Photos: At least 20 dead, dozens injured in Orlando gay nightclub shooting, U.S born Afghan named as suspect

A mass shooting which took place in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, left about 20 people dead and at least 42 wounded early today Sunday June 12, police said, adding that a SWAT team killed the shooter. The gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun took hostages and opened fire inside Pulse Night Club, killing approximately 20 people and wounding 42 before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers.

Police Chief John Mina also said the shooter had some sort of "suspicious device". He said the suspect exchanged gunfire with an officer working at the club around 2 a.m, then went inside and took hostages.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Danny Banks said during a news conference that the mass shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. He said the authorities are looking into whether this was an act of domestic or international terror, and if the shooter was a lone wolf.

 

Law enforcement sources told CBS News they have identified the suspect as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie, Florida, who was born to Afghan parents in 1986.

"At this point, this is an incident, as I can see it, we can certainly classify as a domestic terror incident," Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jerry Demings told CBS.


Source: LIB

50 confirmed dead in massacre at Florida gay nightclub, suspect's father says son was "angry when he saw 2 men kissing"

A gunman killed 50 people and injured 53 in a crowded gay nightclub in the tourist hub of Orlando, Florida, early on Sunday before being shot dead by police, authorities said, in what appeared the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer confirmed the death toll in a statement and called for a state of emergency. 

"We are dealing with something we never imagined. Since the last update, we have gotten better access to the building, cleared the building. It is with great sadness I share that we have 50 casualties, in addition to the shooter. Because of the scale I have called Governor Scott to request a state of emergency and we are issuing a state of emergency in the City. This allows us to bring additional resources to support our efforts. Our focus in the coming hours will be identifying the victims and notifying the families. We are setting up a hotline for concerned family members – 407.246.4357. The identification process may take some time. We ask for your patience as we want to be accurate. I continue to be proud of how our community has responded." Dyer said.

The shooter was identified as Omar S. Mateen, a man that a senior FBI official said might have had leanings towards Islamic State militants. Officials described the attack as a "terrorism incident" though cautioned that the suspected Islamist connection required further investigation.

A police officer working as a security guard inside the Pulse nightclub, which has operated in downtown Orlando since 2004, exchanged fire with the suspect at about 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), police officials said.

A hostage situation quickly developed, and three hours later a squad of officers stormed the club and shot dead the gunman. It was unclear when the gunman shot the victims.

"Do we consider this an act of terrorism? Absolutely, we are investigating this from all parties' perspective as an act of terrorism," said Danny Banks, special agent in charge of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "Whether that is domestic terrorist activity or an international one, that is something we will certainly get to the bottom of."

 

When asked if the FBI suspected the gunman might have had inclinations toward militant Islam, including a possible sympathy for Islamic State, Ronald Hopper, an assistant FBI agent in charge, told reporters: "We do have suggestions that the individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology. But right now we can't say definitively."

The FBI said it was still trying to pin down whether the mass shooting was a hate crime against gays or a terrorist act.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to provide any assistance needed to Florida police investigating the shooting, the White House said in a statement.

The attacker was carrying an assault rifle and a handgun, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. He was also carrying an unidentified "device", Orlando Police Chief John Mina said earlier.

The suspect's father tells NBC NEWS his son was not motivated by religion but was "angry" when he saw two men kissing in Miami.

"We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music. And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry," Mir Saddique, told NBC News on Sunday. "They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, 'Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.' And then we were in the men's bathroom and men were kissing each other."

Source: City of Orlando-Your Government/Reuters/NBC

"He's coming. I'm going to die" Heartbreaking last text messages son sent to his mother during Orlando club massacre

A mother has recounted the last text messages she received from her terrified son after a gunman opened fire inside Pulse nightclub in Florida on Sunday. Mina Justice was outside the club trying to contact her 30-year-old son Eddie Justice, who texted her when the shooting happened and asked her to call police. He told her he ran into a bathroom with other club patrons to hide.

 

Screen captures from WFTV shows the messages between mother and son showed Eddie had sent Mina a text saying "I love you" before informing her there was a shooting taking place.

"Mommy I love you. In the club they shooting," the text reads.

"U ok," she responded before her son wrote back "trappp in bathroom."

His mother then asked which club he was in and asked him to call her.

"Call them momm. Now, I'm tell I'm bathroom. He's coming. I 'm gonna die," Eddie wrote

His mother responded: "They say stay them is anybody hurt. Which bathroom u in."

Mina Justice said she was going through hell as she stood outside the nightclub waiting to learn more information regarding the shooting.

She told WOFL her son Eddie told her he was being held hostage inside a women's bathroom and that he was going to die.

"I think it's all of them in the bathroom. I could hear a lot of people crying," she told the station as she recalled a phone conversation with her son.

The anxious mother of three said she did not know if her son was okay. At the moment, his condition is not known.

When asked how her son sounded, she said, "Bad, just afraid he's gonna die."

Mina also said at one point during her conversation with Eddie, she made him get off the phone with her and text instead while she asked him questions because he was fearful he was going to look at the shooter and get shot.

"He said, 'He has us and he's fixin to kill us. That was it'" the mother added.

The gun man who has been identified as Omar Matten shot dead at least 50 people and injured over 53 others in a crowded gay nightclub before being killed by police in what authorities described as a "domestic terrorism incident"

Source: WOFL/WFTV

First photos of some of the 50 people killed at a gay bar in Orlando Florida

These are the faces of some of the victims of the mass shooting at a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on early Sunday morning by an alleged Islamic terrorist Omar Saddiqui Mateen. Omar opened fire at the crowd of over 320 club goers killing 50 people and injuring 53 others after he called 911 and pledged allegiance to ISIS. So far, only seven of the fifty victims have been officially identified by the city of Orlando on its website. Their names are: 

Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34; Stanley Almodovar III, 23; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36; Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22; and Luis S. Vielma, 22.

Juan Ramon Guerrero on the left pictured with his bf also died at the club



Angel Mendez showed a cell phone photo of his brother Jean C. Mendez, who he is looking for outside the hospital

Source: LIB

Ex wife of suspected Orlando gay bar shooter Omar Mateen claims he used to beat her

The ex wife of suspected Orlando gay bar shooter Omar S. Mateen claims her he used to beat her when they were married.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sitora Yusifiy said Mateen was violent and emotionally unstable.
29-year-old Mateen died Sunday morning after he was killed by police for killing 50 people during an early morning assault rifle attack at a gay club, Pulse nightclub, in Orlando Florida.

“He was not a stable person,” the ex-wife told the Post. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”

She told Fox News  that few months after they were married, she saw that he was unstable and bipolar and that was when she started worrying about her safety. He didn't allow her speak to her family. She said:

"He prevented me from speaking to my family, he held me hostage, he was mentally unstable, he was mentally ill ad obviously disturbed". 

The ex wife said she married Mateen about eight years ago after meeting him online.
She said when they first met, “he seemed like a normal human being,”.

She added that after the beatings became the norm in the home, her family flew to Florida to help her flee from their Fort Pierce home.

The woman said she fled with none of her possessions. She said, in the wake of the attack on Sunday, that she feels lucky to be alive.


Source: LIB