City officials released about five dozen files of calls made to police and more than six dozen files of calls to the fire department after fighting media companies for three months over the release of the records.
Advertisement
He told police: “You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They need to stop the USA airstrikes, OK?” “They are killing too many children; they are killing too many women. OK?”
The dialogue between Mateen and the negotiator appeared to deteriorate by the third phone call. He said, “in the next few days you’re going to see more of this type of action going on.in the name of the Islamic State”.
Mateen hung up on the negotiator, but the negotiator called back.
“You need to stop the US air strikes”.
“That’s what triggered it, OK?” he says. Mateen said. “They should have not bombed and killed Abu Wahid”.
“This is Mateen”, the shooter told dispatchers during his first call at 2:35 a.m.
“This is Mateen”, he told the operator. After that, he said, “My name is I Pledge of Allegiance to (unidentifiable name) of the Islamic State”.
“What’s your name?”, the operator asks.
He then “pledge [d] allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State”. At times the shooter cursed and taunted the negotiator, who pleaded, “Tell me what’s going on”.
He refused to tell negotiators how many hostages he had, how many weapons or if anyone was hurt.
“It’s what they used in France”, Mateen said of the vest, referring to the suicide bombers from the November 2015 attack on Paris.
Both turned out not to be true. “What I’m trying to do is prevent anybody else from getting”. He threatened to ignite vehicle bombs he said could “take out a whole city block nearly”.
“OK, so you have done something about that?” the negotiator asked him. “I fasted the whole day and I prayed”, he said. The negotiator asked where Mateen was so officers could get him help.
“I want to let you know I’m in Orlando and I did the shooting”, he said.
The last time negotiators spoke to the killer was in a three-minute conversation that ended with Mateen hanging up at 3:25 a.m.
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.
Mateen: My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon.so now it’s my turn, okay?
Mateen, a NY native of Afghan descent, killed 49 people in his rampage before being gunned down by police.
Advertisement
“The longer we can keep on the phone, that gives our officers and our tactical teams time to get in place time to learn the layout of the building and time tor rescue people who were in pulse”, Mina said.
