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She also described Mateen as “emotionally unstable”, “mentally ill” and bipolar.ĭeborah Sherman, an FBI spokeswoman in Denver, confirmed that federal agents had interviewed Yusufiy in Colorado. “I know he had a history of steroids,” Yusufiy told reporters outside a home where she was staying with a man she identified as her current fiance. She said she had been beaten and otherwise physically abused by Mateen during outbursts of temper in which he would "express hatred towards everything".Įventually, she was “rescued” from Mateen by family members who intervened in a stormy marriage that ultimately ended in divorce, she said. Near Boulder, Colorado, Mateen's former wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told reporters he worked for a time as a correctional officer at a detention centre for juvenile delinquents in Fort Pierce, Florida, and had once sought admission to a police academy. Hopper said Mateen was questioned in 2014 about his contacts with Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, a US citizen who also had lived in Florida and became a suicide bomber in Syria that year. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, second from right, and Orlando Police Chief John Mina arrive to a news conference after a fatal shooting at Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando. Officials in Orlando, a city of 270,000 people and home to tourist attractions including the Disney World resort, were visibly shocked at the high death toll, which they had initially put at 20. It was unclear when the victims were killed. The Florida shooting evolved into a hostage situation, which a team of SWAT officers ended around dawn when they used armoured cars to storm the club before killing the gunman. That couple died in a shootout with police hours after their attack on a holiday party attended by the husband's co-workers. The attack came six months after a married couple in California - a US-born son of Pakistani immigrants and a Pakistani-born woman he married in Saudi Arabia, fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino in an attack inspired by IS. The shooting was nearly certain to reignite emotional debates over American gun laws and homeland security in what is shaping up to be a vitriolic US presidential campaign between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
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He also had an unidentified “device”, said Orlando Police Chief John Mina. The attacker was carrying an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. “This guy appears to have been pretty screwed up without any help from anybody.” “So far as we know at this time, his first direct contact was a pledge of bayat (loyalty) he made during the massacre,” said a US counterterrorism official. US officials cautioned, however, they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with any foreign extremist group.
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“As Americans, we are united in grief, in outrage and in resolve to defend our people.” “We know enough to say this was an act of terror, an act of hate,” Obama said in a speech from the White House. It ranked as the deadliest single US mass shooting incident, eclipsing the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech University in 2007. Trying to save a guy's life.”įifty-three people were wounded in the rampage. “Words cannot and will not describe the feeling of that,” Joshua McGill said in a posting on Facebook. Clubgoers described scenes of terror and pandemonium, with one man who escaped saying he hid under a car and bandaged a wounded stranger with his shirt.įriends and family grieve after a list of hospitalised victims was released, implying the death of those who weren't on the list and hadn't been heard from in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. Shots rang out at the crowded Pulse nightclub in the heart of Orlando, one of the most popular US tourist destinations, as some 350 patrons were attending a Latin music event in conjunction with gay pride week celebrations. Law enforcement officials were probing evidence suggesting the attack was inspired by IS militants, although they said there was no proof that Mateen had worked directly with the group.Īs the shooting rampage was unfolding, Mateen “made calls to 911 this morning in which he stated his allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State”, said Ronald Hopper, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge on the case. He also worked as an armed guard for the security firm G4S, the world's largest, according to the company. Mateen's former wife described him as emotionally and mentally disturbed with a violent temper, yet who aspired to be a police officer. Mourners observe a moment of silence during a vigil for victims of a fatal shooting at an Orlando nightclub, Sunday, June 12, 2016, in Atlanta.