Additional details about the deadliest mass shooting in US history have emerged. “I said ‘This is not a drill, this is not a joke'”.
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The suspect was carrying an assault-type rifle and a handgun as well as an unidentified “device”, Mina said.
Local, federal, and state officials are now investigating the gruesome events that took place June 12.
“We’re still working through that”, Comey said.
“My first thought was, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to die, ‘” Alamo said. But Comey reiterated comments made earlier by President Obama that Mateen did not appear to have been directed by the Islamic State or been a part of a larger conspiracy.
When his father got a phone call about his son’s actions and death, he said he was shocked.
Daniel Gilroy told multiple news outlets that he worked with Mateen at the G4S security company.
“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.
Gilroy said Mateen started badgering him and sending dozens of text messages to him daily. But three hours passed before a SWAT team stormed the building and brought the attack to an end. During the attack, he called 911 to profess allegiance to the Islamic State group. Al-Bayan Radio, a media outlet for the IS extremist group, on Monday hailed the attack, saying it targeted a gathering of Christians and gays and that it’s the worst attack on US soil since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said the gunman also expressed solidarity with the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing and with Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a Florida man who in 2014 became a suicide bomber in Syria. He was later killed during the gun battle with SWAT forces, said Orlando Police Chief John Mina at a morning news briefing on Monday.
Grollnek, a consultant who conducts active-shooter training for law enforcement, said the decision by police commanders in Florida to hold back SWAT team members suggests the lessons of Columbine haven’t been learned.
“We knew there would be an imminent loss of life”, Mina said. As it turned out, Mateen had no explosives with him. Twenty-nine people remain hospitalized Monday morning, five of them in “grave” condition, Orlando Health said.
In Orlando, mourners piled bouquets around a makeshift memorial, and people broke down in tears and held their hands to their faces while passing through the growing collection of flowers, candles and signs about a mile from the site of the massacre. Many in the crowd said they were inspired to attend because Pulse played a huge role in their lives as gays and lesbians.
“I’ve always felt so safe here for my family, kids”.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said 53 people were wounded.
The tragedy hit the city’s gay and Hispanic communities especially hard.
While Mateen is reported to have pledged allegiance to Islamic State – and ISIS have also claimed responsibility for the attack – authorities have said that there is no evidence to link the terrorist organisation with the attack. The case is being treated as a terror investigation, he said.
While authorities are considering filing criminal charges against Noor for failing to tell them what she knew before the attack, no decision has been made.
Ed Henson, of St. Lucie Shooting Center, said Mateen bought the guns more than a week before the massacre at Pulse.
Wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at the crowded Pulse Orlando club early Sunday in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.
Police yesterday detailed the harrowing hours that elapsed between Mateen opening fire on his victims and being shot dead by SWAT officers, revealing prolonged hostage negotiations while Mateen was barricaded with hostages in a bathroom. “There were people in the opposing bathroom, about 15 or 20 people”.
Hostage negotiators began talking to Mateen.
The explosives did not penetrate the wall completely, so an armored vehicle was used to punch a two-foot-by-three-foot hole in the wall about two feet from the ground.
“He was in one bathroom fortified with hostages”, Mina stated.
Experts say there’s a big difference between responding to a lone gunman and a shooter who has hostages.
“I could tell by the eyes”.
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“I was thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?'” So I just dropped down. “What he did was against humanity”.
