Orlando gay nightclub attack is deadliest US mass shooting in modern history

Barack Obama has condemned an “act of terror and an act of hate”, after a gunman stormed an LGBT nightclub and shot dead 50 people in the worst mass shooting in American history.

The US president looked grave on what he said was an especially tragic day for lesbian and gay Americans, following the mass shooting at a haven for the vibrant LGBT community of central Florida.

The FBI identified the gunman as Omar Mateen, 29, a US citizen of Afghan heritage who was born in New York. He was killed when a police Swat team used a Bearcat vehicle to smash their way into the club and rescue 30 hostages early on Sunday morning.

The FBI special agent Ron Hopper told reporters that Mateen had called the emergency 911 service before the attack, and spoke in “general to the Islamic State”. It was reported earlier on Sunday that Mateen had pledged allegiance to the leader of the terror group.

Mateen was a known Isis sympathiser, Hopper said, and had been the subject of two previous investigations, closed in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He was interviewed repeatedly during those years, but the FBI was unable to verify any alleged ties to terrorists.

                                                        A social media photo believed to show Omar Mateen

“He is not a prohibited person so he can legally walk into a gun dealership,” a representative of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said. “He did so within the last week or so.”

At the White House, where the US flag was lowered to half-mast, Obama said: “Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history.”

It was the 15th time Obama had addressed the nation after a mass shooting. Less visibly emotional than on other occasions, the president made a brief reference to the gun control issue, saying: “This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that allows them to shoot people at a school, or a movie theater, or a church or a nightclub.

“This could have been any one of our communities … We have to decide whether that’s the kind of country we want to be. To actively do nothing is a decision as well.”

He described it as “an especially heartbreaking day for all of our friends and fellow Americans who are lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual”. They had gone to the club “to be with friends, dancing and singing”, he said.

Orlando Police officers direct family members away from a multiple shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. A gunman opened fire at a nightclub in central Florida, and multiple people have been wounded, police said Sunday. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

As a stunned nation braced for a full tally of the victims, gay rights campaigners said they were “devastated” by the unprecedented attack on their community, which also left 53 people injured, many critically.

Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, said: “Today we are dealing with something we never imagined and is unimaginable.”

A Florida senator, Bill Nelson, told reporters that intelligence officials “believe that there is some link to [Islamic State]”, although he later said the possible link was to “radicalism”, not necessarily Isis.

Cautioning repeatedly that the information was tentative, Nelson added: “Obviously he knew what he was doing. I asked the FBI if there was any connection to Isis. There appears to be. But they are naturally cautious and waiting throughout to see if this [is the case] as the facts emerge. I have checked with intelligence staff, and they do believe that there is some link to Isis. But I might say that is not official.”

Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House permanent select committee on intelligence, said: “The fact that this shooting took place during Ramadan and that Isis leadership in Raqqa has been urging attacks during this time, that the target was an LGBT night club during Pride, and – if accurate – that according to local law enforcement the shooter declared his allegiance to Isis, indicates an Isis-inspired act of terrorism.”

Hopper, the FBI agent, told a morning press conference the case was being investigated as an act of terrorism.

A US official, however, said that while an unfolding federal investigation was in the earliest stages, an initial hypothesis regarding the shooter’s motive leaned closer to a hate crime than an act of terrorism.

“The idea of it being terrorism is not off the table, but it’s probably not the principal approach,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.

The shooting also stoked the debate over gun control. Obama has long and sometimes tearfully expressed his frustrations at trying to push reforms through Congress. He has previously described the 2012 shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, as the worst day of his presidency.

In her statement, Clinton added: “We need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals. This is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States and it reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets.”

Family members wait for word from police after arriving down the street from a shooting involving multiple fatalities at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

NBC News said it had contacted Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, who said: “We are saying we are apologising for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country. This had nothing to do with religion.”

NBC News also reported Mateen’s father as saying his son reacted angrily a couple of months ago when he saw two men kissing in Miami.

The Washington Post said Mateen’s ex-wife said he was violent and mentally unstable and beat her repeatedly while they were married.

“He was not a stable person,” the newspaper’s website quoted her as saying, without naming him. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”

America’s worst mass shooting unfolded over three terrifying hours at the Pulse nightclub, which was celebrating Latin Night. A drag queen from Puerto Rico was scheduled to perform, after Orlando’s 25th Gay Days festival. The shooting began at about 2am.

Anthony Torres was about to leave. “It seemed fake,” he later wrote on social media. “This had to be planned.”

Torres wrote that he saw people “screaming and running, looking for their loved ones” and saw other “injured people sitting on the floor”. He and his boyfriend, sister and friends ducked out the door.

A police officer outside the club moved to confront the gunman, the police chief John Mina told reporters on Sunday. The officer drew the gunman outside on to Orange Avenue, where they exchanged fire. Then the shooter re-entered the club and started firing again.

A survivor, Christopher Hansen, mistook the first sounds of discharge to be part of the DJ’s set. “You think you hear a song, it’s music, and then you realize no, it’s not, it’s real life, there’s somebody actually shooting,” he told a reporter outside the club. “It’s not OK. It’s not.”

He added that he knew the gunman must have had more than a handgun: there were too many shots. The police chief later said the shooter had an “AR-15-type assault rifle” and a handgun. He fired dozens of rounds.

Staff at Pulse posted on Facebook: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running.”

Outside, more than 100 personnel congregated, including officers from departments and agencies around central Florida, Swat teams, FBI agents and a bomb squad with dogs.

Inside, people scattered. Some hid in bathrooms. A local station, WFTV, broadcast several texts to family members. A mother recounted a text from her daughter and two nieces: “‘Please come and get us. Please come and get us now. They’re shooting. They’re shooting.’”

“He’s coming,” a man wrote in another. “He’s in the bathroom with us.”

Eventually, the police made contact with the gunman, who had taken hostages. Mina declined to describe those talks on Sunday morning. The standoff lasted for hours. A mother, Mina Justice, said her son texted her.

“He said: ‘He has us, and he’s going to kill us,’ and that was it.”

Another mother, Lilbia Carmen, appealed for news on Facebook.

“Nothing yet. My daughter is in there. Please keep praying for them,” she wrote. “She’s waiting for cops to be able to come out. I was on the [phone] and all I hear is shot guns.”

Carmen’s daughter escaped the carnage. The children of dozens of other parents did not.

At about 5am the police and FBI decided they could not wait any longer. “Our biggest concern was further loss of life,” Mina later told reporters.

Two loud explosions startled the press and survivors still within earshot of the club – two controlled blasts “to distract the suspect and gain that advantage”, Mina said. Then an armored Bearcat truck smashed through a bathroom wall to free people while nine officers stormed the building, beginning a new battle with the shooter.

The gunman struck one of the officers with a bullet, but the man was saved by his Kevlar helmet, Mina said. The shooter was shot dead and about 30 people were rescued.

In addition to the weapons, police found a suspicious device on the suspect’s body. A bomb-defusing robot rolled inside, and they found the object was not explosive.

But the death toll surpassed authorities’ worst fears. They had estimated about 20 people killed at an initial briefing. After entering the club, they found 30 more bodies, 50 in all and many more in dire condition, a death toll without precedent.

Later on Sunday, a 27-year-old man, who did not want to be named, showed reporters a bloody scratch across his stomach where he said a bullet had grazed him. The man said he had been standing at the bar, paying his bill, when the shooting started. He was carried across the bar by the weight of others rushing to escape, he said, and ended up underneath a pile of people.

When he was able to look up, he said, he saw about 20 bodies apparently dead or badly wounded on the floor around him.

Later, at police headquarters, people waited for news of loved ones. Brian Vieoma had been texting and calling his brother Luis’s mobile phone since his family learned about the shooting. He had no reply and now feared the worst.

“He came over for Latin Night. Venezuelans love to go dancing,” Vieoma said of his 22-year-old brother.

Dyer declared a state of emergency, and alongside Mina, Hopper and a local imam urged Americans to give blood and unite. He told WESH-TV: “It’s a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. My heart goes out to the victims, their families. But we’re a strong, resilient community.”

Dyer, who has been mayor of Orlando for 14 years, said he had “never seen anything like this. I hope no mayor ever has to see anything like this.”

Gay Orlando official gives emotional statement after nightclub shooting

The mayhem came in the month that Americans celebrate gay pride. Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign – the country’s biggest LGBT rights organisation – said: “We are devastated by this tragic act of violence, which has reportedly claimed the lives of at least 50 LGBTQ people and allies and injured more than 50 others.

“We are grieving for the victims and our hearts are broken for their friends, families, and for the entire community. This tragedy has occurred as our community celebrates pride, and now more than ever we must come together as a nation to affirm that love conquers hate.”

Source: The Guardian