Omar Mateen

Case record: Omar Mateen

Background

Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was an American mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, before he was killed in a shootout with local police.

Before the shooting, the FBI investigated him for connections to terrorism in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database and subsequently removed.

In a call to 9-1-1 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as “Mujahideen”, “Islamic Soldier”, and “Soldier of God”; he pledged allegiance multiple times to the Sunni militant jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He said the shooting was “triggered” by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Wahib, an ISIL commander, weeks before.

Mateen was born Omar Mir Seddique on November 16, 1986, in New Hyde Park, New York, to Afghan parents. His father, Mir Seddique Mateen, was a Pashtun who emigrated from Afghanistan in the 1980s. After being raised in New York for a few years, he moved with his family to Port St. Lucie, Florida, in 1991. His family was described as being moderate Muslims and “an all-American family”.

Behavior in school

A third grade teacher wrote that Mateen was “very active ... constantly moving, verbally abusive, rude, aggressive ... much talk about violence & sex ... hands all over the place – on other children, in his mouth”.

In the seventh grade, Mateen was moved to a separate class to avoid “conflicts with other students” and suffered from poor scholarly performance due to “many instances of behavioral problems”.

A classmate said Mateen was a bully, disrespectful to girls, and acted like he was better than classmates. Another classmate reported he was bullied because of his weight and his Afghan heritage. Mateen’s parents were described as “dismissive” of his poor behavior while his father “had a reputation for being disrespectful of female teachers and dismissive of complaints about his son”.

In 1999, while Mateen was in the eighth grade, his teacher sent a letter to his father regarding an “attitude and inability to show self-control”.

Mateen began secondary education at Martin County High School in 2000. At age 14, he was expelled after being in a fight in math class, where he was briefly arrested without being handcuffed and charged with battery and disrupting school; the charges were later dropped.

While a sophomore attending Spectrum, an alternative high school, classmates told The Washington Post that Mateen cheered in support of the hijackers during the September 11 attacks and stated that Osama bin Laden was his uncle who taught him how to shoot AK-47s. After his outburst, Mateen’s father arrived at the school to pick him up and slapped him in the face; Mateen was later suspended for five days after the incident.

Soon after the September 11 attacks, he reportedly “shocked other students on his school bus by imitating an exploding plane”. A retired dean of Martin County High School, Dan Alley, said “we tried to counsel him and show him the error of his ways, but it never had the effect that we were hoping for,” and that his father “would not back up the school, and he would always take his son's side”.

Mateen was later sent to St. Lucie West Centennial High School after getting into a fight with a student. By the time he returned and graduated from Martin County’s Stuart Adult Vocational School in 2003, he had been suspended for 48 days for being involved in fights and injuring other students.

Post-secondary education and employment

Mateen attended Indian River State College’s Criminal Justice Training program. In a questionnaire, he admitted to committing or being involved in a crime that went undetected, but did not provide specific details, and later earned an associate of science degree in criminal justice technology from the college in 2006.

He worked in local stores and restaurants while attending school.

In October 2006, Mateen began working as a recruit for the Florida Department of Corrections, assigned to the Martin Correctional Institution. In a letter explaining his juvenile record as part of his successful application, he explained the incident of when he was arrested at school at age 14 and wrote that he had experimented with marijuana as a young teenager.

After the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007, Mateen suggested in a corrections officer training class that he would bring a gun to class. P.H. Skipper, who was the warden at the institution, wrote that “in light of the tragic events at Virginia Tech officer Mateen's inquiry about bringing a weapon to class is at best extremely disturbing”.

Days later on April 27, 2007, Mateen “was involuntarily dismissed” from the program and never became a certified corrections officer.

Mateen worked for British-based security firm G4S Secure Solutions in Jupiter, Florida, from September 2007 until his death. The company said two screenings—one upon hiring and the other in 2013—raised no red flags.

G4S removed Mateen from a job post at a courthouse because of threats he made towards coworkers, including a threat where he claimed he would have al-Qaeda kill a deputy’s family. Mateen claimed his coworkers and courthouse deputies were making racist comments towards him. Despite this, G4S “kept Mateen as an employee” but moved him “to a kiosk at a gated community in Palm Beach County”. The community or its property management company was not informed about why he was transferred there.

Mateen held an active concealed carry permit and an armed security guard license. He passed a multiple choice psychological test and Dr. Syed Shafeeq Rahman gave him medical clearance. It was noted that Mateen had no adult criminal record. Licensing records described him as a proficient shooter who scored at or above the 98th percentile with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

In 2010, he was videotaped while working security for a site related to the BP oil spill. He said, “Nobody gives a shit here. Everybody's just, get out to get paid. They're like hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain so they'll have jobs. They want more disaster to happen.” Video of his comments was included in a 2012 documentary, The Big Fix.

After the shooting, a psychologist who was said to have evaluated and cleared Mateen for his firearms license in 2007 denied ever meeting him or having lived in Florida at the time, and said she stopped her practice in Florida in January 2006. G4S admitted Mateen’s form had a “clerical error” and clarified that he had instead been cleared by Rahman, who was from the same firm that bought the wrongly-named doctor’s practice. Rahman had not interviewed Mateen, but evaluated results of a standard test used in the screening before being hired.

Personal life

In 2006, Mateen filed a petition for a name change, adding Mateen as his surname to match that of his parents.

In April 2009, Mateen married his first wife, an Uzbekistan-born woman he met in 2008 through Myspace. They separated after four months and divorced in July 2011.

Mateen visited Saudi Arabia for an eight-day trip in 2011 and a ten-day trip in 2012. The latter was organized by the Islamic Center at New York University and included twelve New York City police officers and groups from Columbia and Yale, and visited Mecca and Medina. He later visited the United Arab Emirates around these times.

FBI Director James Comey said Saudi officials helped investigate Mateen’s trips. In June 2016, the House Intelligence Committee said investigators “are searching for details about the Saudi Arabia trips”.

Mateen met his second wife, Noor Salman, on an online dating site in 2011 and the two married shortly afterward. Salman moved into Mateen’s Fort Pierce home in November 2012. She grew up in Rodeo, California, the daughter of Muslim Palestinian Arab immigrants. By September 2013, they lived in a house in Port St. Lucie with Mateen’s father and another relative. She reportedly left Mateen and joined relatives in Rodeo, California, by December 2015.

At the time of his death, Mateen had a three-year-old son with his second wife. At the time of the shooting, he lived about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Orlando, in Fort Pierce, and received mail at his parents’ home in Port St. Lucie.

Characterization and related claims

Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique Mateen, hosted a TV show called Durand Jirga Show on satellite television network Payam-e-Afghan in 2015 and represented himself as a candidate for the President of Afghanistan. He said of his son’s actions, “This had nothing to do religion.”

He was quoted as saying he saw his son get angry after witnessing a gay couple kiss in front of his family at the Bayside Marketplace in Miami months before the attack, suggesting it might have been a motivating factor.

After the nightclub attack, Mateen’s ex-wife told media outlets that during their marriage, Mateen was mentally unstable, would beat her, and kept her completely separated from her family. She also said he was bipolar and had a history of using steroids. Mateen’s second wife said Mateen became physically and verbally abusive towards her six months into their marriage, noting he was kinder in the last weeks of his life.

A former high school student told The Washington Post he witnessed 15-year-old Mateen being physically assaulted by his father, Mir Seddique Mateen, in front of other students on the day of the September 11 attacks.

Imam Shafiq Rahman at the Fort Pierce Islamic Center told reporters that Mateen would come to the mosque “three or four times a week” with his father and his three-year-old son as recently as two days before the shooting. Rahman said, “He was the most quiet guy. He would come and pray and leave. There was no indication at all of violence.” Rahman added he did not preach violence toward homosexuals.

A former coworker described Mateen as “unhinged and unstable” and said he frequently made homophobic, racist, and sexist comments and talked about killing people. The coworker stated he complained to G4S about Mateen “several times”; another coworker said Mateen made people wait at the gate for reasons including “if it was time for him to do his prayers.”

A resident who lived at the community since 2011 described Mateen as “very polite” and “a very nice, positive person”, while another customer said Mateen “acted like a straight-up predator.”

Sexual orientation claims and investigations

People speculated whether Mateen might have been gay or bisexual. A male friend from 2006 said Mateen went to gay clubs with him and once expressed an interest in dating him. Club-goers recalled Mateen dancing with another man. An unspecified classmate reported Mateen asked if the classmate was gay.

The FBI investigated claims and did not find reasonable evidence to establish he was gay. The Orlando Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post reported at least five regular customers of Pulse saw him visit on at least a dozen occasions.

One witness recognized Mateen outside the club an hour before the shootings and said Mateen had been messaging him for about a year using a gay dating app called Jack’d and gave his phone to the FBI for analysis along with login details.

Another witness said Mateen had tried to pick up men at the nightclub. Dozens of other witnesses told The Tampa Bay Times they had never seen Mateen at the nightclub. A spokesperson for Barbara Poma, owner of the Pulse nightclub, called the statement that Mateen was a regular patron “untrue and totally ridiculous”.

Mateen’s father Seddique denied his son was closeted and said, “If he was gay, why would he do something like this?” Two days later, he said, “I didn't see any of it and I don't believe that was the case.” Mateen’s ex-wife later claimed his father called him gay while she was present.

After the shooting, Mateen’s father stated in an online video in Dari: “In this month of Ramadan, the gay and lesbian issue is something that God will punish”, though “the servants of God shouldn't have anything to do with it.” The Wall Street Journal reported Mateen’s ex-wife saying “[he] did feel strongly about homosexuality”. When asked if Mateen was gay, she said she “didn't know” and recalled he confessed to going to nightclubs.

Gawker reported Mateen’s ex-wife’s fiancé, Marco Dias, told Brazilian media in Portuguese that she told him Mateen had “gay tendencies”. He added that family and others believed he was gay and that “the FBI asked her not to tell this to the American media”.

Investigators said they found no evidence supporting claims of homosexual relationships or app use. The FBI concluded it had found no evidence “to support claims” that Mateen had gay lovers or communicated on gay dating apps, and it said it found no evidence of homosexuality through “(Mateen's) web searches, emails or other electronic data”.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said: “I do not want to definitively rule out any particular motivation here.” She later added: “It's entirely possible that he had a singular motive. It's entirely possible that he had a dual motive.”

Alleged links to terrorist groups and related investigation

The FBI investigated Mateen in May 2013 after he made “inflammatory” remarks while working as a security guard. Mateen told coworkers his family was linked to al-Qaeda and that he had joined Hezbollah. He pledged allegiance to ISIL during his 2016 shooting. FBI Director James Comey commented on contradictions in Mateen’s statements.

The FBI interviewed Mateen twice after opening an investigation. In these interviews, Mateen admitted to making the statements but “explained that he said them in anger because his co-workers were teasing him.” After 10 months, the investigation was closed and Mateen was determined not to be a threat. He had been placed on a terrorist watch list while the investigation was under way, but he was removed afterward.

Mateen came to the FBI’s attention again in July 2014 when he was linked to Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, who traveled to Syria and committed a suicide bombing in late May 2014. Law-enforcement officials said the investigation focused on Abu Salha rather than Mateen.

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff said that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIL, while analysts said it was “anyone's guess” as to how involved Mateen was with al-Qaeda or ISIL. Mateen also pledged support for a suicide bomber who claimed to represent the al-Nusra Front.

After Mateen’s attack, the FBI determined his computer had been used to watch extremist videos, including beheadings, and “to seek information on Islamic State.” A survivor said Mateen talked about wanting the United States to “stop bombing my country” and confirmed he pledged allegiance to ISIL.

“stop bombing my country”

The Orlando nightclub shooting: role and events

Timeline

• June 12, 2016 — Mateen entered Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida and began shooting at approximately 2:00 a.m.
• June 12, 2016 — Mateen made a 9-1-1 call at 2:22 a.m. pledging allegiance to ISIL and referencing Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and mentioning Moner Mohammad Abu Salha.
• June 12, 2016 — Police shot and killed Mateen at approximately 5:00 a.m.
• June 12, 2016 — The Orlando police posted on Twitter, “Pulse Shooting: The shooter inside the club is dead.” at 5:53 a.m.

Before the shooting

Two months before the attack, Mateen transferred his share of a Port St. Lucie home for only $10 to his sister and brother-in-law.

He legally purchased a Sauer SIG MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 handgun, later used in the shooting, from a gun shop in Port St. Lucie two weeks before the shooting.

He attempted to purchase body armor and was unable to do so because the store did not sell the product he sought. He later attempted to purchase body armor and 1,000 rounds of bulk ammunition at another gun shop, but staff became suspicious and turned him away. A salesperson said the FBI was contacted, but federal officials said they had no record and the local sheriff’s office said it was unaware of the incident.

Officials briefed on the investigation stated Mateen went to an unspecified Walt Disney World theme park with his wife and visited Disney Springs and Pulse between June 1 and 6 during the Gay Days 2016 celebrations. NBC News reported Mateen’s second wife told the FBI she drove him once to Pulse because he wanted to scope it out. An investigation official said authorities believed she knew about the plot beforehand but were reluctant to charge her based on suspicion. She accompanied him on a trip to buy ammunition and warned him the evening before the event against anything he might be planning. An imam for a mosque in Kissimmee said Mateen prayed there with his wife and child during the week preceding the shooting and released video footage showing what appeared to be Mateen on June 8 praying for about ten minutes.

Hours before the attack, Mateen stopped by his parents’ home to visit his father, who said he did not notice anything strange.

That same day, he gave his second wife $1,000 and allowed her to visit her mother in California.

ABC News and Fox News reported that on the early morning of June 12, Mateen posted on one of his Facebook accounts:

• “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west ... You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state [sic] vengeance”
• “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state.”

His final post to Facebook was “In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the usa.”

Shooting and death

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on June 12, 2016, Mateen entered Pulse nightclub and began shooting. At 2:22 a.m., he made a 9-1-1 call pledging allegiance to ISIL, referenced Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and mentioned Moner Mohammad Abu Salha. FBI officials said he made two other 9-1-1 calls during the shooting. He also called News 13 of Orlando and identified himself as the nightclub shooter.

Mateen took hostages after police arrived and engaged in a gunfight with him. At approximately 5:00 a.m., police shot and killed Mateen, ending the shooting.

A total of 49 people were left dead along with Mateen and 53 others were injured. Mateen was reported to have fired at least 110 rounds.

After the shooting, Mateen was buried in the Muslim Cemetery of South Florida, near Hialeah Gardens.

An autopsy found Mateen was shot eight times by police in the head, chest, abdomen, calf, feet, and toe. Bullets fired from a short distance went through and through from front to back, suggesting he was shot while facing officers. Lacerations and “blunt-force injuries”, including bruising and scrapes to his torso, were found; the origin was made unclear. No alcohol or illegal drugs were detected in his system.

“I’m the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter.”

Hostage situation, emergency response, and negotiations

Mateen bypassed a uniformed off-duty Orlando Police Department officer who was working extra duty as security and began shooting patrons. Two additional officers engaged him; he retreated further into the nightclub and “began a 'hostage situation'”.

About 100 officers from OPD and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched within the first 45 minutes. Fire Station 5 firefighter crew and Fire Station 7 paramedics arrived early. Eighty Orlando Fire Department personnel were deployed during the incident.

Some people trapped inside called or texted friends and relatives. Some initially thought gunshots were firecrackers or part of the music. A recently discharged Marine veteran working as a bouncer recognized gunfire as high-caliber gunfire, jumped over a locked door that dozens of people were hidden behind, and opened a latched door that allowed about 70 people to escape.

People described panic and confusion due to loud music and darkness. One person hid inside a bathroom and covered herself with bodies. A bartender took cover beneath the glass bar. At least one patron tried to help those hit.

A man trapped inside a bathroom with fifteen other patrons said Mateen fired sixteen times into the bathroom through the closed door, killing at least two and wounding several others. Another hostage said Mateen entered a bathroom where people were hiding and opened fire, wounding several. The hostage, taken cover inside a stall with others, was injured by two bullets and struck with flying pieces of a wall hit by stray bullets. Mateen’s rifle jammed briefly and he switched to using a handgun.

Two survivors quoted Mateen as saying, “I don't have a problem with black people”, and that he “wouldn't stop his assault until America stopped bombing his country”.

“I don't have a problem with black people”
“wouldn't stop his assault until America stopped bombing his country”

Other survivors heard claims of explosives and snipers around the club. Patrons trapped inside called or texted 9-1-1 to warn of possible explosives.

At 2:09 a.m., Pulse posted on Facebook: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running.”

At 2:22 a.m., Mateen placed a 9-1-1 call mentioning Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as his “homeboys” and referencing Moner Mohammad Abu Salha as well. He said he was inspired by Abu Salha’s death for the Al-Nusra Front targeting Syrian government troops and swore allegiance to ISIL leader al-Baghdadi.

FBI said Mateen and Abu Salha attended the same mosque and knew each other “casually”.

Mateen made two other 9-1-1 calls. Numerous 9-1-1 calls were made by patrons inside the nightclub.

After initial rounds of gunfire between Mateen and the security guard, six officers shot out a large glass window and followed the sound to the bathroom area. When Mateen stuck his head out from a bathroom, at least two officers shot at him. After gunfire stopped, they were ordered to hold position instead of storming the bathroom, according to one officer. After 15 to 20 minutes, SWAT arrived and took over after officers were described as not being in “tactical gear”.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said officers did not proceed into the bathroom because Mateen “went from an active shooter to a barricaded gunman” and had hostages. He added, “If he had continued shooting, our officers would have went in there.” The last shot by Mateen fired between 2:10 a.m. and 2:18 a.m.

Phone calls and negotiations included:

• At 2:45 a.m., Mateen called News 13 of Orlando and said: “I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter.” He said he was carrying out the shooting for ISIL and began speaking rapidly in Arabic.
• He told a crisis negotiator he was “out here right now” because of American-led interventions and said the negotiator should tell the United States to stop bombing.
• A crisis negotiator was present as Mateen was holding hostages.
• Police hostage negotiators spoke with Mateen by telephone three times between 2:48 a.m. and 3:27 a.m.
• Mateen claimed bombs strapped onto him during one call.
• At approximately 4:29 a.m., Mateen told negotiators he planned to strap explosive vests to four hostages, place them in different corners of the building, and detonate them in 15 minutes.
• OPD officers then decided to end negotiations and prepare to blow their way in.

Mateen’s second wife sent a text message asking where he was after receiving a call from her mother at about 2:00 a.m. Mateen texted back asking if she had seen the news. After she replied, “No?”, Mateen responded, “I love you, babe.” She also called him several times during the standoff but he did not answer. She found out about what was happening at 4:00 a.m. after police told her to get out of her house with her hands up.

A survivor recalled Mateen saying he wanted the United States to “stop bombing his country”.

Rescue and resolution included a sequence where the FBI reported no shots were heard between gunfire exchange and 5:02 a.m. when Orlando police breached. Just before breach, Mateen entered a women’s bathroom where hostages hid and opened fire, killing a man who sacrificed his life to save a woman and at least one other, according to witnesses.

At 5:07 a.m., 14 SWAT officers successfully breached after failing to blow open a large enough hole in the bathroom’s exterior wall using a bomb. A policeman drove a BearCat armored vehicle through a wall, used two flashbangs to distract, then shot at him. At 5:14 a.m., Mateen engaged officers. He was shot eight times and killed in the resulting shootout involving at least eleven officers firing about 150 bullets. He was reported “down” at 5:17 a.m. At 5:05 a.m., police said a bomb squad had set off a controlled explosion. At 5:53 a.m., Orlando police posted: “Pulse Shooting: The shooter inside the club is dead.” Thirty hostages were freed, and survivors were searched for guns and explosives.

Casualties

Fifty people died in the incident, including Mateen, and another 53 were injured, some critically. Thirty-nine, including Mateen, were pronounced dead at the scene, and eleven at local hospitals. Most injured, 44 people, were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC), and 12 others went to Florida Hospital Orlando. Nine of ORMC’s patients died there. By June 14, 27 remained hospitalized, with six in critical condition. ORMC performed 76 surgeries. The last injured person was discharged from ORMC on September 6.

Autopsies of all 49 deceased victims were completed by the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office by June 14, and results were released in early August.

According to autopsy reports, victims were shot multiple times from short distance. More than a third were shot in the head, and most had multiple bullet wounds.

Over 200 gunshot wounds were reported. A responding police officer received a minor eye injury when a bullet hit his helmet.

Pulse hosted Latin Night. Over 90% of victims were of Hispanic background, and half were of Puerto Rican descent. Four Dominicans and three Mexican citizens were killed. Three Colombians and two Canadians were injured.

An off-duty United States Army Reserve captain working at the club and not in uniform was killed.

List of the dead (victims confirmed by City of Orlando after next-of-kin notification)

• Stanley Almodovar III, 23
• Amanda Alvear, 25
• Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26
• Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33
• Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21
• Martin Benitez Torres, 33
• Antonio D. Brown, 29
• Darryl R. Burt II, 29
• Jonathan A. Camuy Vega, 24
• Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28
• Simon A. Carrillo Fernandez, 31
• Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25
• Luis D. Conde, 39
• Cory J. Connell, 21
• Tevin E. Crosby, 25
• Franky J. Dejesus Velazquez, 50
• Deonka D. Drayton, 32
• Mercedez M. Flores, 26
• Juan R. Guerrero, 22
• Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
• Paul T. Henry, 41
• Frank Hernandez, 27
• Miguel A. Honorato, 30
• Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40
• Jason B. Josaphat, 19
• Eddie J. Justice, 30
• Anthony L. Laureano Disla, 25
• Christopher A. Leinonen, 32
• Brenda L. Marquez McCool, 49
• Jean C. Mendez Perez, 35
• Akyra Monet Murray, 18
• Kimberly Morris, 37
• Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27
• Luis O. Ocasio-Capo, 20
• Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25
• Eric I. Ortiz-Rivera, 36
• Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32
• Enrique L. Rios Jr., 25
• Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37
• Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24
• Christopher J. Sanfeliz, 24
• Xavier E. Serrano Rosado, 35
• Gilberto R. Silva Menendez, 25
• Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34
• Shane E. Tomlinson, 33
• Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25
• Luis S. Vielma, 22
• Luis D. Wilson-Leon, 37
• Jerald A. Wright, 31

Weapons

Federal officials said a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol were recovered from Mateen’s body along with additional rounds.

Mateen legally purchased the SIG Sauer MCX rifle on June 4 and the Glock 17 pistol on June 5 from a shop in Port St. Lucie.

Mateen and law enforcement were reported to have fired a total of 202 rounds; Mateen reportedly fired at least 110 rounds.

From his car, “hundreds of rounds” were found along with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver; this gun was not used in the shooting.

Aftermath and related legal steps

No charges were brought against Mateen because he was killed at the scene. His death ended the incident.

Mateen’s second wife, Noor Salman, was arrested at her home in the San Francisco Bay Area on January 16, 2017. She was charged with aiding and abetting as well as obstruction of justice and was scheduled to be arraigned in Oakland, California. She pleaded not guilty on January 18, 2017.

“Pulse Shooting: The shooter inside the club is dead.”

Investigations and classification

Officials characterized the shooting as an act of terrorism and a hate crime. FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ron Hopper called it a hate crime and an act of terrorism; Jerry Demings classified it as domestic terrorism. City of Orlando Chief of Police John W. Mina said Mateen seemed organized and well-prepared.

FBI Director James Comey said: “So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network”. He also said the intelligence community was “highly confident that this killer was radicalized at least in part through the Internet” and that the investigation found “strong indications of radicalization by this killer and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations”.

The FBI announced it became the lead law enforcement agency investigating the shooting due to its classification as a terrorist attack after Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to ISIL.

Victim assistance and public response

The FBI’s Office of Victim Assistance provided “information, assistance services, and resources” to victims and witnesses, which may have included special funding for emergency assistance, crime victim compensation, and counseling.

An Orlando Family Assistance Center opened on June 15 inside Camping World Stadium. It provided help to 956 people from 298 families during eight days. Remaining people were directed to the Orlando United Assistance Center jointly set up by the City and Orange County, which would stay open as long as there was a need.

Equality Florida started a fundraising page raising $767,000 in the first nine hours and over $7.85 million by September 22 with 119,400 donors. The mayor’s OneOrlando fund received $1 million each from The Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal and raised $23 million by August 12. A plan to disperse funds was later described, including that board decisions limited payouts to certain groups and set deadlines for claims.

The City of Orlando offered free plots and funeral service at Greenwood Cemetery for those killed.

Several organizations and public figures issued condolences and statements, including the Obama administration and reactions from Muslim community leaders.

Release of transcripts and videos

A total of 603 calls to 9-1-1 were made during the shooting. Orlando police refused to release recordings initially citing an ongoing investigation.

On June 20, the FBI released a transcript of the first shooter call and a summary of three calls with police negotiators. University of Central Florida Police Department released nine body camera videos on July 14.

On October 31, a court ruling allowed public release of nearly 30 minutes of recordings of police negotiators talking with Mateen. The City released additional audio and transcripts after subsequent dates, including 9-1-1 call transcripts deemed too graphic to be released as audio.

Communications excerpt: OPD recorded call at 2:35 a.m.

The FBI released an excerpt from OPD radio communication based on the timeline. At 2:35 a.m., an OPD 911 call was recorded and included the following exchange:

Orlando Police Dispatcher (OD): “Emergency 911, this is being recorded.”
Mateen (OM): “In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent [Arabic]”
OD: “What?”
OM: “Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [Arabic]. I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.”
OD: “What’s your name?”
OM: “My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.”
OD: “Ok, What’s your name?”
OM: “I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State.”
OD: “Alright, where are you at?”
OM: “In Orlando.”
OD: “Where in Orlando?”
[End of call.]

Immediately after, the shooter engaged in three conversations with OPD’s Crisis Negotiation Team. In those calls, the shooter identified himself as an “Islamic soldier”, told the negotiator he was the person who pledged allegiance, and told the negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. He also said: “No, you already know what I did.” He further stated: “There is some vehicle outside that has some bombs, just to let you know. You people are gonna get it, and I’m gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid.” He later stated he had a vest and described it as the kind they “used in France.” He later stated, “In the next few days, you’re going to see more of this type of action going on.” Multiple attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.

Further named individuals and roles in the narrative

Orlando Police Chief John Mina spoke about the incident, including statements about how Mateen moved “from an active shooter to a barricaded gunman” and that if he had continued shooting “our officers would have went in there.”

A witness statement quoted Mateen saying, “I don't have a problem with black people” and “wouldn't stop his assault until America stopped bombing his country”.

Pulse’s Facebook page posting included: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running.”

Orlando police posted: “Pulse Shooting: The shooter inside the club is dead.”