ISIS-sworn gunman kills 50

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A gunman wielding a rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded nightclub early Sunday, killing at least 50 people before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

At least 53 people were hospitalized, and most of them were in critical condition, officials said. A surgeon at Orlando Regional Medical Center said the death toll was likely to climb.

"There's blood everywhere," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who declared a state of emergency in the city. Officials started removing bodies from the club Sunday night and taking them to the Orange County medical examiner's office.

All of the dead were killed with the assault-style rifle, according to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene when the gunfire began about 2 a.m., shortly before the club known as Pulse, which caters to gays, was to close.

"Some guy walked in and started shooting everybody. He had an automatic rifle, so nobody stood a chance," said Jackie Smith, who had two friends next to her get shot. "I just tried to get out of there."

Clubgoer Rob Rick said the shooting started just as "everybody was drinking their last sip."

Relatives and friends, many in tears, gathered outside the hospital to learn the fate of loved ones.

Smith did not know the conditions of her wounded friends. She came out of the hospital and burst into tears.

The suspect was identified as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen from Fort Pierce, Fla., who had worked as a security guard. Mateen's ex-wife said his family was from Afghanistan but that her ex-husband was born in New York. His family later moved to Florida.

Authorities said Mateen had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group in a 911 call shortly before the attack. The extremist group did not officially claim responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State-run Aamaq news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the attack was carried out by an Islamic State fighter.

Mateen also referenced the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon during the call, officials said.

The shooter in 2013 made inflammatory comments to co-workers, and Mateen was interviewed twice, FBI agent Ronald Hopper said. He called those interviews inconclusive.

In 2014, Hopper said, officials found that Mateen had ties to an American suicide bomber in Syria. He described the contact as minimal, saying it did not constitute a threat at the time.

Mateen purchased at least two firearms legally within the past week or so, according to Trevor Velinor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The suspect exchanged gunfire with 14 police officers at the club, which had more than 300 people inside.

At one point, he took hostages, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said. Around 5 a.m., authorities sent in a SWAT team to rescue the hostages.

In addition to the assault-style rifle, the shooter also had some sort of "suspicious device," the police chief said.

"It appears he was organized and well-prepared," Mina said.

Authorities were looking into whether the attack was an act of domestic or international terrorism, and if the shooter acted alone, according to Danny Banks, an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"This is an incident, as I see it, that we certainly classify as domestic terror incident," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.

Familiar to FBI

A federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said Mateen was known to the FBI before the nightclub attack and had been looked at by agents within the past few years. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The matter for which he came under investigation was "open and closed pretty quickly," the official said.

When asked if the gunman had a connection to radical Islamic terrorism, Hopper said authorities had "suggestions that individual has leanings towards that."

Even if the attacker supported the Islamic State, it was unclear whether the group planned the attack or knew of it beforehand.

Mateen's father said the attack was because of anger at gays and had nothing to do with religion, Hopper said.

The gunman was a security guard with a company called G4S. In a 2012 newsletter, the firm identified him as working in West Palm Beach.

State records show that Mateen had held a firearms license since at least 2011. It was set to expire next year.

Authorities said they had secured a van owned by the suspect outside the club. Meanwhile, a SWAT truck and a bomb-disposal unit were on the scene of an address associated with Mateen in a residential neighborhood of Fort Pierce, Fla., about 118 miles southeast of Orlando.

An attack 'on all of us'

President Barack Obama called the shooting an "act of terror" and an "act of hate" targeting a place of "solidarity and empowerment" for gays. He urged Americans to decide whether this is the kind of "country we want to be."

The president described the attack as "a sobering reminder that attacks on any American -- regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation -- is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country."

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., noted that the public debate would be shaped by what spurred the gunman to act.

"A lot of us have been talking for quite a while in terms of background checks and tightening background checks, particularly as it pertains to those with mental illness," Flake said. "And I think that that debate can and should go on, as well as the debate on how to best protect us against those who were inspired or funded or directed by international terrorists."

For politicians, the massacre raised issues of terrorism, gun control or gay rights. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California noted that the attack came in June, which is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the only openly gay U.S. senator, posted on Facebook: "This was not only a horrific attack on the LGBT community, it was an attack on the freedoms we all hold dear."

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said shootings such as the the one in Orlando are part of an "epidemic" that "will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing, again."

"This phenomenon of near constant mass shootings happens only in America -- nowhere else," Murphy said in his statement. "Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable deafening silence."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., headed to Orlando Sunday afternoon. He said in a statement that he and his staff members were prepared to offer constituent services for those affected by the attack, but he emphasized that government officials must focus on stamping out domestic terrorism wherever possible.

"We must do more at every level of government and within our own communities to identify and mitigate this cancer on our free society and prevent further loss of innocent life," Rubio's statement said.

Vatican: 'Homicidal folly'

Word of the massacre spread around the world. A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Pope Francis is expressing the "deepest feelings of horror and condemnation" and denouncing the "homicidal folly and senseless hatred." He added that Francis joins the families of victims and injured in "prayer and compassion."

And on social media, Facebook users in Orlando were prompted to check in and let their friends know that they are safe. Facebook's "safety check" feature activates during major disasters and, increasingly, during terrorist attacks and conflict situations around the world.

By 10:15 p.m. Central time Sunday, a Florida advocacy group had raised $1.1 million for the shooting victims and their families. More than 28,000 people had donated to Equality Florida's GoFundMe page in its first 12 hours.

And an estimated 500 people attended a vigil at Orlando's Joy Metropolitan Community Church less than two 2 miles from the shootings.

"You have to be strong to be gay ... that dude picked on the wrong group," the Rev. Terri Steed Pierce said to applause.

One victim of the shooting joined the vigil and walked up the aisle with difficulty to his seat, supported by his friends. He received a standing ovation.

The victim, who gave his name only as Orlando, said he hid in the bathroom for three hours, and at one point had to play dead.

"Every time I heard a shot, I prayed it wasn't taking a friend of mine," he said.

In Washington, hundreds of thousands in Washington on Sunday attended the Capital Pride Festival, which took on a more somber tone.

"It's a sad day for all of us and a powerful reminder that there's still a lot of hatred in the world," said David Mariner, executive director of the DC Center for the LGBT Community. "Much work remains all around the world. And much work remains right here in the District of Columbia."

James Dallas Dunn, 28, of Arlington was among those who attended. Dunn, who served eight years in the U.S. Marines, said he talked with his boyfriend Sunday morning about skipping the festival.

But in the end, he said he wouldn't be cowed by the attack, though he could tell he was more vigilant.

"I would definitely say my Marine mentality is kicking in -- just visually, looking around," he said.

Dunn said he came of age in a time of greater tolerance, but that the attack showed how much was left to be done.

"Our generation of the LGBT community has never not seen the progression of acceptance," Dunn said. "Events like this make us remember how little we've really progressed."

The previous deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. was the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech, where a student killed 32 people before killing himself.

The attack follows the fatal shooting late Friday of 22-year-old singer Christina Grimmie, a YouTube sensation and former contestant on The Voice. She was killed after an Orlando concert by a 27-year-old man who later killed himself.

Information for this article was contributed by Mike Schneider, Eric Tucker, Terrance Harris, Jason Dearen, Tamara Lush and Alan Diaz of The Associated Press; and by Juliet Eilperin, David Weigel, Anne Gearan, Sean Sullivan, Ed O'Keefe, Paul Kane, Mike DeBonis, Abby Phillip, Terrence McCoy, Faiz Siddiqui, Fenit Nirappil, Hayley Tsukayama and Abby Ohlheiser of The Washington Post.

A Section on 06/13/2016