Pulse nightclub shooting | |
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Part of mass shootings in the United States, violence against LGBT people in the United States, and Islamic terrorism in the United States | |
Location | Pulse nightclub 1912 S. Orange Avenue Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
Coordinates | 28°31′10.5″N 81°22′36.5″W / 28.519583°N 81.376806°W |
Date | June 12, 2016 2:02 a.m. – 5:14 a.m. EDT (UTC−04:00) |
Target | Patrons of Pulse nightclub |
Attack type | |
Weapons | |
Deaths | 50 (including the perpetrator) |
Injured | 58 (53 by gunfire)[1] |
Perpetrator | Omar Mateen |
Motive | Islamic extremism |
Verdict | Perpetrator's wife |
Charges | Perpetrator's wife
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On June 12, 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff.
In a 911 call made shortly after the shooting began, Mateen swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said the U.S. killing of Abu Waheeb in Iraq the previous month "triggered" the shooting.[2] 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 the bombing. The incident was deemed a terrorist attack by FBI investigators.
Pulse was hosting a "Latin Night," and most of the victims were Latino. The shooting was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks, and the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.