‘I grabbed my assault rifle and ran’: An officer’s account of the critical early minutes in Orlando

www.washingtonpost.com ^ | June 21, 2016 | Stephanie McCrummen and Abigail Hauslohner

[Enterprise]

ORLANDO — After an initial burst of fire between Omar Mateen and a security guard at the Pulse nightclub, a group of five or six police officers arrived on the scene within minutes, broke through a large glass window and entered the club as the killing of 49 people was underway inside, according to a Belle Isle, Fla., police officer who was among the first responders.

Officer Brandon Cornwell, 25, said the ad-hoc team spent the first seconds in the dimly lit club “trying to locate exactly where the shooter was — we kept hearing people scream and shots fired.”

He and the other officers followed the sounds to the bathroom area, where Mateen was now holed up. But instead of entering the bathroom, the officers aimed their assault rifles toward the area and were told by commanders to hold their position as the sounds of gunfire stopped, according to Cornwell. And so they waited “15 or 20 minutes — could’ve been longer” — until the SWAT team arrived, he said. Cornwell never saw Mateen.

[Enterprise]

According to the article, officers were on scene pretty soon. They entered and could hear shots and screams. They determined the location of Mateen to be in the bathroom area. At some point they were told to withdraw and wait for SWAT. There is still uncertainty if Mateen shot more people after the officers withdrew to wait for SWAT.

[Enterprise]

Pinging you to another article. (You are not on a list, this is for one article only.)

[Red Steel]

At some point they were told to withdraw and wait for SWAT. There is still uncertainty if Mateen shot more people after the officers withdrew to wait for SWAT.

Yeah that would be a mistake especially if they had him pinned in the bathroom.

[Travis McGee]

[Travis McGee]

Hey FBI: you are a DISGRACE to go along with blinding yourself to reality on orders from above.

Question reporters should dig into:

WAS OMAR MATEEN OR HIS FATHER AT ANY TIME A CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT OR INTEL ASSET????

His father's "American Muslim Association" just screams out that it was a controlled front organization.

[iowamark]

Not just “pretty soon.” An off duty cop was at the door for security all night. How did the shooter get a rifle and handgun into the club? How long did the shooting continue until the police returned fire? Many questions.

[wastoute]

IIRC he shot the guard as he went in, the guard may have been the first victim.

[ClearCase_guy]

He said he arrived “in 38 seconds.” Cornwell was in one of the first seven or so police cars to arrive on the scene, where officers were getting out of their vehicles with their assault rifles, he said.

38 seconds. The guy really had the stopwatch going, huh? And, assault rifles, this article has details, assault rifles, and lots of facts, assault rifles, but I think they neglected, assault rifles, to fully explain to people about the assault rifles.

Fully automatic weapons are always within arms' length of a LEO?

[finnsheep]

By now assuming all the autopsies are complete, we should know what bullets were recovered from the casualties - - how many actually were 223 cartridges and how many were from the terrorist’s hand gun. I have not seen any mention of that yet.

[abb]

Keep a close eye on the trial lawyers. They will be circling like buzzards, and if it can be shown LEO’s killed any hostages, here come the lawsuits.

Lots of them.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

You won’t.

“...The medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Stephany, said the autopsies did not make any determination as to who killed whom....”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/killers-words-prayers-threats-are-part-of-orlando-shooting-911-calls/2282498

Speechless if he means determining the source of each bullet was not and will not be done.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

What is this crap is this of “I grabbed by assault rifle” said no policeman ever.

More Compost trying to create an environment.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

My hunch is the presser on Monday and the edited transcript release was done because LEO was feeling the heat.

It was not to keep us informed about a terrorist attack.

[wrench]

They already have a good idea how many were hit by “friendly fire”, and they do not want to include it in the narrative.

It won’t look good to say close to half the casualties were a result of the police blindly firing during their assault.

[shelterguy]

“”””What is this crap is this of “I grabbed by assault rifle” said no policeman ever.”””””

He just wanted to clarify that he did not use his semi automatic hunting rifle instead.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

One thing I find odd with that quote in the article headline;

Would an officer who is familiar with firearms call his weapon an "assault rifle"?

I would think such a person would refer to it as an 'M-16' or an 'M&P' or an 'HK'...or even a 'P90'.

Or was his actual quote changed to fit the MSM narrative?

[Chode]

since the goathumper had a dreaded ASSAULT rifle, wouldn't that mean he grabbed his DEFENSE rifle?

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

According to the article the officer arrived within minutes and was quickly determined to be in the bathroom area.

Have any details been released which tells us where all victims (both injured and murdered) standing when struck by bullets? In the club itself vs the bathroom, specifically.

[BuffaloJack]

If these donkeys aren’t allowed to engage a terrorist, but have to wait for SWAT, they why do they need to carry guns at all?

[wrench]

From the reports released, the muzzie shot about 200 rounds. Over 100 people were hit, many multiple times, some with as many as 12 gunshot wounds.

The numbers just do not add up that the perp shot all these people.