The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police.
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According to Obama, so far there was no “clear evidence” that the gunman in Sunday’s massacre at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida had been directed externally.
He said: “I am very sad and I’ve announced this to the American people as well”.
– Mateen was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2013 and 2014, first for allegedly making inflammatory terroristic type comments at work and second for claiming a connection to another American from Florida who was a suicide bomber in Syria.
“The board chose to dedicate the parade to the victims, we’ll have a minute of silence, we’ll read all their names … even if I never met them, they are my family”, Mathieu Chantelois told CityNews. Orlando’s FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Wysopal clarified that the 50th person slain was Mateen himself.
Seddique Mateen is an immigrant from Afghanistan and occasionally hosted a television show “Durand Jirga”, where he shared anti-Pakistan, pro-Afghanistan political views. The father said his son got angry a few months ago when he saw two men kissing in Miami. The gunman opened fire inside the crowded gay nightclub before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. “Over the coming days, we will determine what motivated him, and we will go where the facts lead us”, Obama said, vowing to provide whatever help was needed by the people of Orlando. “He would just look at me like, ‘Who are you?”
FBI Director James Comey said that Mateen had “strong indications of radicalization” and was probably inspired by foreign terrorist organizations. On Monday morning, officials emphasized that there was no immediate threat to the public. He continued to hear shooting even after he emerged, where police were telling people to back away from the club.
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He first came to the FBI’s attention in 2013 after co-workers reported he’d made “inflammatory” comments to them about radical Islamic propaganda. Then in early 2014, the FBI investigated him again for ties to a suicide bomber in Syria, but ultimately took him off the watch list in May 2014. The IS-linked news agency Amaq said on Sunday that the attack on the gay night club had been “carried out by an Islamic State fighter”. “We are in shock like the whole country”, Seddique said to NBC News.
