Pulse nightclub shooting
On, 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 58 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. Pulse was hosting a "Latin Night", and most of the victims were of Latino descent.
In a 911 call made shortly after the shooting began, Mateen swore allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said the U.S. killing of Abu Waheeb in Iraq the previous month "triggered" the shooting. He later told a negotiator he was "out here right now" because of the American-led interventions in Iraq and in Syria and that the negotiator should tell the United States to stop the bombing. The incident was deemed a terrorist attack by FBI investigators.
Orlando Police officers fatally shot Mateen after a three-hour standoff. The shooting was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks, and the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Shooting
First shots and hostage situation
On, 2016, Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was hosting "Latin Night", a weekly Saturday night event drawing a primarily Latino crowd. RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant and drag queen Kenya Michaels is recorded to have been performing right as the shooting began. About 320 people were still inside the club, which was serving last call drinks at around on. At around the same time, Omar Mateen arrived at the club via rental van, parking it in the parking lot of a neighboring car shop. He got out and walked toward the building armed with a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol. He was wearing a green, blue, and white plaid dress shirt, a white T-shirt underneath, and tan cargo pants. At, Mateen bypassed Officer Adam Gruler, a uniformed off-duty Orlando Police Department officer working extra duty as a security guard, entered the building through its southern entrance, and began shooting patrons. Dozens were killed or severely injured inside the crowded nightclub, either directly or by ricochets.Gruler took cover and called in a signal for assistance. He told a post-incident Police Foundation assessment team that he had immediately recognized that his handgun would be severely disadvantaged against the rifle Mateen was using. When he witnessed Mateen shooting two patrons attempting to escape through an emergency exit, Gruler fired shots at him. In response, Mateen withdrew back into the nightclub and continued shooting victims as he traversed through the building, sometimes firing into bodies without checking whether they were already dead. When additional officers arrived at the nightclub beginning at 2:04 a.m., Gruler shouted "'s in the patio!" and resumed firing at Mateen a minute later. Two officers joined Gruler in engaging Mateen, who then retreated farther into the nightclub and "began a 'hostage situation'" in one of the bathrooms. In less than five minutes, Mateen had fired approximately 200 rounds, pausing only to reload.
During the shooting, some of the people trapped inside the club sought help by calling or sending text messages to friends and relatives. Initially, some of them thought the gunshots were firecrackers or part of the music. Imran Yousuf, a recently discharged Marine Corps veteran working as a nightclub bouncer, immediately recognized the sounds as gunfire, which he described as "high caliber." Yousuf then noticed a locked back door near where a group of people were hiding, all too paralyzed by fear to move to open it. He then ran to and unlatched door behind them, allowing approximately 70 people to escape unharmed. Many described a scene of panic and confusion caused by the loud music and darkness. One person shielded herself by hiding inside a bathroom and covering herself with bodies. A bartender said she took cover beneath the glass bar. At least one patron tried to help those who were hit. According to a man trapped inside a bathroom with fifteen other patrons, Mateen fired sixteen times into the bathroom, through the closed door, killing at least two and wounding several others.
According to one of the hostages, Mateen entered a bathroom in the nightclub's northwest side and opened fire on the people hiding there, wounding several. The hostage, who had taken cover inside a stall with others, was injured by two bullets and struck with flying pieces of a wall hit by stray bullets. Shortly after entering the women's restroom, Mateen's rifle jammed. He then discarded the rifle and switched to his Glock 17 pistol. Two survivors quoted Mateen as saying, "I don't have a problem with black people," and that he "wouldn't stop his assault until America stopped bombing his country." Other survivors heard Mateen claim he had explosives as well as snipers stationed around the club.
Patrons trapped inside called or texted 911 to warn of the possible presence of explosives.
Emergency response
Over the next 45 minutes, about 100 officers from the OPD and the Orange County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to the scene. Among the earliest first responders to arrive were a firefighter crew from and two supporting firefighter paramedics from. Eighty fire and emergency medical services personnel from the Orlando Fire Department were deployed during the entire incident.At, several minutes after the gunfire began, the club posted on its Facebook page, "Everyone get out of pulse and keep running." At, Mateen placed a 911 call, during which he mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers—Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev—as his "homeboys" and made a reference to Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an American citizen who died in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2014. Mateen said he was inspired by Abu Salha's death for the Al-Nusra Front targeting Syrian government troops, and swore allegiance to ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. The FBI said that Mateen and Abu Salha had attended the same mosque and knew each other "casually." Mateen made two other 911 calls during the shooting. Numerous 911 calls were made by the patrons inside the nightclub around this time.
After the initial rounds of gunfire between Mateen and Gruler, six officers shot out a large glass window and followed the sound of shooting to the bathroom area. When Mateen stuck his head out from one of the bathrooms, at least two officers shot at him. After the gunfire stopped, they were ordered to hold position instead of storming the bathroom, according to one of the officers. After about 15 to 20 minutes, SWAT arrived and had the officers withdraw as the officers were "not really in tactical gear." SWAT then took over the operation. When asked why the officers did not proceed to the bathroom and engage Mateen, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said it was because Mateen "went from an active shooter to a barricaded gunman" and had hostages. He also noted, "If he had continued shooting, our officers would have went in there." At that time, the last shot by Mateen was fired between and
Rescues of people trapped inside the nightclub commenced and continued throughout the night. Because so many people were lying on the dance floor, one rescuing officer demanded, "If you're alive, raise your hand." By, police had managed to extract nearly all of the injured from the nightclub. Those who remained included the hostages held by Mateen in the bathroom, as well as a dozen people who were hiding inside dressing rooms.
Phone calls and negotiations
At, Mateen called News 13 of Orlando and said, "I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter." He then said he was carrying out the shooting on the behalf of ISIS and began speaking rapidly in Arabic. Mateen also said the shooting was "triggered" by a U.S.-led bombing strike in Iraq that killed Abu Waheeb, an IS military commander, on.When speaking to the negotiator he first told them that he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and then said:
"you have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people. What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there?"
In response to their earlier questions he repeatedly demanded that the U.S. stop the bombings in Iraq and Syria, "...You have to tell the U.S. government to stop bombing. They are killing too many children, they are killing too many women, okay?" His anger was directed at Russia as well as the United States.
When the negotiator asked about the immediate situation in Orlando, "Tell me what's going on right now, Omar?" Mateen again redirected the conversation to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, "Yo, the air strike that killed Abu Wahid a few weeks ago... That's what triggered it, okay?"
Multiple reports named Abu Waheeb – usually named as "Abu Wahid" – and described him as an ISIS leader, formerly belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq.
Abu Wahid was killed in airstrike on a vehicle on 6 May 2016 in Rutba, the strike also killed 3 other people, whom the pentagon claimed were also "ISIL jihadists".
Only transcripts were released, the audio was withheld.
The U.S. Department of Justice initially released partial transcripts that omitted some details, they claimed that this was because they wanted to avoid providing a public platform for "hateful propaganda".
The press release did not specify that the entities that the propaganda message was directed against were the U.S. Air Force and Russian Air Force.
Earlier versions specifically omitted the name of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said "" in place of the Basmala: "In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent", but these were included in a later update.
A crisis negotiator was present as Mateen was held up inside and holding hostages. Officers initially believed he was armed with a "suspicious device" that posed a threat, but it was later revealed to be a battery that fell out of an exit sign or smoke detector.
Police hostage negotiators spoke with Mateen by telephone three times between and He claimed during one of the calls that he had bombs strapped to his body. He also claimed that he "had a vehicle in the parking lot with enough explosives to take out city blocks." At, the OPD publicly announced the shooting and confirmed multiple injuries. At, eight of the hostages escaped after police had removed an air conditioning unit from an exterior wall. At approximately, Mateen told negotiators that he planned to strap explosive vests, similar to those used in the November 2015 Paris attacks, to four hostages, strategically place them in different corners of the building, and detonate them in 15 minutes. OPD officers then decided to end negotiations and prepared to blow their way in.
At around, Mateen's wife—after receiving a call from her mother at approximately asking where her husband was—sent a text message to Mateen asking where he was. Mateen texted back asking her if she had seen the news. After she replied, "No?," Mateen responded, "I love you, babe." According to one source, she texted him back at one point saying that she loved him. She also called him several times during the standoff, but he did not answer. She found out about what was happening at after the police told her to come out of her house with her hands up.
A survivor of the shooting recalled Mateen saying he wanted the United States to "stop bombing his country." The FBI said Mateen "told a negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that was why he was 'out here right now. During the siege, Mateen made Internet searches on the shooting, while police dispatched a tactical robot to discreetly enter the restroom and allow them to communicate with hostages via two-way audio.