The FBI has released the full, unredacted transcript of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen’s 911 phone call made during the nightclub shooting that left 49 people dead and 53 injured. When the crisis negotiator asked the shooter what he had done, the shooter stated, “No, you already know what I did”.
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When asked why the redactions were originally made, Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ron Hopper told reporters, “we’re not going to propagate violent rhetoric that comes from other people whether they be here or overseas, and to do that would only inflame other people here that might be like-minded”.
Mateen later called 911 again and talked with a crisis negotiation team for 28 minutes, indicating there might be explosive devices on hostages.
The Joint Terrorism Taskforce has conducted more than 500 interviews about the June 12 massacre, Hopper said, and has processed more than 600 pieces of evidence.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the transcript will not include all of Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to ISIS.
“Those killings are on the suspect and on the suspect alone”, Mina told the news conference.
A week after the worst mass shooting in US history, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said a portion of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen’s calls with hostage negotiators will be released Monday.
Lynch, who is due to visit Orlando on Tuesday, told CNN on Sunday that investigators have been focused on building a full profile of Mateen, a New York-born USA citizen and Florida resident of Afghan descent who worked as a security guard, who has been described by US officials as “self-radicalized” in his extremist sympathies.
“We know the shooter was a radical Islamist extremist inspired by ISIS”, Ryan said in a statement cited by USA Today. I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.
OD: Emergency 911, this is being recorded. Law enforcement officials, however, have said that the gunman pledged his solidarity to the Islamic State, as well as to the Boston Marathon bombers and an American suicide bomber who died in a 2014 attack in Syria.
A woman mourns as she sits on the ground and takes part in a vigil for the Pulse night club victims following last week’s shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Based on OPD radio communications, there were no reports of shots being fired inside Pulse between the initial exchange of gunfire between responding officers and shooter, and the time of the final breach.
Mateen also contacted a local news station during the bloodshed, and texted his wife, asking her if she was watching the news.
He also claimed he had explosives in a vehicle outside the club and an explosive vest similar to those used by the Paris attackers, and warned of similar attacks in the days to come. “We are trying not to re-victimize those who went through that horror”, she added.
Mateen, 29, was killed when police stormed the gay nightclub Pulse after a three-hour standoff.
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The release is coming a day after tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil in the heart of downtown Orlando for the 49 victims who died in the massacre.
