Posted on 06/17/2016 6:48:45 AM PDT by Lorianne
Omar Mateen, the killer who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, hid in a bathroom at Pulse, a gay nightclub where he had slaughtered scores of people. A wall of cinder block separated him from a team of police officers outside. For three hours early Sunday morning, crisis negotiators tried to end the siege.
Then Mateen — whom police said had acted “cool and calm” during discussions — talked about killing more people. Alarmed, police placed an explosive device against the wall and detonated it. The breach failed; the hole wasn’t large enough to allow for a successful rescue.
A cop rammed his Bearcat armored vehicle through the club wall. Hostages poured out. So did Mateen, guns blazing.
With quick efficiency, officers shot him dead.
So ended the worst armed massacre in American history: 49 victims were killed and 53 wounded.
Monday, Orlando Police Chief John Mina and other law enforcement officers offered new details about the shooting, including the possibility that some victims may have been killed by officers trying to save them.
“I will say this, that’s all part of the investigation,” Mina said. “But I will say when our SWAT officers, about eight or nine officers, opened fire, the backdrop was a concrete wall, and they were being fired upon.”
A law enforcement source close to the investigation who asked not to be named said a crowd of up to 300 people and the complex layout of the dance club may have resulted in some patrons being struck by gunfire from officers.
Mina said his decision to enter the club with such violence was tough. “It was a hard decision to make, but it was the right decision,” he said. “Our No. 1 priority is on saving lives, and it was the right decision to make.”
Local, federal and state investigators continued to process the scene Monday from a collection of law enforcement mobile command units that lined South Orange in downtown Orlando. Authorities determined Mateen, 29, walked up to the club at 2:02 a.m. armed with an AR-15 rifle and a Glock handgun.
An off-duty police officer working at the club Sunday night was investigating an underage drinker outside when he heard gunshots inside, according to the law enforcement source. The off-duty officer ran inside the club and traded gunfire with Mateen, backed up soon by three other police officers, the source said.
The officers fired at Mateen, who retreated into a bathroom toward the rear of the club.
“Those additional officers made entry while the suspect was shooting,” Mina said. “They forced him to stop shooting and retreat to the bathroom where we believe he had several hostages.”
Mateen called 911 three times from a bathroom he shared with hostages and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, a terrorist group also known as ISIL or ISIS.
He called dispatchers twice and hung up before they called him back, the source said.
“He was in one bathroom fortified with hostages,” Mina said. “There were people in the opposing bathroom, about 15 or 20 people. And the details are unknown, they’re part of the investigation.”
Orlando police crisis negotiators were called to the club and spoke with Mateen three times. He remained calm during the talks, but he made clear that his plan was to kill more people, Mina said.
“Based off statements made by the suspect and based on information we received by the suspect and from the hostages and the people inside,” Mina said, “we believe further loss of life was imminent. I made the decision to commence the rescue operation and do the explosive breach.”
A SWAT team failed to topple the exterior wall leading to the bathroom that held 15 to 20 people, so Mina made the call to use the Bearcat.
Officers wore combat-grade body armor and helmets as they rammed the bathroom wall, creating a small hole — about 3 feet wide and 2 feet off the ground — so the captives could escape.
“We were able to rescue dozens and dozens of people who came out of that wall,” Mina said. “The suspect came out of that hole himself with a handgun and a long gun and engaged in a gunbattle with officers where he was ultimately killed.”
Mateen wielded an AR-15 and a semiautomatic handgun he had bought from a Port St. Lucie gun shop a week ago. He fired at officers, striking one of them in his helmet before he was shot several times and died.
Dozens of bullet holes dotted the exterior concrete wall, evidence of the shootout that included dozens of rounds fired by officers.
The last exchange of gunfire Mateen had with Orlando police and Orange County sheriff’s deputies occurred at 5 a.m. and ended a three-hour standoff.
Orlando officers walked into the nightclub and found lifeless club patrons strewn about a bar and lounge area. More bodies were found in a nearby bathroom.
Give me an objective definition.
You are a brain washed drone.
I agree. There is no way to know how many were saved by the response.
If it took three hours to plan the assault, there was plenty of time to get the building plans from the county building department or the owner. The way I read it, the second restroom which backed up to the one with the jihadi in it, was separated by a partition wall - one layer of drywall on each side. It would be highly unusual for a light commercial building in Florida to be constructed otherwise as this is the cheapest way.
Knowing that, these cowboys should have thought about whether anyone was in there. The inside wall of this second restroom - the side not connecting to the jihadi’s lair - was also likely a partition wall. Drill a hole, put a boroscope and microphone in and determine there’s no threat in there. Then take a case cutter and make a hole to allow those trapped inside to escape. At the very least, they could have told those trapped in this second restroom to get down and stay down.
Of course that doesn’t involve guns ablazin’, so it never would have occurred to the blasters.
They had to burn the village to save the village. For that they’re local heroes and get on the TV.
It took the Authorities THREE HOURS to come up with the Plan to ram the Building with their Armor Plated Toy, and now we read this?
Yep, it’s the Republican’s and the NRA’s fault.
....just like the Waco Twin Peaks massacre
Here is a link to an image of his helmet afterwards, and a story showing the officer with the head injury.
That was marksmanship by the perp. In the dark with officers shooting at him.
http://fox8.com/2016/06/12/police-helmet-saves-officers-life-in-tragic-orlando-shooting/
http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/13/you-can-now-see-the-police-officer-shot-in-the-head-saved-by-his-helmet-during-the-orlando-terrorist-attack/
yeah agreed
Good points!
That would be the case if at least one, and reportedly 4 police officers hadn't traded fire with him already. Presumably they would have a good idea what he looked like, and they certainly would have seen his carbine.
If a group of people came out of the bathroom and one of them was holding a carbine you'd have a pretty good idea who the shooter was, unless of course it was obvious that the crowd had captured the shooter and disarmed him. And in that case it would also be pretty easy to tell what was going on.
In an active shooter situation you may have to decide on very limited information who is the problem. The same thing is true in combat, particularly against irregular troops. Even ordinary civilians could figure out who the bad guy was pretty quickly, veterans or supposedly trained police should be very good at it.
The problem was the 3 hours. He already killed many people so show no quarter. I would think you would go after him like those officers did at the beginning.
How many were killed at the beginning vs at the end?
Well, Slick Willie said more people would have been killed because it was dark and gay people are hysterical and incompetent.
It certainly is possible.
And? The point is?
[ He called dispatchers twice and hung up before they called him back, the source said. ]
Huh? Do these folks ever read what they write?
That club is not large enough to hold 300 patrons safely, based on fire inspections I am familiar with in Texas.
Florida fire law may allow packing them in, but after the Rhode Island fire disaster at the night club, laws were changed in favor of public safety across the country.
No matter what they did if there was collateral damage there will be hell to pay.
I am informed that most of the fatalities - 29 of 50 - were shot in the restroom area where the perp hid out for most of the three hours. My surmise is that they ran there because, when the shooting started, the shooting was between them and the exits they knew of, discovered they couldn't get out and hid as best they could until the perp came in and murdered them over most of the three hours.
IMO it was the delay in SWAT entry which was responsible for most of those rest room fatalities. We don't know yet whether the OPD rescued any wounded from the other areas during the period when the perp was in the rest rooms and adjacent hallway. They had the opportunity to do so.
Given the cluster-**ck that this whole thing was, the initial shoot-out period excepted, and here I include the many FBI failures, it is reasonable to suspect that some of the Pulse wounded outside the rest room areas died of what would have been survivable injuries had the OPD secured the main areas so that EMT's could enter to treat and remove them. That will have to wait for a definitive investigation, and I suspect that will be politically obstructed and delayed.
We know some things already.
The first two officers were already in the club, but off-duty. One was working as a guard. They engaged when the perp opened fire. The next three officers to enter had arrived in their patrol cars in response to emergency dispatch. The five of them together drove the perp out of the main rooms and into the back area.
The problem at that point was that access to the perp was through only 1-2 interior doors which the perp could easily cover and just gun down unarmored officers. It was appropriate for them to wait for a SWAT team with body armor and flash-bang grenades to do a forced entry through the doors. This gave senior officers their chance to screw up.
The actions of the two OPD officers in the club, and the first three to arrive, were consistent with the highest standards of duty of law enforcement officers. They saved lives at the risk of their own. Consider the FDNY personnel who charged into the burning World Trade Center on 9/11.
We'll have to wait for more reports on the exact time the better-armored SWAT officers arrived to guess at how much unnecessary time was given the perp to murder the majority of victims. They'd probably have needed their armored vehicle as well to be certain of securing the area against a breakout covered by fire if more than one perp was inside. And some of the survivors in the rest room areas were surreptitiously rescued (such as by pushing in wall air conditioners so people inside could climb out) during the long delay.
The OPD, and Orange County Sheriff, have low reputations. That indicates long-term command failure, most likely due to local political culture aka big-city politics. That is consistent with observed OPD behavior in this instance. The immediately responding officers acted with professionalism and courage. Things went south when senior officers took over.
I suspect that the latter were afraid to make decisions they might be criticized for, and seized upon every justification for delay during the interval between SWAT arrival and 5 pm. That is moral failure. Moral failure by commanders is what produces the most avoidable casualties on your own side.
More like a lucky shot. Every bullet ends up somewhere.
This murderer was no marksman.
I do not believe the shooter was alone in Orlando. Tweeting/texting takes 2 hands. And attention. It doesn’t add up to me.
>>This murderer was no marksman.
49 dead and 53 wounded with 202 rounds.
49 dead with _5.56mm_ or _9mm_.
With reports from a survivor that the perp systematically stalked the club in the 3-hour pause placing 3-round coup de grau in the wounded.
And the perp hit a SWAT officer in the forehead _after coming out through_ the breech the SWAT Bearcat opened in Pulse night club’s wall.
In combat -everyone- shoots high.
To get a forehead placement shot the Perp was aiming dead center of the heart or lower neck (AKA above the body armor) when he pulled the trigger.
All on a gun the perp did not own or use until a few days prior to the mass shooting.
Even given the possibility of multiple wounds per round via close range 5.56mm over penetration in the initial mass killing on the main dance floor of Pulse. We are talking frequent good shot placement in the human thorax.
Occam’s razor does not cut for “lucky.”
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