Around 50 Killed, at Least 53 Injured in Shooting at Florida Nightclub

The shooter, who has been confirmed dead, ‘may have leanings’ toward Islamist ‘ideology,’ says FBI.

HAARETZ 5:45 pm

Omar Mateen, 30, of Port St-Lucie, dies in firefight with police; FBI says he may have had links to Islamic terror

A shooting at a gay nightclub early on Sunday in Orlando, Florida has left approximately 50 people dead and at least 53 wounded.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina originally said that authorities had not determined an exact number of people killed, but that “approximately 20” have died. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer later revised that number to “50 casualties.”

The death toll given by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and police to reporters made the attack the deadliest single shooting incident in U.S. history, eclipsing the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university, which left 32 dead.

The victims’ bodies, said the mayor, were still in the club as families were informed and the identification process began. The local hospital said surgeries were ongoing and that some of the wounded were in critical condition.

A CBS News reporter cited “two law enforcement sources” as identifying the shooter as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port Saint Lucie, Florida, south of Orlando. Mateen was reportedly born to Afghan parents in New York.

An FBI spokesman says the mass shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. He says authorities are looking into whether this was an act of domestic or international terror, and if Mateen, who has been confirmed dead, acted alone.

When asked if the FBI suspected that the gunman may have an extremist leanings, including a possible sympathy with Islamic State, Ronald Hopper, an assistant FBI agent in charge, said: “We do have suggestions that the individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology. But right now we can’t say definitively.”

Mina says the shooter was armed with an assault-type rifle, a handgun and some type of suspicious device.

The violence erupted at a Latin-themed party attended by over a hundred people at Pulse nightclub, that urged patrons in a post on its Facebook page to “get out” and “keep running.”

Under Pulse’s Facebook post, commentators wrote that a “shooter with an assault rifle” opened fire at around 2 A.M. local time, before barracading himself “inside Pulse with multiple hostages.”
“People on the dance floor and bar got down on the floor and some of us who were near the bar and back exit managed to go out through the outdoor area and just ran,” an eyewitness commented on Facebook.

U.S. President Barack Obama was updated on the developing situation in Florida, said the White House, and ordered the federal government to provide any assistance necessary to local law enforcement officials investigating the incident.

The Orlando Fire Department’s bomb squad and hazardous material team rushed to the scene of the attack. Videos posted on social media showed a large response by police and emergency vehicles outside the nightclub.

Orlando Police later tweeted that law enforcement carried out a controlled explosion at the scene.
The incident follows the fatal shooting late Friday of 22-year-old singer Christina Grimmie, who was killed after her concert in Orlando by a 27-year-old Florida man who later killed himself.

Grimmie was a YouTube sensation and former contestant on “The Voice.”

June 12, 2016 | 39 Comments »

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39 Comments / 39 Comments

  3. Orlando Killer Worked For Company Transporting Illegal Immigrants Inside US; Was Interviewed By FBI 3 Times

    was employed by the US subsidiary of G4S plc, a British multinational security services company, whose US-headquarters are located in Jupiter, Fla, and which also happens to be the world’s largest security company by revenue.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-12/orlando-shooter-worked-security-company-which-tranports-illegal-immigrants-deep-insi

  5. Orlando shooter visited Saudi Arabia in 2011, 2012 – Saudi interior ministry spokesman
    http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Orlando-shooter-visited-Saudi-Arabia-in-2011-2012-Saudi-interior-ministry-spokesman-456635

    I am becoming suspicious that the shooter might have been a MUSLIM terrorist… but I guess I better wait for obama, ryan, romney and hillary to give me the “real facts”:

    Orlando shooter visited Saudi Arabia in 2011, 2012 – Saudi interior ministry spokesman
    http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Clinton-US-must-protect-national-security-not-demonize-Muslims-456627

    Clinton more worried about demonizing muslims than protecting those being killed by muslims
    as usual Trump is again 100% correct:

    “We have to look at the mosques … and we have to look at the community,” he said. “And believe me, the community knows the people that have the potential to blow up.
    http://www.jpost.com/International/Trump-blames-Muslim-community-for-not-reporting-Orlando-shooter-456625

    Unlike all the administration and other candidates Trump has not had the benefit of gov info and intelligence…. and yet he quickly grasps that the incitement to terror begins in the Mosque and that they and the muslim community must be watched. DUH??????
    the rest are more concerned about muslims and PC… the broken gov once more had an intelligence failure due to the white house policy of protecting muslims.

  8. CuriousAmerican Said:

    He is enough of an egoist to take it

    The words egoism and egotism are frequently confused, as though interchangeable, but there are distinctions worth noting

    I beleive you meant egotist…..an egoist would unlikely spend their own money to run whereas an egotist might.

  16. honeybee Said:

    La Raza is Pro-Pals and anti-Semitic.

    to be expected as most such orgs support each other.
    Romney told us lies…. he knew that Trump was not being racist when he criticized the racist corrupt la raza judge who belonged to a racist, corrupt, mexican secessionist org… the judge should be in jail for not disclosing the material fact which definitely disqualifies him from judging the case… in fact it should disqualify him from being a judge at all… anyone belonging to la raza should not be admitted to the bar… they should apply instead to the bar in mexico… for a tequila.
    in summary: Romney is a low down dirty liar!!!!!!

  24. CuriousAmerican Said:

    Our media is casting this as a gun control, LBGT issue.

    Trump already clearly told us that the media is “sleazy and dishonest”…. its uncanny how he can be so right all the time with such an economy of words. the media and the establishment of both parties are pushing the Trump is racist line because he wants to ban these killers…. so who is the dangerous one? They know the muslims are doing it but they want to brainwash us otherwise, just like romney knew when he called trump a racist that the mexican racist corrupt judge was a member of la raza… a racist mexican secessionist org…. there is no doubt that a member of la raza not disclosing that fact as a judge, and recusing himself is corrupt…. then why is romney telling us his filthy lies? That is why trump, like me, does not beleive in mercy for the filth.

  25. There are millions of such soft targets in America and there is no way a determined jihadist or any other killer can be prevented but the politically correct and aversion to profiling mentality will lead to more such attacks many to be even more violent with greater totals. There will in the end be no choice other than to ban Islam and it’s adherents beyond the protections of law now accepted. Either them or us will be the choice. Only question is not if but when?

  27. CuriousAmerican Said:

    13 And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

    Only homos are banned not lezzis then Jewish law requires at least 2 witnesses and even in biblical times almost unheard of when homos were put to death….ergo keep socially deviant behavior out of the public square and do whatever you please behind closed doors….. You christians are so freaken literal, no class 🙂

  28. This was a win-win double header for the Jihadists. They got to kill Americans as well as homosexuals whom they hate as much as Americans. Of course Obama in his reply didn’t use the words radical islamist.Just another attack on Gays.

  30. Jewish Publication Society – Lev 20:13

    13 And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

    Of the three monotheistic faiths, only Christianity does not require a death penalty. Rather, it says …

    Homosexuals will be …

    … receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. Romans 1:27

    In other words: AIDS will be their reward. No need to kill ’em.

    However, Britain was executing homosexuals into the 19th century.

    To that end, obviously, only Islam still officially kills homosexuals.

    ISIS KILLING GAYS (GRUESOME)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7d1sTDNts

    Islam is gruesome, but this level of anti-gay hatred is embedded in general monotheism. Islam is distinctive in that it alone actually still carries it out officially.

    May the families of the victims find peace.

  31. (I had just posted the comment shown below, but elsewhere on Israpundit. Chances are that it just as poignant in this particular post.)

    Based on the terrible but predictable mass murder event at a crowded homosexual bar in Orlando Florida late last night, there is now a fourth party affecting the coming presidential election in this country. That party is ISIS, and its dreadful presence will help Trump win the November election as few other factors could accomplish.

    For a long time now, Trump has been warning of the need to block Moslems from entering the United States, at least until some specific and trustworthy means can be used to screen out Moslems who pose a risk against the national security of this country and its citizens.

    Many, many Americans will be taking Mr Trump’s warnings seriously. And insofar as I am aware, no other candidate has ever discussed what is obviously becoming the need for stringent border control measures.

    Arnold Harris, Outspeaker

  34. The sad part of the story is that the FBI knew about this guy immediately so he must have been on their terror list. Unfortunately thanks to our leftists friends our anti terror laws are so screwed up that a terrorist has to commit murder before he can be arrested even though he’s a member of a group intent on murder and violence.

  35. Senator Bill Nelson: Intelligence Committee Staff believe shooter has ties to ISIS

    ORLANDO, Fla. – Senator Bill Nelson spoke to the public at 11:50 a.m. and stated that Intelligence Committee Staff from the Counter Terrorism Center in DC, believe that there is some connection between ISIS and the shooter. However, Nelson said that the FBI has not confirmed this. The FBI has said that they believe there are ties to Islamic radicalism.

    http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/mass-shooting-at-orlando-nightclub-police-say-apprximately-20-dead-and-42-injured_/240714160

  36. The media is limiting this to a gun control issue and persecution of gays.

    Had he shot up a synagogue, it would have been obvious what his motives were.

    But shooting up a gay bar will invite comparison to the Yishai Schlissel case, though this Florida case is far, far worse.

    The Gay issue complicates this.

    Our media is casting this as a gun control, LBGT issue.

  37. Omar Mateen of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, came to the attention of federal authorities twice prior to being identified as the gunman in the Orlando nightclub mass shooting, a senior law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.
    Mateen killed 53 people and shot more than 100 in total at the Pulse gay nightclub early Sunday morning, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
    The senior law enforcement source reports that Mateen became a person of interest in 2013 and again in 2014. The Federal Bureau of Investigation at one point opened an investigation into Mateen but subsequently closed the case when it produced nothing that appeared to warrant further investigation.
    “He’s a known quantity,” the source said. “He’s been on the radar before.”

    from a comment on a blog.

  38. as usual, achmed did it. Trump cant stop being accurate… hopefully after banning the honor killer immigration they will have the sense to profile the ones already in the US. In europe the home grown honor killers are an existential threat. Right now, the “sleazy and dishonest” media talking heads are saying its home grown domestic terrorism in another effort to brainwash folks to the religion of peace….. Trump was accurate on the media too.

  39. Not good!

    I have relatives in the South.

    May God give peace to the victims and the families.

    Funny how these things spring up right after some court issues a ruling on gun control as the San Diego Court did recently.

    It was also a gay bar.

    There is also a gay issue to this.