Death Toll At Orlando Nightclub Shooting Tops To 50 As Attacker Identified ‘Afghan’
MEP: A mass shooting has killed at least 50 people and injured 53 others at a crowded nightclub in Orlando, Florida on Sunday morning, the worst mass shooting in US history, according to various sources.
The attacker identified as Omar Mateen, 29 was an Afghan – American citizen has been shot dead by police. Mateen was born in the United States, according to reports.
The imam of a Florida mosque that Mateen attended for almost a decade describes him as a quiet, lonely man.
“He hardly had any friends,” Syed Shafeeq Rahman, head of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, told Reuters. “He would come with his little son at night to pray and after he would leave.”
A high-school classmate, however, described Matteen as a typical American teenager, who played football and was gregarious and talkative.
“He clearly was not anti-(gay) at least not back then. He did not show any hatred to any of us. He treated us all like the individuals we were. He always smiled and said hello,” said Samuel King, who last saw Mateen in 2009.
Public records show Mateen had a state firearms license that expired in 2013 and a permit to work as a security guard, Reuters reported, adding he was registered as a Democrat.
The so-called Islamic State group (Daesh) has said it was behind the attack, but the extent of its involvement is not clear.
More than 100 people were said to have been in the nightclub when the shooter opened fire at around 2:00 am local time (0600 GMT).
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama called the attack “an act of terror and an act of hate”.
Americans were united in “grief, outrage and resolve to defend our people”, he said.
