Mateen repeatedly demanded that the USA stop its airstrikes, according to the transcripts.
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In a freaky exchange, Mateen told the negotiator that “air strikes need to stop” and repeatedly answered questions with “No.no. no.no. no”.
The 911 call and dozens of other calls made by civilians to authorities the morning of the shooting were released after a lawsuit from media groups claiming that they were necessary to evaluate police response to the massacre.
“You need to stop the US air strikes”, Mateen tells the hostage negotiator.
“You have to tell the USA government to stop bombing”.
He accused the USA of collaborating with Russian Federation to kill Muslims, saying “The U.S.is collaborating with Russian Federation and they are killing innocent women and children, okay?”
A few minutes later, Mateen warned that in the next few days the people were going to see “more of this type of action going on”. He then told the officer a May air strike that killed Islamic State leader Abu Waheeb prompted him to attack the club.
Mateen referred to a USA -led air strike on May 6 that killed Abu Wahib, an ISIS military commander in Iraq, and three other jihadists, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon officials called Wahid’s death a blow to ISIS’ leadership.
“They should have not bombed and killed Abu [Waheeb]”, he said.
During his first call, Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and said: “I want to let you know I’m in Orlando and I did the shooting”.
“This is Mateen”, the shooter told dispatchers during his first call at 2:35 a.m.
“I want to let you know I’m in Orlando and I did the shooting”, he said.
“What’s your name?”, the operator asks.
He then “pledge [d] allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State”.
The negotiator asks Mateen for his name. At times the shooter cursed and taunted the negotiator, who pleaded, “Tell me what’s going on”.
Mateen told the negotiator his explosives were undetectable by bomb dogs.
Both turned out not to be true.
That’s when Mateen indicated he had bombs in “some vehicles outside”. He threatened to ignite auto bombs he said could “take out a whole city block nearly”.
Mateen said he could “feel the pain of the people getting killed in Syria and Iraq and all over the Muslim” world. Mateen, a security guard who had once sought to become a police officer, hung up several times, but at one point he asked the police negotiator what year he had graduated from the police academy.
“Yes, I have”, he said.
“You already know what I did”, he said.
A crisis negotiator in later phone calls at 2:48 a.m. and 2:56 a.m. tried to get information about what weapons Mateen had and whether there was anyone else with him.
The transcripts did not offer much clarity about why he chose Pulse to make his stand against killing innocent people, but there were tidbits that showed his admiration for other terrorists in the US.
“My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon”, Mateen said.
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“So now, it’s my turn, OK?” he added. “They are killing a lot of innocent people”. That was the last thing he said before hanging up for the final time.
