A gunman has killed 50 people and injured 53 others at a crowded nightclub in Orlando. Here’s how the attack unfolded.
The gunman, who police drove a van to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando about 2am local time.
He entered the club at 2:02am, Orlando police chief John Mina said.
The gay nightclub was crowded with about 350 people attending a Latin music night.
Police said the suspect was armed with an AR-15-type assault rifle and a handgun.
A police officer who was working “extra duties” at the club responded and exchanged fire with the suspect.
At some point, the gunman went outside the club and then returned inside. Details on the exact sequence of events remain unclear.
About 3am, the club posted a warning on Facebook: “Everyone get out of Pulse and keep running.”
Chief Mina said a hostage situation then developed, and police built up their presence around the club.
At 5am authorities decided to raid the building to rescue those still inside.
A SWAT team of nine officers stormed the venue, using explosives and breaking through a wall with a wheeled armoured vehicle known as a BearCat.
Mateen was shot and killed. One officer was shot in the head but his Kevlar helmet saved him from serious injury.
Chief Mina said about 30 people were rescued during the operation.
It was unclear whether all the victims were killed by the gunman or if some died in the ensuing shootout.
Clubber Ricardo Negron, who was inside when the shooting began, described how the gunman sprayed the club with bullets.
“People just dropped on the floor. I guess the shooter was shooting at the ceiling because you could see all the glass from the lamps falling,” he told Sky News.
Witness Christopher Hansen said there was “blood everywhere”. [ Read more eyewitness accounts of the Orlando shooting ]
Officials said the gunman, Omar Mateen, had called 911 before the shooting and made comments saying he supported the Islamic State militant group.
US officials cautioned, however, that they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with Islamic State or any other foreign extremist group.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Feature image via Getty.
Top Comments
For everyone still harping on about Islam being a violent religion, take a look at the Crusades: Christianity is hardly innocent itself. Yes, the Crusades may have been hundreds of years ago, but Christianity still caused wars. No religion is innocent of wrongdoing, but not all followers of religion are murderous and violent. Your average Muslim standing next to you in the supermarket line isn't planning on shooting you.
We can't know yet..It looks like he was at least ISIS "inspired" but that is different from ISIS"controlled". So called"lone wolves" are the hardest to prevent. At this point, we don't yet know how he got his weapons so we can't know if the USA's lax gun control laws had anything to do with it or not.
So what if he was ISIS inspired or ISIS controlled. Do you think the Neo Nazis are getting orders from beyond the grave from Hitler? Um no! But they are still Nazis. It really irks me this pedantic difference because it's the same rubbish that was spouted about the Lindt cafe terrorist, though apparently we aren't supposed to call him a terrorist because the head of ISIS didn't get on a plane and personally annoint him first.
The real agenda behind this not labelling terrorism terrorism is so that Islamic apologists can say oh but it wasn't personally approved by the ISIS CEO so it's not really got anything to do with terrorism then, so if it's not got anything to do with terrorism what is it then? Oh that's right the other commanality is it's done in the name of Islam, but we aren't allowed to blame Islam either.
So even though someone can say they are doing this in the name of islam and ISIS we aren't allowed to take their word for it.
He armed himself with a handgun and a rifle, went into a gay nightclub and began shooting. He called 9/11 in the middle of it and said he was devoted to ISIS.
WTF don't we know?
The weapon in the hand isn't the issue, it's the ideology in the head. New York was box cutters, Boston was explosives, it's the ideology that's the consistent factor.
It's been reported in a couple of sources I've read that he legally bought his AF15 in the last week - also that these weapons are legal in Florida and there is no limit on ammunition.
You listed three events that used other methods yet left out the hundreds each year that used guns?