Update:50 Dead After Islamic Terrorist Opens Fire in Florida Nightclub.
Orlando Police Chief
John Mina told reporters early Sunday morning that more than 40 people were
injured at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city.
The "religion of peace"
has struck again, this time at an Orlando, Florida night club. Reports say the
terrorist was wearing a suicide vest and killed over 20 people in a crowded
nightclub packed with over 300 innocent people. It is
being characterized as an act of terrorism.
Authorities
said the suspect engaged in a shootout with an officer who was working at the
club at approximately 2 a.m. before going back into the club and taking
hostages. A SWAT team was sent inside the club to rescue the hostages at
approximately 5 a.m.
Mina said the
suspect, who was killed inside the club during a shootout with police, had an
assault-style rifle, a handgun and “some type of device.”
"It appears he
was organized and well-prepared," Mina said, adding the shooter is not
from the Orlando area.
An agent from the
FBI's Orlando field office also said there are “suggestions” that the suspect
may have had “leanings” toward radical Islamic ideology.
"We can't say
definitively, so we're still running everything to ground," he
added.
Law
enforcement sources told CBS News the
shooter was Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Police said a loud
noise near the nightclub was a "controlled explosion" used as a
distraction when officers breached the building in an armored vehicle and
rescued approximately 30 people.
In a Facebook post,
the bar and dance club had urged everyone to "get out of pulse and keep
running."
The Orlando Regional
Medical Center, located a few miles away, was placed on lockdown and only
essential workers were being allowed inside, CNN reported. Arnold Palmer Hospital and Winnie Palmer
Hospital were also placed on lockdown out of caution.
President Obama has been briefed on the attack, an aide said in a
statement, and ordered federal agencies to provide "any assistance
necessary."
