A man who called 911 to proclaim allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, and who had been investigated in the past for possible terrorist ties, stormed a gay nightclub here Sunday morning, wielding an assault rifle and a pistol, and carried out the worst mass shooting in United States history, leaving 50 people dead and 53 wounded.
The attacker, identified by law enforcement officials as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old who was born in New York, turned what had been a celebratory night of dancing to salsa and merengue music at the crowded Pulse nightclub into a panicked scene of unimaginable slaughter, the floors slicked with blood, the dead and the injured piled atop one another. Terrified people poured onto the darkened streets of the surrounding neighborhood, some carried wounded victims to safety, and police vehicles were pressed into service as makeshift ambulances to rush people to hospitals.
Pulse, which calls itself “Orlando’s Latin Hotspot,” was holding its weekly “Upscale Latin Saturdays” party. The shooting began around 2 a.m., and some patrons thought at first that the booming reports they heard were firecrackers or part of the loud, thumping dance music.
Some people who were trapped inside hid where they could, calling 911 or posting messages to social media, pleading for help. The club posted a stark message on its Facebook page: “Everyone get out of pulse and keep running.”
A three-hour standoff followed the initial assault, with people inside effectively held hostage until around 5 a.m., when law enforcement officials led by a SWAT team raided the club, using an armored vehicle and explosives designed to disorient and distract. Over a dozen police officers and sheriff’s deputies engaged in a shootout with Mr. Mateen, leaving him dead and an officer wounded, his life saved by a Kevlar helmet that deflected a bullet. At least 30 people inside were rescued.
The F.B.I. investigated Mr. Mateen in 2013 when he made comments to co-workers suggesting he had terrorist ties, and again the next year, for possible connections to Moner Mohammad Abusalha, an American who became a suicide bomber in Syria, said Ronald Hopper, an assistant agent in charge of the bureau’s Tampa Division. But each time, the F.B.I. found no solid evidence that Mr. Mateen had any real connection to terrorism or had broken any laws. Still, he is believed to be on at least one watch list.
Mr. Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, Fla., was able to continue working as a security guard with the security firm G4S, where he had worked since 2007, and he was able to buy guns. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Mr. Mateen had legally bought a long gun and a pistol in the past week or two, though it was not clear whether those were the weapons used in the assault, which officials described as a handgun and an AR-15 type of assault rifle.
A former co-worker, Daniel Gilroy, said Mr. Mateen had talked often about killing people and had voiced hatred of gays, blacks, women and Jews.
Around the time of the massacre, Mr. Mateen called 911 and declared his allegiance to the Islamic State. Hours later, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility in a statement released over an encrypted phone app used by the group. It stated that the attack “was carried out by an Islamic State fighter,”
But officials cautioned that even if Mr. Mateen, who court records show was briefly married and then divorced, was inspired by the group, there was no indication that it had trained or instructed him, or had any direct connection with him. Some other terrorist attackers have been “self-radicalized,” including the pair who killed 14 people in December in San Bernardino, Calif., who also proclaimed allegiance to the Islamic State, but apparently had no contact with the group.
Mateen earned an associate degree in criminal justice technology in 2006. A year later, he was hired by one of the world’s premier private security companies, G4S. And then, in 2009, he got married and bought a home.
But Mr. Mateen’s father suggested his son was motivated by a different hate. His father, Seddique Mir Mateen, told NBC News that his son had come across two men kissing in Miami recently and was infuriated that his three-year-old son had seen it, too.
“They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son, they are doing that,’ ” the elder Mr. Mateen said.
Mr. Mateen’s father said the killing had nothing to do with religion, and he apologized for his son. “We weren’t aware of any action he is taking,” he said. “We are in shock like the whole country.”
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| Sitora Yusufiy |
Equally stunned by the day’s events was Omar Mateen’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy. An immigrant from Uzbekistan, she divorced him in 2011, after he abused her. She said that he quickly became controlling, abusive and erratic after they were married.
In an interview at her home near Boulder, Colo., Ms. Yusufiy said that when she first met Mr. Mateen online through Myspace in 2008, he was a funny charmer with a decent job and aspirations to become a police officer.
But after they were married, he made her hand over her paychecks from her day care job, prevented her from calling her parents and hit her, sometimes as she slept, she said. He also kept a handgun in the house.
“I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere except work,” she said.
'He was not a stable person. He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished or something like that.' When her parents found out about the beatings just months after the wedding, they staged an intervention and rescued her from the home. 'They literally saved my life,' she said.
The woman said she has not had contact with Mateen since they finalized their divorce in 2011.
Mr. Mateen was an observant Muslim, but never expressed sympathies for terrorist organizations or radical Islamists, she said.
He also made anti-gay comments when he was angry. “There were definitely moments when he’d express his intolerance towards homosexuals,” she said.
Ms. Yusify said she left Mr. Mateen in 2009 after her parents flew down from New Jersey and rescued her from the marriage, and had no contact with him since, save for one time when he tried to message her on Facebook.
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| Seddique Mateen, (pictured) the father of mass shooter Omar Mateen, |
Mr. Mateen’s father is an outspoken Afghan political activist, but that played no part in the investigations of his son that the F.B.I. carried out in 2013 and 2014, a law enforcement official said.
He hosted a talk show for a television channel broadcasting to the Afghan diaspora.
Recently, the elder Mr. Mateen has taken to posting videos on his Facebook page where, dressed in a military uniform in front of the Afghan flag, he sharply criticizes the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani.