though gunman Omar Mateen was no longer on the watch list, the legislation from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein would give federal authorities the ability to block firearms sales to those suspected of terrorism.
Votes could come as soon as this week. But the bill was defeated on a largely party line vote six months ago following the terrorist shooting in San Bernardino and is not expected to do much better this time. Republicans, who have the majority in the Senate, and gun-rights advocates led by the National Rifle Assn. are mostly opposed to new restrictions.
“We have to think what kind of country and what kind of Senate we are going to be,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat, announcing the new effort Monday.
“Are we going to take the painfully obvious steps … or are we going to bow down to the NRA?” he asked.
The NRA has opposed the bill, and the politics of gun control have been locked in a partisan standoff with little sign of resolution in an election year despite public outcry over mass shootings.
Broader gun control measures — including a ban on assault weapons — are not being pushed forcefully by Democratic leaders.
Fellow Democrats, including the two senators from Connecticut, have called Congress “complicit” in the gun deaths for its failure to control access to guns, including after the Newtown school shooting in 2012.
“I don’t know what it will take to change the mind-set of this Congress,” said Feinstein. “Without doing this, without making the change, we’re just asking for people to come into this country and go out and buy a gun … and that’s just not right.”
Feinstein said she had spoken to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) about the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the chamber would hold a moment of silence Monday afternoon “to honor the victims of the Orlando tragedy.”
FBI director: Mateen claimed loyalty to Islamist groups that are opposed to each other
Orlando gunman Omar Mateen told a 911 dispatcher he was attacking an LGBT nightclub on behalf of the leader of the Islamic State, but he also expressed solidarity with the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers and an American suicide bomber in Syria who was not affiliated with Islamic State, FBI’s Director James Comey said Monday.
Comey said Mateen’s statements added “confusion” about his inspiration for the attack, because Mateen had expressed loyalty to Islamist groups and figures that are opposed to each other.
While working as a courthouse guard in 2013, Mateen made “inflammatory and contradictory” statements to co-workers about having relatives in Al Qaeda, the radical Sunni terrorist group, Comey said. Mateen also claimed to be a member of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shiite militia, and his remarks drew an 11-month FBI investigation, Comey said. Both groups oppose Islamic State.
Comey said the FBI also briefly investigated Mateen in 2014 for allegedly watching videos by Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Awlaki and attending the same mosque as an American who would later become a suicide bomber for Al Nusra Front in Syria -- another Al Qaeda affiliate opposed to Islamic State.
Both investigations were closed without charges.
J.K. Rowling ‘can’t stop crying’ over Harry Potter ride worker killed in attack
The Harry Potter universe now includes real-life terrorism, with J.K. Rowling on Sunday mourning a victim of the Orlando, Fla., nightclub shooting who worked at Universal Studios Orlando’s Wizarding World.
“Luis Vielma worked on the Harry Potter ride at Universal. He was 22 years old. I can’t stop crying. #Orlando,” the “Harry Potter” author tweeted late Sunday.
She then retweeted comments from people who said they’d known Vielma and offered prayers to another victim who was said to be in intensive care.
Scenes of grief in Orlando
FBI Director James Comey says there were strong signs Orlando gunman was radicalizing
Pastor of Charleston church attacked in 2015 shooting: ‘I am here in Florida because I care’
A year ago Friday, a gunman opened fire at a Bible study at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine and later declaring he sought to ignite a race war.
Though the media attention to the attack has faded, the pain of the assault at the historically black church lingers, its pastor said Monday, offering her support to victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
“I am here in Florida because I care,” Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark said on a conference call with reporters. “I am here in Florida because I know what support can mean when you are going through a tough time.”
Clark was one of three faith leaders who joined the head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a leading advocacy group, to condemn the Orlando attack.
“It is not a pleasure to be here, but it’s a duty to speak up against the violence that we are experiencing as a society,” said Clark, who has been the pastor of Emanuel AME Church since January. A previous church pastor, Clementa Pinckney, was one of those gunned down in the shooting at the church.
Clark warned that Americans are passing a world to their children and grandchildren that is divisive and breeds hate.
“We don’t have to like the same things, but we should at least love each other,” Clark said.
The president of the Brady group, Dan Gross, said the organization is backing legislation that would prevent people on terrorist watch lists from legally obtaining firearms. California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced such a proposal after the shooting attack in San Bernardino in December, but it ultimately failed in the Senate.
Gross commended Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) for his work to expand background checks for gun purchases.
“You can’t be concerned about terrorism and not support expanding background checks,” Gross said.
Gross said it was too early to tell whether the initiatives put forward by Feinstein and Schumer would have stopped Omar Mateen, the Orlando gunman, from obtaining his weapons.
FBI reviewing past investigations of Orlando gunman to see if they missed clues
FBI agents scrambled Monday to recover data from Mateen’s electronic media — cellphones, computers and other devices, hoping to find clues as to what sparked the massacre and whether he has contacts with any known extremists, according to current and former FBI officials.
This phase of the investigation — a deep dive into Mateen’s planning, contacts, communications and other evidence — will take at least a few weeks.
The FBI is also combing records associated with their last two investigations of Mateen to see if they missed important clues. Both investigations, in 2013 and 2014, were closed after agents determined he had no associations with terrorism.
FBI agents questioned Mateen twice in 2013 after being told his co-workers at a security company suspected he might have ties to terrorists.
His co-workers said that Mateen had made frightening claims that he had ties to terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
FBI agents closed that investigation after concluding that Mateen didn’t understand how Al Qaeda operated and had not committed a crime. He told investigators he had been lying and blustering about his terrorist ties.
Director James B. Comey told reporters last October that the FBI had conducted more than 900 terrorism investigations, although only a fraction had uncovered active plots. About 90 people had been charged with terror-related crimes.
In April, Comey said that the pace had fallen somewhat. He said the number of Americans offering support to Islamic State or seeking to travel abroad to join the group had dropped from six to 10 individuals a month in early 2015 to about one a month.
Most terrorism investigations are closed after agents conclude that tipsters were wrong or were seeking to harm someone else’s reputation, such as a former spouse.
In the 2013 investigation, Mateen was placed on the FBI’s terrorist screening database, which the FBI describes on its website as “a single database of identifying information about those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.”
A suspect on the database is not barred from boarding a plane or purchasing a weapon. The list serves instead as a clearinghouse for federal and state law enforcement agencies to share information and keep track of potential threats.
Mateen was removed from that database after the bureau closed its investigation into him.
In 2014, agents again questioned Mateen after learning he had attended the same mosque as Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, an American who later joined Islamic State and was killed in Syria.
The FBI conducted an intensive investigation into Abu-Salha, a Florida resident, because he was the first American known to have carried out a suicide bombing for Islamic State.
The investigation into Mateen’s relationship with Abu-Salha revealed that the two men likely knew each other by sight but were not friends and likely barely acquaintances, an official said.
The FBI “determined that contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time,” Ronald Hopper, an FBI official, told reporters in Orlando.
James McJunkin, a former top FBI counter-terrorism official, said the bureau will closely examine how it conducted that investigation because it might show gaps that could have pointed to a more careful vetting of Mateen.
Even if faults are found in that investigation, McJunkin said, people can radicalize over time and Mateen may have been a very different person in 2014 than he was in recent weeks.
“You are asking the FBI to have a crystal ball that this guy was going to go in and buy an AR-15 and cause all this carnage,” McJunkin said. “There is no way any agency can be expected to do to leave no holes in a free society.”
“These guys don’t start off as hardened jihadis,” he added.
— Del Quentin Wilber
By the numbers at Orlando Regional Medical Center
- 44 victims treated
- 9 died
- 6 discharged
- 29 still in the hospital
- 5 in grave condition
Gunman’s father speaks out: ‘This is against the principles of me and the whole family’
Seddique Mateen still thinks of his only son as a “good boy.”
After his son was killed carrying out the worst mass shooting in American history, however, Mateen says he doesn’t miss a thing about him.
“What he did was against inhumanity.”
Monday morning, Mateen, 59, dressed in a dark double-breasted suit and blue tie, invited a huddle of TV crews into his family’s warm, mustard-hued living room decorated with potted palms, Islamic symbols and crystal candle-holders. A deflating pink, heart-shaped balloon, flanked by a row of Mother’s Day cards, sat on a console in the hallway.
“I don’t want any father to go through what we are going through,”Mateen said, clasping his hands and occasionally bowing his head as he sat on an ornate floral sofa surrounded by cameras and mics. “I don’t approve of what he did. What he did was completely an act of terrorism.”
Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Aghanistan, insisted on his love for and loyalty to his new homeland. “The United States is the house that has always taken care of me, my family, all the people from my homeland.... I condemn what he did. I wish I didn’t know that [is] what he was doing. If I could catch him, I would could ask him myself. The only thing I’ll say is those people who lost their loved ones, they are my family. I apologize for what my son did, and I am as sad and as mad as you guys are. You are my family.”
He said he’d had no inkling that his son might perform any kind of act of terrorism.
“If I did know of 1% that he’s committing such a crime, my son, I would arrest him myself. I would have called the FBI. I would have called the local law enforcement.”
His son had not behaved suspiciously when they spoke on Saturday, he said.
“He was normal,” he said.
Previous FBI investigations of his son, he said, hadn’t concerned him too much. “He was getting harassment from different people as far as religious wise, bringing all kinds of different food in front of him.”
“I didn’t see any unhealthy behavior from his part. He was always close to the whole family. He always was playing with his son and his wife. That made me very comfortable.”
The entire family, including his son’s wife and 3-1/2-year-old son, was shocked, Mateen said.
“What he did was an act of terrorism and he striked inside the house, which is against my principle, against what I taught him. I wanted him to get more high education to serve the community.... I don’t allow nobody to do any kind of crime or terrorist attack inside the United States. I don’t allow. My principle as a father as a U.S. citizen, I have been throughout my life against terrorism, against injustice, against what anyone can do against the United States.
“I wish he were alive, so I could ask him the same questions,” he said, his voice swelling. “Why? Why did he do such acts? This is against the principles of me and the whole family.”
— Jenny Jarvie
Obama: No sign has emerged that Orlando attack was part of larger plot
President Obama said Monday that Omar Mateen, the gunman in the Orlando nightclub massacre, appears to have been inspired by extremist propaganda disseminated online, but no clear evidence indicated that he was directed by the Islamic State extremists or that the attack was part of any larger plot.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office after senior law enforcement officials and national security advisors briefed him on their unfolding investigation, the president emphasized that it was the kind of massacre that has long worried U.S. officials.
“This is an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time,” Obama said. He pointed to Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to Islamic State extremists and lack of proof of direct ties to the group and noted those circumstances were similar to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 in December.
No matter how effective U.S. efforts to thwart Islamic State’s strength abroad are, it is just as important to fight “this kind of propaganda and perversions of Islam that you see generated on the Internet, and the capacity for that to seep into the minds of troubled individuals or weak individuals,” Obama said.
The president again expressed his grief for what he called a “devastating attack on all Americans.”
“This could have happened anywhere in this country. And we feel enormous solidarity and grief on behalf of the families that have been affected,” he said.
Obama also pointed to Mateen’s ability to easily acquire the firearms used in the attack, while bemoaning a political climate that both treats mass gun killings as routine and is incapable of responding.
“We make it very easy for individuals who are troubled or disturbed or who want to engage in violent acts to get very powerful weapons very quickly,” Obama said. “And that’s a problem.”
8:51 a.m.: This post was updated with more comments from Obama.
Adele tears up as she dedicates concert to Orlando shooting victims
Adele dedicated her concert Sunday night in Belgium to victims of the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead and 53 injured.
“I would like to start tonight by dedicating this entire show to everybody in Orlando at Pulse nightclub,” the British singer said in video images from the concert at Antwerp’s Sportpaleis posted on YouTube.
“The LGBTQA community, they’re like my soulmates since I was really young, so I’m really moved by it.”
At that, Adele appeared to start to tear up.
Gunman’s father posts anti-gay statement on Facebook
The father of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen, Seddique Mir Mateen, posted a video on Facebook on Monday addressing his son’s actions.
He was “not aware what complexities he had in his heart, and what caused him to go to this gay and lesbian club and shoot 50 people,” he said in Dari, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.
He added that “in this month of Ramadan, the gay and lesbian issue is something that God will punish,” though “the servants of God shouldn’t have anything to do with it,” and he was saddened by the shooting.
— Hashmat Baktash
Islamic State praises attack, but doesn’t claim responsibility
An Islamic State radio outlet has called the Orlando mass shooter “one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America,” according to the Associated Press.
Al-Bayan Radio on Monday hailed the attack that left 50 people dead, saying it targeted a gathering of Christians and gays and that it’s the worst attack on U.S. soil since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The broadcast is thought to be an opportunistic statement as Islamic State has not officially claimed responsibility for the Orlando attack.
— Associated Press
Orlando’s mayor: ‘Most devastating day in our city’s history’
At a Monday morning news conference after the Pulse nightclub massacre, Orlando’s mayor said that “we will not be defined by the act of a cowardly hater. We will be defined by how we respond.”
In the wake of the weekend mass shooting that left 49 dead, Mayor Buddy Dyer said: “Yesterday was the most devastating day in our city’s history.”
The mayor added that all the bodies were removed from the scene of the attack by 11 p.m. Sunday, and that 48 of the 49 victims have been identified. Twenty-four victims’ families have been notified, officials said.
Officials clarified that an earlier reported death toll of 50 included the gunman, and they stressed they are still notifying the next of kin of those killed.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said an off-duty police officer working security at the club in uniform traded gunfire with the attacker.
Officials said that after police responded to reports of the violence, the attacker retreated to a bathroom with hostages. Police held back because the attacker made statements about having explosives, they said.
An official with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the attacker’s two guns were recovered and that a third gun was recovered from his car.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said many first responders on the scene “saw carnage they would never see in any other location” even though “this is not a war zone.”
Around the world, condemnation of the massacre
Fom around the world, officials and public figures are expressing condemnation and shock over the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday.
FRANCE
The Eiffel Tower will shine in the colors of a rainbow on Monday night, starting at 10:45 p.m. local time to honor victims of the mass shooting. Paris City Hall will pay its respects starting at about 1:30 p.m. when U.S. and rainbow flags will fly.
— Associated PressRead More
Rock group Queen and Adam Lambert pay tribute to Orlando victims
Queen and Adam Lambert paid tribute to the Orlando shooting victims Sunday night as they closed the Isle of Wight Festival, the BBC reported. The band performed “Who Wants to Live Forever,” which Lambert dedicated to “anyone who has been a victim of senseless violence or hatred.”
U.S. mass shootings compared
With 50 people dead, the Orlando nightclub shooting is the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. Above, the BBC compares mass shootings using FBI data.
L.A. City Hall after Orlando
A bartender was shot three times
Chris Enzo, 25, made his way past a security check and crying families of the wounded at Orlando Regional Medical Center Sunday to visit his own wounded friend: Rodney Sumter, a bartender, husband and father who had been shot three times at Pulse.
Sumter told him that he had been making drinks for a woman when shooting erupted.
“While he turned to make the drinks, the girl in front of him was shot,” said Enzo, a senior at the nearby University of Central Florida.
Sumter was shot twice in the right shoulder, once in the elbow, Enzo said.
After he dropped to the floor, he could hear automatic gunfire as people screamed and fled, he told his friend. That’s when he managed to run out.
He was fasting Sunday in preparation for surgery Monday morning, Enzo said, adding: “He’s really weak.”
Enzo said other friends were afraid to leave their homes. “We’re just going to have to figure out how to stay strong through this,” he said.
More victim information released
The city of Orlando is releasing the names of victims of the shooting on its website. It has named two more victims and added age information for all of the victims identified thus far. The two are:
- Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
- Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
At least 50 people were killed in the shooting. Read about who some of the victims were here.
--Nina Agrawal
Lin-Manuel Miranda: ‘We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger’
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised. Not one day. This show is proof that history remembers we live through times when hate and fear seem stronger, we rise and fall and light from dying embers remembrances that hope and love last longer.
— Lin-Manuel Miranda, speaking of events in Orlando when he accepted the Tony for original score for “Hamilton.”
A stranger was bleeding in the parking lot. This man saved his life with a shirt and a bear hug
It was last call early Sunday morning at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Josh McGill and his roommate were with hundreds of patrons milling toward the bar when they heard a loud bang.
Pop! Pop! Pop! The sound ripped through the music.
McGill thought someone had shot off fireworks — a cruel prank? He ducked slightly and jerked to the side, just in case, but then another club-goer pulled his roommate’s arm.
“That wasn’t a joke,” the man said. “That was a gunshot.”
Gunman wanted to be a police officer, his ex-wife says
Omar Mateen wanted to be a police officer, his former wife Sitora Yusufiy told reporters Sunday. He worked as a correctional officer at a juvenile delinquent center and had applied to the police academy, she said.
She said that she was with him for about four months, and that he physically abused her and kept her isolated from her family members during their brief relationship. She hasn’t spoken to him for the last seven years. “I have cut him off, I have blocked everything,” she said.
Yusufiy added that she believes Mateen was mentally ill, and that probably had more to do with Sunday’s events than any radical beliefs.
— Braden Goyette
Bodies still being removed from nightclub after terror attack
At the Pulse nightclub on Sunday afternoon, police circled the site and kept reporters and the public at a distance of a block or so. Three helicopters patrolled overhead in the leaden skies.
Under a yellow awning at the club, police moved in and out, slowly extricating bodies and other evidence.
“They said they heard firecrackers, thought it was a joke,” Janice Rivera said. She would have gone to the club but her job ran late. Two of her friends were killed and five others wounded.
‘I complained multiple times that he was dangerous,’ former co-worker says of Orlando shooter
A former co-worker of Omar Mateen said Sunday that the man identified as the mass shooter in the Orlando nightclub massacre often used slurs against African Americans, gay people and women.
Daniel Gilroy, 44, worked with Mateen for about a year as a security guard at PGA Village South in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
“I complained multiple times that he was dangerous, that he didn’t like blacks, women, lesbians and Jews,” Gilroy told The Times on Sunday.
Mateen threatened violence in front of him, Gilroy said. Once when Mateen saw an African American man driving past, he said he wished he could kill all black people, using a racial slur, Gilroy recalled.
“You meet bigots,” Gilroy said, “But he was above and beyond. He was always angry, sweating, just angry at the world.”
Gilroy, a former Fort Pierce police officer, described Mateen as “unhinged and unstable.” He said Mateen talked about his father living in the area but did not mention his Afghan roots or his faith.
Gilroy said he quit his security job after Mateen began harassing him, sending as many as 20 or 30 text messages a day and more than a dozen phone messages. Gilroy said his employer, G4S, did not intervene.
“I saw this coming,” he said.
In a statement released earlier in the day, John Kenning, chief regional executive for GS4, confirmed that Mateen worked for the company since 2007.
“We are shocked and saddened,” Kenning said. Company officials said they are preparing a response to Gilroy’s remarks.
For LGBT community, Orlando shooting is a painful reminder of the dangers they face
Hundreds came to New York’s famed Stonewall Inn on Sunday evening to show solidarity with the victims of the shooting in Orlando, Fla. There was a heavy police presence, including several bomb-sniffing dogs and anti-terrorism police with assault rifles.
“We are a community that will never be silenced again. I ask every one of you to think of a person you lost because of anti-LGBT hate,” said Ken Kidd, one of the original organizers of ACT UP, one of the first organizations to push for LGBT rights. “I want every one of you to remember a time you felt unsafe. I want every one of you to think about how to make things better.”
At one point, a woman who identified herself as a gay Muslim was heckled by an older white man, but the crowd booed him and he was escorted away by police.
Dakota Nieves and Indiana Baker, both 16, said they were afraid in a new way after Sunday’s shooting. Nieves identifies as transgender and uses the pronouns “he” and “him;” Baker identifies as agender and uses the pronouns “they” and “them.”
The two friends lit a candle at a small makeshift memorial outside Stonewall, which the Obama administration recently said it would make a national landmark.
“I’m scared, I thought this country was headed toward something better,” Baker said. “It was like someone punched me in the stomach.”
“I felt forced back into the closet,” Nieves said. “I came out in sixth grade, and I felt so assured of myself. And then on the train today I thought maybe I should feel scared again.”
Quincy Bell, 34, a health educator from Tampa, Fla., had been to the club where the shooting took place many times. He was at the Stonewall Inn with his friend Cecil Wilder, 31.
“I was catatonic when I found out,” Bell said. “I talked to friends. I cried uncontrollably and I had to turn off the TV and come out and be here. This gives me strength. The solidarity. It means I’m not crying in front of my TV. Sometimes you have to get up and do it.”
Bell, who is black, noted that most of the people at the club were people of color. “As a gay person and a man of color, there’s always a sense of fear living your truth,” he said. “The fear is always there.”
“It could happen to any of us,” Michael Kerr, 52, said. “I go places all the time and feel fear. It makes me think twice about going out. I’m not going to go to clubs on Friday or Saturday. There’s times you don’t feel safe. I still have to be careful. What I really think we need to do is address guns.”
— Peter Moskowitz
No connection between man arrested in Santa Monica with weapons cache and Orlando shooting, officials say
Authorities on Sunday were trying to determine the intentions of an Indiana man with a cache of weapons, ammunition and explosive-making materials in his car and apparent plans to attend the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood.
But investigators did say they don’t believe there is any connection between the incident and the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
FBI agents search the home of Mateen’s parents
On a hot, overcast Sunday afternoon, FBI agents searched Omar Mateen’s parents’ beige, two-story, modern Mediterranean home on a busy four-lane boulevard in Port St. Lucie, a sprawling bedroom community of West Palm Beach.
“I’m shocked,” said Esmeralda Gonzalez, 41, as she sat next door on her parents’ porch, peering through a cluster of palm trees as plainclothes officers inspected a red Mercedes in the neighbors’ driveway.
“You see it on the news and then all of a sudden it’s happening here,” she said, puffing on a Marlboro menthol cigarette. “It’s right down the road. It’s scary. I don’t feel safe. I’m just hoping the father had nothing to do with it.”
Gonzalez, the owner of a gaming arcade, said her parents and the Mateens had lived side by side since 2010.
She described the gunman’s father as a “nice guy.”
“He waved,” she said. “But I’ve never seen the shooter. I don’t know him at all.”
— Jenny Jarvie
How badly wounded are the injured?
Orlando Regional Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center, admitted 44 patients after the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub. Nine other shooting victims were declared dead shortly after arriving at the hospital, said Dr. Michael Cheatham, the hospital’s chief surgical quality officer.
Doctors have operated on 26 victims so far.
“Many of the gun shot wounds were fairly severe,” Cheatham said. “Many trunk, abdomen and extreme gunshot wounds. Our operating room has been quite busy all day long with those injuries.”
Eleven victims were sent to Florida Hospital Orlando.
“Our hearts are broken and we share in our community’s grief,” the hospital said in a statement. “We mourn for those killed in this horrific incident, and we are praying for their loved ones, as well as for healing for the wounded.”
Omar Mateen’s imam called him soft-spoken
Omar Mateen was a soft-spoken man who didn’t have many friends, according to Syed Shafeeq Rahman, imam of the Florida mosque where Mateen attended for a decade.
In an interview with Reuters, Rahman described how Mateen visited the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce regularly but rarely interacted with the congregation.
“He hardly had any friends,” Rahman said, “He would come with his little son at night to pray and after he would leave.”
On Facebook, the mosque posted locations where residents could go and donate blood and condemned Mateen’s actions.
Rahman told Reuters that he planned to add extra security and brighter lighting to the mosque amid fears of a backlash against Muslims.
— Ileana Najarro
Orlando’s government, short on resources, asks people to hold off on vigils
Here’s where Southern Californians can attend vigils for the victims of the Orlando shooting
Several vigils and prayer services are planned around Southern California on Sunday to commemorate the victims of the Orlando, Fla., nightclub shootings.
A prayer service is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Baitul Hameed Mosque, 11941 Ramona Ave. in Chino. The vigil is sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Omar Mateen was taken off a terrorist watch list, but keeping him on it wouldn’t have stopped him from buying guns
Omar Mateen was placed on a terrorist watch list maintained by the FBI when its agents questioned him in 2013 and 2014 about potential ties to terrorism, according to U.S. law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case.
He was subsequently removed from that database after the FBI closed its two investigations, one official said.
In the first investigation, Mateen was questioned by FBI agents after they were told he had made inflammatory comments that co-workers worried were sympathetic to terrorists.
The FBI agents determined that Mateen had not broken any laws and closed the investigation, a second official said.
They questioned Mateen again the following year because agents had learned he had contact with an American who later died in a suicide bombing in Syria.
Agents closed that investigation because they concluded the contacts with the suicide bomber had been minimal, an FBI official said.
Even if Mateen were still on the terrorist watch list — known as the Terrorist Screening Database — the designation would not have precluded him from buying the semiautomatic pistol and assault-style rifle that he used in Sunday’s massacre.
Mateen bought two guns in the last 12 days from a gun store not far from his Florida home, federal officials said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives described the weapons as a “.223 caliber AR type rifle and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.”
Biden: ‘The violence is not normal.’
Orlando shooter’s father often travels to California to film politics show on the Payam-e-Afghan network
Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique, was known to some of the world’s Afghan exiles from a TV show he hosted on a satellite network, Payam-e-Afghan. Seddique Mateen, 59, flew from Florida to California every three months to film broadcasts at the channel’s Canoga Park studio, according to network owner Omar Khatab.
The show, “Durand Jirga,” focused on politics in Afghanistan and often what the elder Mateen saw as the meddling of Pakistan in his homeland’s matters, Khatab said. Mateen, 59, did not discuss Islam, he said.
“He is not a religious guy. He’s a secular guy,” Khatab said. “He loves America. He has been here a long time. He was a nice guy.”
On his Facebook page, Mateen decorated smiling photos of himself with crossed American and Afghan flags.
In one broadcast posted online last year, Mateen spoke of the Taliban as “brothers” in a discussion of disputes between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In a live broadcast on Payam-e-Afghan Sunday afternoon, an unidentified man speaking in English expressed dismay at the attacks.
“It’s not the work of all Afghans. It’s not the work of all Muslims,” he said. “We are so sad this happened especially for those defenseless people gathering in a nightclub pursuing the happiness they wanted to obtain.”
New York buildings to honor Orlando shooting victims
No link found between Orlando shooting and Santa Monica plot
Authorities have found no connection between the Orlando shootings and the man found with explosive powder and ammunition in his car in Santa Monica on Sunday. The man stopped by police in Santa Monica was “known to law enforcement” because of restraining orders and other encounters, said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. But there is no indication there is a connection to radical Islam or Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, he said.
Despite the possible threat, Schiff attended the LA Pride parade on Sunday. “All went off without a hitch,” Schiff said.
No sign yet that Orlando shooter communicated with terror groups
Law enforcement and intelligence officials have not yet found evidence of direct communications between Omar Mateen and a known terrorist group, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), said. Investigators are still working to determine whether Mateen had help planning the attack or had told anyone about his plans, Schiff said.
The FBI had interviewed Mateen in the past, Schiff said, and now investigators are “scrutinizing his file to determine whether there were other steps that could have been taken.”
“It is often the case that people come to potential law enforcement investigation, but it is not enough to make an arrest,” he said.
Schiff, who was briefed by intelligence officials Sunday, confirmed the gunman called a 911 operator and pledged allegiance to Islamic State over the phone. There was a second exchange when the 911 operator called the gunman back. Schiff was not sure whether the calls were made before or during the attack.
Man with weapons and explosives who said he was going to L.A. Pride parade has been identified
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, police stressed they were still trying to figure out what Howell planned to do with the weapons.
Update: A man arrested by Santa Monica police on Sunday did not indicate to authorities he planned to do harm at the Pride festival, authorities said this evening. An earlier report was based on a tweet by the Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.
Lt. Saul Rodriguez said Seabrooks had been given incorrect information. James Howell, 20 of Indiana, told police that he was planning on going to the Pride festival. Rodriguez said “as far as motives or his intentions that statement was never made nor did any officer receive that statement.”
These are the types of guns that were used in the Orlando attack
Vigil begins at New York’s Stonewall Inn
White ribbons to honor victims of Orlando massacre handed out at Tony Awards
Islamic State encouraged supporters in U.S., Europe to launch attacks
In May, Islamic State renewed a call for supporters in Europe and the U.S. to launch attacks on civilians during the holy month of Ramadan, which lasts from early June to the beginning of July.
“Ramadan has come near, and it is the month of raids and jihad, the month of conquest,” Abu Muhammad Adnani, an Islamic State spokesman, said in an audio message posted online.
Make it “a month of suffering” for non-Muslims, Adnani added, saying the message was specifically directed to “soldiers and supporters” in Europe and America.
“Truly, the smallest act you do in their lands is more beloved to us than the biggest act done here; it is more effective for us and more harmful to them,” Adnani said, speaking for the group that controls large swaths of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
He encouraged attacks on civilians with the goal of “scaring them and terrorizing them, until every neighbor fears his neighbor.” Attacks don’t have to be limited to military targets, he said. “Know that inside the lands of the belligerent crusaders, there is no sanctity of blood and no existence of those called innocents,” he said.
Since 2014, Islamic State has urged supporters in the U.S. to plan and carry out deadly attacks without traveling overseas first or communicating directly with the group’s leaders. Such so-called “lone wolf” attacks are difficult to prevent because there are few communications to uncover or visits to terrorist training camps to track.
Names of two more victims of the Orlando attack have been released
The city of Orlando is releasing the names of victims of the shooting on its website. It has named two more victims, bringing the number of names released to six. The two names are:
- Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera
- Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz
No additional details have been released about the victims. At least 50 people were killed in the shooting.
In West Hollywood, the Pride parade goes on, with Orlando attending in spirit
At the start of a morning press conference before the parade began, West Hollywood Council members held hastily printed signs that had rainbows and said, “I am Pulse.”
For many, the news of the Orlando, Fla., attack came as they woke in a flurry of text messages and Facebook posts, and despite an apparent threat from a man who was arrested in Santa Monica, the parade began exactly at 11 a.m.
Lorenzo Mancillas, 51, of West Hollywood, stood quietly on Santa Monica Boulevard, holding a black sign with rainbow bordering that just said “ORLANDO.”
Mancillas said he doesn’t usually come to the parade even though he lives a block away. He doesn’t really like crowds. But today, he knew he had to come, to show solidarity with his community.
“I don’t like crowds. But I felt compelled to come today to show solidarity as a gay man. I’m here, and I’m queer.”
He sighed. He was happy, he said, to see the big crowd, to see people coming out in spite of what happened.
Many gay men still aren’t allowed to donate blood to support Orlando victims
After the shooting at Orlando, Fla.’s Pulse nightclub, several calls for blood donations went out.
Because the club serves the LGBT community, people on social media noted the irony that under current FDA rules, gay and bisexual men are not able to donate blood if they have had sex with another man within the last 12 months.
Earlier this morning, rumors circulated online that OneBlood, a blood donation center, was ignoring the FDA regulations, and that gay and bisexual men would not be turned away from donating blood.
However, according to OneBlood, this isn’t true:
OneBlood has also updated its site to say that its blood center is at capacity, and to encourage donors to make appointments to help replenish the blood supply over the next few days.
Previously, there was a lifetime ban on men who have sex with men from donating blood. That restriction was relaxed to the current one-year deferral period in December 2015.
This article was updated to note the updating of FDA rules in 2015.
West Hollywood council member: ‘Our freedoms were gained because we stood tall and strong against violence’
West Hollywood Council member John Jude Duran posted a powerful statement on Facebook in the wake of the Orlando shooting:
Some victims in Orlando nightclub shooting have been named
The first four names of the victims in the Orlando, Fla., nightclub attack have been released. They are:
- Edward Sotomayor Jr.
- Stanley Almodovar III
- Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo
- Juan Ramon Guerrero
At least 50 people were killed in the attack and the city of Orlando will be posting their names.
Heartbreaking accounts from witnesses to the Orlando shooting: ‘I thought it was just part of the music’
Rosie Feba said she took her girlfriend to the club for the first time Saturday night and it was near closing time when the shooting began.
“She told me someone was shooting. Everyone was getting on the floor,” Feba said. “I told her I didn’t think it was real, I thought it was just part of the music, until I saw fire coming out of his gun.”
As bullets tore through the club, men and women dropped to the floor and crawled for cover. Some apparently hid in the restrooms, including one man whose texts to his mother were broadcast over WFTV-TV:
“Mommy I love you”
“In club they shooting”
“He’s coming”
“I’m gonna die”
“He’s in the bathroom with us”
According to the place, the gunman held many in the club hostage for hours before police shot and killed him. The fate of the young man, who was not identified by the station, was not known.
The FBI had investigated Orlando gunman Omar Mateen in the past
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ronald Hopper said agents questioned him two times in 2013 after he allegedly invoked ties to terrorists during a dispute with co-workers.
“We were unable to verify the substance of his comments and the investigation was closed,” Hopper said.
The following year, agents talked to him again about his contact with suicide bomber Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a Floridian who joined a branch of Al Qaeda and blew himself up in Syria in 2014.
Hopper said agents “determined the contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship.”
— Del Quentin Wilber and Matt PearceRead More
Purported Islamic State group statement claims Orlando attack was ‘carried out by an Islamic State fighter’
A statement attributed to Islamic State’s “news agency,” Amaq, said the attack “was carried out by an Islamic State fighter.”
The brief message posted by Amaq News Agency was not an official claim of responsibility for the attack.
The one sentence statement left unclear whether the 29-year-old gunman, Omar Mateen, was directed to carry out the attack by Islamic State leadership or if he was inspired by the militants.
Officials said they are investigating reports that Mateen called 911 early in the attack and pledged his allegiance to the leader of Islamic State.
In the past, the Islamic State has publicly released video of executing alleged homosexuals in territory it governs, including throwing them from tall buildings.
Updated to reflect doubts about the statement’s authenticity.
— W.J. Hennigan and Nabih Bulos
LGBT Muslims are mourning the Orlando shooting
When Faisal Alam, a Muslim activist in New York, first heard about the Orlando shooting, he cringed the same way many Muslims do when they learn that someone who may share their faith has killed innocent people.
“The shooter at the gay nightclub in Orlando has been named. And he has a Muslim name. :-/,” Alam wrote on a Facebook post.
But the shooting has been especially difficult for Alam to process because he is a gay Muslim and has spent two decades working to support LGBT Muslims, such as through a national group called the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, or MASGD.
The shooting also happened during Ramadan, the holy Islamic month of fasting, and amid June LGBT Pride events across the country, making for an uncomfortable mix of faith, sexual identity and violence for many gay Muslims.
On Sunday, MASGD released a statement mourning the Orlando deaths.
“Many of us woke up today to news of a mass shooting at Pulse, an Orlando nightclub serving the LGBTQ community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Our thoughts are also with our LGBTQ Muslim community which is feeling this tragedy and the response to it personally.”
Gunman Omar Mateen’s employer: ‘We are shocked and saddened’
Security company G4S released a statement saying that Orlando, Fla., nightclub gunman Omar Mateen had worked for them for several years.
“We are shocked and saddened by the tragic event that occurred at the Orlando nightclub,” the statement said. “We can confirm that Omar Mateen had been employed with G4S since September 10, 2007. We are cooperating fully with all law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, as they conduct their investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the friends, families and people affected by this unspeakable tragedy.”
— Braden Goyette
Authorities search apartment where Orlando gunman is believed to have lived
Authorities in Fort Pierce, Fla. — which is on the Atlantic Coast and southeast of Orlando — on Sunday searched the apartment where Omar Mateen is believed to have lived, according to the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.
This is the car in which police found guns, ammunition and possible explosives in Santa Monica
The man who was arrested after police searched the car told police he was on his way to L.A.’s gay pride parade.
President of Afghanistan responds to Orlando shooting
The office of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a statement about the Orlando, Fla., nightclub shooting:
— Braden Goyette
Obama declares Orlando shooting an act of terror
After previous mass shootings and terrorist attacks, Obama typically has waited before speaking in public, giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies more time to determine what happened before addressing the nation.
But more recently, particularly after the Dec. 2 massacre of 14 people in San Bernardino by a terrorist couple, Obama has tried to appear earlier to caution Americans against a rush to judgment and to encourage tolerance.
His appearance in the White House briefing room followed political commentary and criticism on social media and on Sunday TV talk shows as the terrorist incident inevitably spilled into the presidential campaign.
Obama orders flags lowered to half-staff after Orlando terror attack
Accused attacker called 911 before Orlando shooting and declared allegiance to Islamic State, official says
Omar Mateen called 911 moments before the attack, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, a federal law enforcement official told The Times, confirming earlier reports. Federal investigators believe the selfie photos of Mateen taken from his MySpace page and being circulated on the Internet are of him, but emphasized the investigation was in its early stages.
L.A. Pride parade was nearly called off
The parade is scheduled to be underway now.
One source in West Hollywood said there was discussion of calling off the parade but officials decided to go forward with heavy security including undercover officers in the crowd.
The sources spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Police this morning arrested a man in Santa Monica who had weapons, ammunition and possible explosives in his car, and said he was on his way to the parade.
Watch what Obama said about the Orlando terror attack
Donald Trump says he appreciates ‘the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism’
Hours after his first tweet about the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 50 dead and at least 53 injured, GOP nominee Donald Trump tweeted that he appreciated the “congrats for being right” about Islamic terrorism.
Man with weapons and possible explosives arrested, said he was going to L.A. Pride parade
Authorities in Santa Monica on Sunday found possible explosives as well as assault rifles and ammunition in the car of a man who told them he was here for the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood, a law enforcement source said.
Santa Monica police received a call early Sunday of a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered a person who told officers he was waiting for a friend. That led officers to inspect the car and they found several weapons, ammunition and tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb.
Orlando shooter’s ex-wife tells Washington Post: ‘He beat me’
Mateen’s ex-wife told the Washington Post that Mateen “was not a stable person” and used to beat her. She said Mateen was born in New York, but had moved to Florida with his family. She said she moved to Florida to marry him about eight years ago, but the marriage only lasted a few months.
“He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that,” said the ex-wife, who spoke to the Post on the condition she not be named.
The pair reportedly formally divorced in 2011.
This is where the shooting took place
Investigators operating on theory that nightclub attack was inspired by Islamic State
U.S. investigators are operating under the theory that the Orlando, Fla., nightclub mass shooting was inspired by Islamic State, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.
The similarities between the November attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris and that the shooter appeared to target a gay club Sunday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan “indicates an ISIS-inspired act of terrorism,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said in a statement.
Intelligence officers are combing through terrorism databases to see if there are any known links between the alleged shooter and a terrorist group, Schiff said. There haven’t been signs so far that Islamic State leaders helped orchestrate the plot, he said. “Whether this attack was ISIS-directed remains to be determined,” he said.
Tony Awards ceremony to be dedicated to Orlando shooting victims
Omar Mateen got ‘very angry’ seeing two men kissing, father tells NBC
Omar Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, spoke to NBC News about the shooting. “This had nothing to do with religion,” he told the network.
“We were in downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music. And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry,” Seddique told NBC. “They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.’ And then we were in the men’s bathroom and men were kissing each other.”
— Braden Goyette
Council on American-Islamic Relations solicits blood donations for victims of Orlando shooting
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the Orlando, Fla., nightclub shooting in a statement, and said it will call on the Muslim community to take part in a blood drive for those wounded in the attack Sunday. “We condemn this monstrous attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured,” the statement said. “The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence.”
— Braden Goyette
Equality Florida responds to Orlando nightclub shooting
Equality Florida has issued a statement about the attack:
Gunfire struck officer’s helmet in final shootout at Orlando club
Investigators probing possibility of terrorism in Orlando shooting
A federal law enforcement official said the FBI is focusing on whether Orlando, Fla., nightclub shooting suspect Omar Mateen was inspired by Islamic extremists overseas, but say they have only just begun digging into his background and don’t want to jump to conclusions.
A second law enforcement official said it will become more clear in coming hours whether Mateen was inspired or directed to carry out the mass shooting, though the incident has the hallmarks of being a “lone-wolf” style attack.
— Del Quentin Wilber
Orlando shooter’s father to NBC News: ‘This has nothing to do with religion’
Reached by NBC News, Mir Seddique, the father of the man who has been identified as the shooter who killed 50 people in an Orlando nightclub, said Omar Mateen had been angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami recently and “this has nothing to do with religion.”
“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country,” Seddique told NBC News.
Attempts by The Times to reach Seddique have been unsuccessful.
More details about suspect Omar Mateen
Mateen rented a car near his home and drove to Orlando, Fla., a federal law enforcement official said.
He worked as a private security guard, the official said, and was a U.S. citizen, though his parents were born overseas.
Orlando mayor says 50 dead in nightclub shooting
50 people are dead after the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer told reporters, making this the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting had previously been the deadliest. 32 were killed when 23-year-old Seung-hui Cho opened fire on campus.
— Braden Goyette
Presidential candidates respond to the Orlando shooting
The presidential candidates have all weighed in on the Orlando shooting.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called the attack a “really bad shooting” in a tweet:
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also weighed in with a tweet calling the shooting “horrific.”
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addressed the attack during an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News’ “Meet The Press.” He went further and pressed for stricter gun laws:
It’s horrific, it’s unthinkable. And just hopes go out to all those who were shot that they can recover. And I’ve got to tell you, 25 years ago, I believe that in this country, we should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people. We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggles continues. ... . That means expanding the instant background check, it means doing away with the gun show loophole, it means addressing the straw man provision.
Orlando gunman identified as Omar Mateen
The gunman has been preliminarily identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
The gunman -- who investigators said may have had radical Islamic leanings -- was killed by a SWAT team after taking hostages at Pulse.
The “lone wolf” gunman was armed with an assault rifle, a handgun and an unspecified “device,” said Orlando-area officials, who did not elaborate on why they suspected he may have been a radical Islamist.
“It appears he was organized and well-prepared,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said, adding that the gunman was not from the Orlando area.
Obama briefed on Orlando shooting
The White House issued the following statement Sunday morning:
The President was briefed this morning by Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, on the tragic shooting in Orlando, Florida. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims. The President asked to receive regular updates as the FBI, and other federal officials, work with the Orlando Police to gather more information, and directed that the federal government provide any assistance necessary to pursue the investigation and support the community.
Shooter ‘not from area’
About 20 dead in gay nightclub shooting, Orlando police say
A gunman took people hostage overnight inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where about 20 people were killed and 42 were taken to the hospital, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a morning news conference.
The gunman, who has not been identified, was carrying an assault rifle, a handgun and a “device.”
Read More— Orlando Sentinel