It is unfortunate that we live in a world of hate crimes, terrorist attacks, and senseless massacres. The most recent incidence of these types of attacks occurred on the morning of June 12th, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. Here’s what you need to know.
1. The shooting took place just after two on Sunday morning at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida.An off-duty police officer working at the door of the club responded to the reports of the shots.
2. This is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.Up until today, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the Virginia Tech shootings had the most casualties with 27 and 32 deaths, respectively.
3. At least 50 people are dead, and at least another 50 have been hospitalized.The death toll is not yet conclusive.
4. The shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, was killed in a shoot-out with police. Shortly before 6 a.m., Mateen was shot and killed by police forces and is included in the 50-count death toll.
5. The attack lasted from 2:02 a.m. until 5:05 a.m. during which the shooter took hostages. A SWAT team rescued at least 30 hostages from the situation and saved them from further injury.
6. The motivation for the shooting is thus far unknown.It is not yet known if the shooting was religiously motivated, however, police have confirmed that Mateen called 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIS. ISIS itself has not claimed responsibility for this act.
7. Mateen was on the FBI’s radar.Omar Mateen had suspected of being an ISIS sympathizer and was therefore on the FBI’s radar before the attack.
8. Mateen was armed with a handgun and an assault rifle, as well as an unknown number of rounds.The assault rifle is a military grade weapon and is owned by approximately 3.7 million households across the country.
9. Mateen worked as a private security guard.He was licensed to carry guns and had cleared all background checks preformed.
While this is the most information we have available at this time, there is still much that is unknown about this attack. Many news outlets are doing live coverage both online and broadcast on television and will soon be providing information about the many questions that are still left unanswered.