Mateen, leaving him dead and an officer wounded, his life saved by a Kevlar helmet that deflected a bullet.įears of violence led to heightened security at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender events and gathering places around the country. Over a dozen police officers and sheriff’s deputies engaged in a shootout with Mr. Wolf that her son had been inside.Ī three-hour standoff followed the initial assault, with people inside effectively held hostage until around 5 a.m., when law enforcement officials led by a SWAT team raided the club, using an armored vehicle and explosives designed to disorient and distract. to news of the shooting, and learned from Mr. His mother, Christine, anxious because of health problems, had woken at 3 a.m. Guerrero outside, his body riddled with gunshot wounds.īut no one knew what had become of Mr.
A friend, Brandon Wolf, watched people carry Mr. Among them was Juan Ramon Guerrero, a 22-year-old man of Dominican descent who had gone to the club with his boyfriend, Christopher Leinonen, who goes by the name Drew, because they wanted to listen to salsa. He is a hairstylist, and everybody knows him.”Ī tally of victims whose relatives had been notified began slowly building on a city website by 6 p.m., it had six names. “I cannot understand why they can’t tell me anything because my brother is a very well-known person here in Orlando. “We are here suffering, knowing nothing,” said Baron Serrano, whose brother, Juan Rivera, 36, had been celebrating a friend’s birthday with his husband and was now unaccounted for. They were told that so many were gunned down that victims would be tagged as anonymous until the hospital was able to identify them. More than 12 hours after the attack, anguished relatives paced between Orlando Regional Medical Center and a nearby hotel as they waited for word. Hundreds of people gathered in the glare of flashing red lights on the fringes of the law enforcement cordon around the nightclub, and later at area hospitals, hoping desperately for some word on the fates of their relatives and friends.
The club posted a stark message on its Facebook page: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running.” Some people who were trapped inside hid where they could, calling 911 or posting messages to social media, pleading for help. The shooting began around 2 a.m., and some patrons thought at first that the booming reports they heard were firecrackers or part of the loud, thumping dance music. Pulse, which calls itself “Orlando’s Latin Hotspot,” was holding its weekly “Upscale Latin Saturdays” party. The shooter also mentioned the Boston Marathon bombing in the 911 phone call, CNN reported.Joel Figueroa and his friends “were dancing by the hip-hop area when I heard shots, bam, bam, bam,” he said, adding, “Everybody was screaming and running toward the front door.” According to a CNN broadcast, this phone call was the impetus of the FBI's initial suspicion that the attack was motivated by Islamist terror. NBC News reported that, according to sources, Mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, just moments before carrying out the shooting. "This had nothing to do with religion," Seddique added, claiming instead that his son was angered by the sight of two men kissing in downtown Miami. "We are in shock, like the whole country." We weren't aware of any action he is taking," Mir Seddique, Mateen's father, said in a phone interview with NBC News. "We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. Law enforcement officials reportedly later gave the same name to the Los Angeles Times. The nightclub shooter, who wielded "an assault-type rifle and a handgun" and "took hostages," died in a "gunfight with SWAT officers," the Associated Press reported.ĬBS News first reported that the nightclub gunman had been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen by police sources.