2016 Orlando nightclub shooting | |
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Part of terrorism in the United States | |
The Pulse nightclub in 2006. It was painted black at the time of the shooting.
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Location | 1912 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
Coordinates | 28°31′11″N 81°22′37″W / 28.51961°N 81.37683°WCoordinates: 28°31′11″N 81°22′37″W / 28.51961°N 81.37683°W |
Date | June 12, 2016 2:02 a.m. – 5:14 a.m. EDT (UTC−04:00) |
Target | Patrons of the Pulse gay nightclub |
Attack type
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Mass shooting, hostage-taking |
Weapons | |
Deaths | 50 (including the perpetrator) |
Non-fatal injuries
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53 |
Perpetrator | Omar Mir Seddique Mateen |
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. He was shot and killed by Orlando Police Department (OPD) officers after a three-hour standoff, surpassing Seung-Hui Cho's 2007 rampage as the deadliest mass shooting in the United States. Pulse was hosting Latin Night and most of the victims were Latino. It was both the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in United States history. It was also the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001. The shooting came two days after the murder of Christina Grimmie 3.8 miles away at The Plaza Live on June 10.
In a 9-1-1 call shortly after the shooting began, Mateen swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said the shooting was "triggered" by the U.S. killing of Abu Waheeb in Iraq the previous month. He later told a negotiator he was "out here right now" because of the American-led interventions in Iraq and in Syria, and that the negotiator should tell the United States to stop its bombing campaign in the Syrian civil war.