Orlando shootings: Club attacker had 'hatred in his heart', father says

 

 

The father of a gunman who killed 50 people in an Orlando gay club says he did not know that his son had a "grudge in his heart".

Omar Mateen killed 50 people and wounded 53 more in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history, before being shot dead by police.
Seddique Mateen said he did not understand why his son carried out the shooting at the Pulse nightclub.
He had earlier said his son was angered after seeing two men kissing in Miami.
In a statement posted online and addressed to people in his native Afghanistan, Seddique Mateen said his son was "a very good boy", who had a wife and a child.
"I don't know what caused it," he said. "I never figured out that he had a grudge in his heart....I am grief-stricken."

He added he did not know why his son committed such an act during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, adding that the fate of gay people "is not in the hands of humans" as it was only God who could judge.
The so-called Islamic State group (IS), which said it was behind the shootings, had called for attacks on the West during Ramadan.
On Sunday, Seddique Mateen said: "We are apologising for the whole incident. We are in shock, like the whole country."

 Orlando police say the life of one of their men was saved by his Kevlar helmet                

The attack began at about 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday. There was an exchange of fire with a police officer working at the club, after which the suspect took hostages.
At 05:00 a police assault team went into the club after police received text messages and phone calls from some of the hostages. Mateen was killed in an exchange of fire.
States of emergency have been declared in the city of Orlando and surrounding Orange County.

Victims

Clockwise from top left: Orlando shooting victims Edward Sotomayor, Stanley Almodovar, Luis Omar Ocasio-Ocampo, Juan Ramon Guerrero, Luis Vielma and Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera                

So far, 21 victims have been named: 17 men and four women.
They include:

• Edward Sotomayor, 34, who worked for a company that organised gay cruises;
• Stanley Almodovar, 23, a pharmacy technician who was remembered as "kind and sassy";
• Kimberly Morris, 37, who had only recently moved to Orlando and worked at Pulse as a bouncer;
• Luis Vielma, 22, who worked at the Harry Potter section at Universal Studios - author J K Rowling paid tribute to him online;
• Eddie Justice, 30, who sent his mother a series of text messages while inside the club.

 

                          US media have published pictures of the suspect, Omar Mateen

Mateen, a US citizen of Afghan descent who was born in New York and lived in Florida, was not on a terrorism watch list.
However, the FBI interviewed him twice in 2013-14 after he made "inflammatory remarks" to a colleague, before closing its investigation.
Mateen legally purchased several guns in the past few days.
A statement on the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said that an IS "fighter" was responsible.
An FBI spokesman said that Mateen had called the emergency services before the attack and sworn allegiance to IS.

                      Omar Mateen                            

Mateen's father said his motives had nothing to do with religion

On Sunday, Mateen's father said religion had nothing to do with the attack.
A security company that Mateen used to work for said he was vetted twice.
The checks in 2007 and 2013 did not reveal anything of concern, G4S said, and Mateen had carried a gun as part of his job.