Islamic State claimed responsibility on Sunday for the worst mass shooting in US history, but USA officials said they had seen no immediate evidence linking the militant group to the massacre in Orlando, Florida.
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“People Are Getting Shot”: Witness Outside Orlando Nightclub**WARNING: Content may be disturbing to some viewers.** A witness outside the nightclub where 50 people were killed early Sunday morning filmed police cars and the sound of gunshots. The suspect’s name is Omar Saddiqui Mateen.
According to local law enforcement, the shooter had declared his allegiance to Islamic State, Schiff said in a statement, all of which “indicates an ISIS-inspired act of terrorism”.
Grayson and others also said Mateen appeared to carry out the attack alone.
Officials, aided by the FBI, warned that a lengthy investigation was ahead given the number of victims and the scope of the violence.
“We know enough to say this an act of terror, act of hate”, Obama said. “There’s an enormous amount of evidence to be collected”.
“It was tragic”, club-goer Christopher Hansen said.
“Everybody was drinking their last sip”, he said.
Club-goer Rob Rick said the shooting started just before closing time.
It is the worst mass shooting in US history.
However, the White House issued a statement saying the president was briefed by Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
Authorities said they had secured a van owned by the suspect outside the club.
– September 16, 2013: Aaron Alexis, a mentally disturbed civilian contractor, shot 12 people to death at the Washington Navy Yard before he was killed in a police shootout. Law enforcement was at the complex Sunday.
“The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together with friends, to dance, and to sing, and to live”. The helmet saved the officer’s life, Banks said.
According to, Mateen “was on law enforcement radar in [the] last five years”. In addition, the NYPD is in contact with local law enforcement in Florida, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mateen, who is an American citizen, is from Port St. Lucie and was born to Afghan parents.
Investigators have talked to Mateen’s family, who indicated he had expressed anti-gay feelings. Police described it as an act of terrorism. The FBI is involved. “But right now we can’t say definitively”.
The ex-wife of the 29-year-old man suspected of killing 50 people in a Orlando nightclub early Sunday said that he was violent and mentally unstable and beat her repeatedly while they were married. Earlier reports, citing police, had placed the toll at 20.
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A man was arrested in California with assault weapons and possible explosives on Sunday and told authorities he was in the Los Angeles area for the gay pride festival, the Los Angeles Times reported.
