50 People Reported Killed in Attack on Orlando Gay Club (UPDATE: Shooter Declared Allegiance to ISIS in 911 call)
Latest numbers have 50 dead.
News reports have between 20 to 50 killed in an attack on Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The most recent numbers have 50 dead, but as is typical, it will be some time before we know the reality of what happened, why, and how.
Here's the latest from The Daily Beast:
Some 50 people are dead and 53 are injured after a gunman attacked a gay club in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since Sandy Hook.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said the gunman was carrying an assault rifle, handgun, and what police called a "device." The gunman was killed by SWAT around 6 a.m. (one officer sustained an injury that is not life threatening). The gunman has not been publicaly identified, but two officials told CBS News he is Omar Mateen of Port Saint Lucie, Florida. An FBI agent told the press the mass murder is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
"This is an incident, as I see it, that we certainly classify as domestic terror incident," said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings in an earlier press conference.
Read more here.
UPDATE: The father of the shooter has apologized for what has happened and said he witnessed his son previously get angry when he saw two men kissing in a restaurant in Miami.
UDPATE: FBI sources say that Mateen had been investigated before, and CNN is reporting that he may have "pledged allegiance" to the Islamic State.
UPDATE: Mateen's ex-wife spoke to the Washington Post and said he used to beat her. They were married in 2009 and divorced in 2011. She says he didn't seem to have fallen under the sway of radical Islam at the time.
UPDATE: June is gay pride month and gay pride events are happening this weekend in West Hollywood. Police there this morning arrested a man with weapons and ammunition in his car, as well as an ingredient used to make pipe bombs. Read more here.
UDPATE: Sources are telling the media that Mateen called 911 right before the attack to declare allegiance to ISIS.
UPDATE: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, though that doesn't mean the terrorist group actually coordinated it.
UPDATE: The City of Orlando has started identifying victims.
