Later Monday evening, thousands gathered near the site for a vigil held on the lawn of the Dr. In Orlando, mourners piled bouquets around a makeshift memorial, and people broke down in tears and held their hands to their faces while passing through the growing collection of flowers, candles and signs about a mile from the site of the massacre. As it turned out, Mateen had no explosives with him.įive of the wounded were reported in grave condition, meaning the death toll could rise. "We knew there would be an imminent loss of life," Mina said. But the chief said he decided to send the SWAT team in and bash through a wall after Mateen holed up with hostages in a bathroom and began to talk about bombs and an explosive vest. More details of the bloodbath emerged, with Orlando Police Chief John Mina saying Mateen was "cool and calm" during phone calls with police negotiators. During the attack, he called 911 to profess allegiance to the Islamic State group.Īt the White House, President Barack Obama said there is no clear evidence so far that Mateen was directed by the group, calling the attack an apparent example of "homegrown extremism." Obama is traveling to Orlando on Thursday to pay his respects to the victims and stand in solidarity with the community, the White House said Monday evening. Wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at Pulse Orlando early Sunday in a three-hour shooting rampage and hostage siege that ended with a SWAT team killing him. Smith said he saw the killer inside at least a dozen times. "Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent," said Ty Smith. The Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations quoted regular customers at the gay bar as saying they had seen Mateen there a number of times. He said his son got angry recently about seeing two men kiss. As for whether there was anything the FBI should have done differently, "so far, the honest answer is, I don”t think so," Comey said.ĭespite Mateen”s pledge of fealty to the Islamic State, a murky combination of other possible motives and explanations emerged, with his ex-wife saying he suffered from mental illness and his Afghan-immigrant father suggesting he may have acted out of anti-gay hatred. The FBI chief defended the bureau”s handling of Mateen during two previous investigations into his apparent terrorist sympathies.
"We”re still working through that," Comey said.
But he said Mateen was clearly "radicalized," at least in part via the internet.Ĭomey said the bureau is also trying to determine whether Mateen had recently scouted Disney World as a potential target, as reported by, which cited an unidentified federal law enforcement source. "So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States, and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network," said FBI Director James Comey. (AP) - The gunman whose attack on a gay nightclub left 49 victims dead appears to have been a "homegrown extremist" who espoused support for a jumble of often-conflicting Islamic radical groups, the White House and the FBI said Monday.Īs Orlando mourned its dead with flowers, candles and vigils, counterterrorism investigators dug into the background of 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the American-born Muslim who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S.