Gunman: ‘I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings’
911 transcript shows killer of 49 people demanded U.S. stop bombing Syria and Iraq
ORLANDO, FLA.— Orlando gunman Omar Mateen identified himself as an Islamic soldier in calls with authorities during his rampage and demanded to a crisis negotiator that the U.S. “stop bombing Syria and Iraq,” according to transcripts released by the FBI on Monday.
The partial transcripts were of a 911 call made by Mateen and three conversations he had with the police crisis negotiators during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in which 49 people died and dozens were injured.
Those communications, along with Facebook posts and searches Mateen made at about the time of the shootings, add to the public understanding of the final hours of Mateen’s life and to the possible motivations behind the rampage.
The first call came more than a halfhour after shots rang out, when Mateen told a 911operator, “Praise be to God and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God,” he told the dispatcher, referring to God in Arabic. “I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.”
During the 50-second call with a dispatcher, Mateen “made murderous statements in a chilling, calm and deliberate manner,” Ronald Hopper, FBI assistant special agent in charge in Orlando, said during a news conference.
However, there is no evidence Mateen was directed by a foreign terrorist group and he was radicalized domestically and on his own, Hopper said.
Mateen’s name and the groups and people to whom he pledged allegiance were omitted from the excerpt. But the Justice Department reversed course later Monday, providing a more complete transcript confirming Mateen pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The extremist group encourages its followers who seek to com- mit violence in its name to make public pledges of support.
The Justice Department said in a statement it initially withheld the names so as not to give extremists “a publicity platform for hateful propaganda,” but the omissions became an unnecessary distraction.
Shortly after the call, Mateen had three conversations with crisis negotiators in which he identified himself as a Daesh soldier and told a negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. He said that was why he was “out here right now,” according to the excerpt.
City officials have refused to provide hundreds of 911 calls to the media, citing confidentiality under Florida law, and arguing that an ongoing investigation kept the tapes secret. Hopper also said Monday that the tapes would not be released out of respect for the victims. “Yes, the audio was compelling, but to expose that now would be excruciatingly painful to exploit them in this way,” Hopper said.
Also at Monday’s news conference, Orlando police Chief John Mina said that if any fire from responding officers hit victims at the club, gunman Mateen bears the responsibility.
He wouldn’t give further details but said: “Here’s what I will tell you. Those killings are on the suspect, on the suspect alone in my mind.”
He stressed that the officers “acted heroically.”
Orlando Regional Medical Center said 18 victims from the shooting were still at the hospital and three more surgeries were scheduled for Monday.
The other 14 patients are listed in stable condition.