Gunman Omar Mir, kills 50, injured 59 at Florida gay club in worst U.S. mass shooting, pledge allegiance to ISIS
The
gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Florida, was interviewed by the
FBI in 2013 and 2014 but was not found to be a threat, the FBI said.
Mateen called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and
mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers, according to a U.S. official.
Orlando police shot and killed Mateen.
Mateen's ex-wife said she thinks he was mentally ill.
Mateen
carried an assault rifle and a pistol into the packed Pulse club about 2
a.m. Sunday and started shooting, killing 50 people and wounding at
least 59,
After
a standoff of about three hours, while people trapped inside the club
desperately called and messaged friends and relatives, police crashed
into the building with an armored vehicle and stun grenades and killed Mateen.
"It
appears he was organized and well-prepared," Orlando Police Chief John
Mina said early Sunday. Authorities said they haven't found any
accomplices.
Obama Respond to the killing as an 'An act of hate'
There
has been no claim of responsibility for the attack on jihadi forums,
but ISIS sympathizers have reacted by praising the attack on pro-Islamic
State forums.
"We know enough to
say this was an act of terror and act of hate," President Obama said in
an address to the nation from the White House.
While
the violence could have hit any American community, "This is an
especially heartbreaking day for our friends who are lesbian, gay,
bisexual or transgender," he said.
Omar
Mir Seddique Mateen was born in 1986 in New York. Most recently he
lived in Fort Pierce, about 120 miles southeast of Orlando. Fearing
explosives, police evacuated about 200 people from the apartment complex
where he lived while they looked through his residence for evidence.
Mateen's
parents, who are from Afghanistan, said he'd expressed outrage after
seeing two men kiss in Miami, but they didn't consider him particularly
religious and didn't know of any connection he had to ISIS.
He
was married in 2009 to a woman originally from Uzbekistan, according to
the marriage license, but he filed documents to end the marriage in
2011.
Sitora Yusufiy, interviewed
by CNN in Boulder, Colorado, said she and Mateen were together about
four months, though it took a long time to complete the divorce because
they lived in different parts of the country after separating.
Mateen
was a normal husband at the beginning of their marriage but started
abusing her after a few months, she said. She said Mateen was bipolar,
although he was not formally diagnosed. She also said Mateen had a
history with steroids. He was religious but she said she doesn't think
his religion played in to the attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment