WHAT WE KNOW

A SAFE SPACE DEVASTATED

Just before 2: 02 a. m. Sunday, hundreds were gathered at the Pulse nightclub to celebrate Latin night.

In the next three hours, the club would become the location of the deadliest shooting attack in American history.

Omar Mateen, who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, shot and killed 49 people and wounded dozens more before he was killed by law enforcement.

SHOOTER HAD BEEN SEEN AT THE CLUB BEFORE

Several regulars at the nightclub told the Orlando Senti

nel that they had seen Omar Mateen there before.

One of them, Kevin West, said Mateen messaged him on and off for a year before the shooting, using the gay chat and dating app Jack’d. West said he was dropping off a friend at the club around 1 a. m. Sunday when he noticed Mateen, whom he knew by sight, crossing the street wearing a dark cap and carrying a cellphone.

“He walked directly past me. I said, ‘ Hey,’ and he turned and said, ‘ Hey,’ ” and nodded his head, West said.

Another patron, Ty Smith said he saw Mateen at the club at least a dozen times.

“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” Smith said. “We didn’t really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times.”

West said that as soon as he saw released photos of Mateen after the shooting, he went straight to police and turned over his phone and Jack’d log- in information to the FBI.

CURRENT LAW COULDN’T STOP GUN SALES TO SHOOTER, EXPERTS SAY

There isn’t anything in state or U. S. law that would have prevented the Mateen from legally buying the weapons that authorities said he bought days before he set out to attack the nightclub, legal experts say.

Federal authorities say Mateen was armed with a assault weapon and a Glock handgun that he purchased from a Florida gun store about a week before the rampage. A handgun that authorities believe Mateen may have used in his job as a security guard was also found by law enforcement officials in his car, but was not used in the mass shooting

ateen had twice previously been on the FBI’s radar on suspicions of terrorist activity, but was not on the FBI’s large terror watch list database at the time of Sunday’s attack.

DEATH TOLL COULD RISE

Six people shot during the Orlando nightclub massacre remained in critical condition Tuesday and 21 others remained hospitalized, hospital officials said.

“I will be surprised if we don't see the death toll rise,” physician Michael Cheatham said at a news conference at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Trauma surgeon Chadwick Smith said he was on duty when shooting victims began arriving at the hospital . Soon he was calling other physicians for help.

Most of the physicians he called were asleep, he added. "I said ' This is not a drill, this is not a joke. We have 20 or 30 trauma patients coming in.'"

OBAMA TO VISIT

The White House said President Obama would travel to Orlando on Thursday to pay respects to the victims “and to stand in solidarity with the community.”