He was also licensed to be a security officer, working most recently for the global security company G4S, where he'd been employed since 2007.įBI Director James Comey said Mateen had been investigated in 2013 and again in 2014.
Police used explosives to try to breach the exterior cinder block wall of a bathroom where a dozen or so people were hiding, near another bathroom where Mateen had holed up with several hostages.Īccording to public records, Mateen had possessed a valid firearm license since September 2011. approached, those inside had been trapped for nearly three hours, some wounded and bleeding, calling police from their cellphones and pleading for help. As clubgoers were being rescued, they told police the shooter had threatened to put bomb vests on four people within 15 minutes.Īs 5 a.m. (Right) Law enforcement personnel respond.Īt 3:58 a.m., the Orlando Police Department's Twitter account warned residents to stay away from the area.Īt 4:21 a.m., police cleared a way for some people trapped inside the club to escape by dislodging an air conditioning unit from a Pulse dressing room window. (Left) Bystanders wait down the street from Pulse. (Top) Orlando police officers direct family members away from the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on the night of the attack. Mateen is also believed to have spent time online during his siege of the club, checking Facebook and searching for "Pulse Orlando" and "shooting." He called a friend. Searches inside and outside the club failed to turn up these items, investigators said. Mateen identified himself as "an Islamic soldier," according to the FBI, and threatened to detonate explosives, including a car bomb and a suicide vest - the kind "used in France," he said, referring to the terrorist attacks in Paris last November. He had a second conversation with them at 3:03 a.m. "My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State."Īt 2:48 a.m., the gunman - whose name was Omar Mir Seddique Mateen - spoke with crisis negotiators from the Orlando police. "I wanna let you know, I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings," the gunman told the operator during this 50-second call, according to a transcript released by the FBI. In Songs, Stories, Latino And LGBT Voices On How The Orlando Attack Feels Personal