Documentary: Panorama – The Orlando Nightclub Massacre
Panorama (Aired June 27, 2016) on BBC. Article by Alistair Reign.
Kelvin Cobaris, (center) a local clergyman, consoles Orlando city Commissioner Patty Sheehan, (right). The Pulse nightclub in Orlando is considered to be the worst mass shooting in American history, with 50 people dead and at least 53 others hospitalized, most in critical condition, officials said. A surgeon at Orlando Regional Medical Center said the death toll was likely to climb. (Photo: Gazette, credit: Daily News).
Law enforcement sources told NBC News that the gunman who opened fire inside a Florida nightclub early Sunday on June 12th, 2016 – shooting over one-hundred (100) people – had called 911 moments before and swore allegiance to the so-called Islamic State – the gang of militant and religious fanatics who now request to be called Daesh.
So the “Daesh“ terrorists later announced that an “ISIS fighter had carried out the attack“.
Their claim did not clarify if they were directly involved, or merely taking credit for the actions of an American citizen with probable mental health problems. Shooter Omar Mateen, age twenty-nine, was born in New York and lived in Port St. Lucie on Florida’s eastern shores.
Mateen, who was carrying a handgun and AR-15-type rifle, died after a SWAT team stormed the club. The shooter worked in security, and records show that he had both an active security officer and firearms license, according to police statements.
To date fifty people are reported dead, and fifty-three people were injured by the shooting, with many in critical condition.
But as investigators try to determine whether radicalization may, or may not have been the motivation behind Mateen’s attack inside the Pulse nightclub, his family believes he was pushed over the edge by hate against the LGBT community.
Yet, at least four regular customers at the Orlando nightclub said that they had seen Omar Mateen there before, the regulars told Orlando Sentinel in an interview.
Perhaps it was not one or the other, but a combination of several contributing factors, starting with the inner turmoil he must have been struggling with as a gay Muslim. Then consider that he may have an untreated chemical imbalance, or un-diagnosed mental health illness, all of which could have triggered this tragedy; the world may never know the why.
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