FBI, Local Law Enforcement Piece Together Orlando Massacre
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ORLANDO (CBSMiami/AP) – One by one, the bodies of the victims were hauled away from the Pulse night club in Orlando - the site of a mass shooting Sunday.
Painfully and slowly anxious family members learned whether their loved ones died in the mass shooting.
Early Monday, an FBI reconstruction team was assisting in the investigation
U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley said investigators were still collecting electronic, forensic and physical evidence and that it was too soon to tell if anyone would be charged in the mass shooting in which 50 people were killed including the gunman.
Orlando police Chief John Mina said a uniformed officer was working near front door of the Pulse Orlando nightclub when the 29-yea old Omar Mateen entered with an AR-15 rifle and a handgun around 2 a.m. The officer engaged Mateen near an entrance. Hearing the gunshots, additional officers ran to help.
"The officers made entry while the suspect was shooting, engaged in another gun battle with the suspect, forced him to stop shooting and retreat to the bathroom where we believed he had several hostages," said Mina.
Mina said the officers secured the area and the SWAT team was brought in. An armored vehicle was used to crash through the bathroom wall. Mina says he made the decision to breach the wall, which created a hole in which dozens of clubgoers were able to escape.
"At that time we were able to save and rescue dozens and dozens of people and get them out of the club," said Mina.
Mateen also got out through the same hole and engaged in another gun battle with officers in which he was killed.
The FBI reports Mateen may have at one point scoped out Disney properties as a potential target.
Shawn Royster was able to escape the chaos.
"They were dragging bodies, people that were wounded, just to get them out of the way," said Royster. "That was probably the biggest fear I ever felt in my entire life."
Jon Alamo had been dancing at the Pulse for hours when he wandered into the club's main room just in time to see the gunman. "You ever seen how Marine guys hold big weapons, shooting from left to right? That's how he was shooting at people," he said.
"My first thought was, oh my God, I'm going to die," Alamo said. "I was praying to God that I would live to see another day."
One of the people Mateen held hostage, Norman Casiano, told CNN that Mateen held him and others hostage in a bathroom at the club.
"At that point gunshots are getting closer and I called my mom," but Casiano said the call did not go through.
Wanda Soto says her best friend – Jimmy DeJesus – died in the gunfire inside the club.
"It's not fair, it's not fair," said Wanda Soto, through tears. "Taking all these lives and all these people sitting in a hospital because we got a fool that ain't got nothing better to do. He's gonna take these people lives away and hurt everybody else?"
Pulse patron Eddie Justice texted his mother, Mina: "Mommy I love you. In club they shooting." About 30 minutes later, hiding in a bathroom, he texted her: "He's coming. I'm gonna die."
Justice's name would eventually be added to the city's list of those killed in the shooting.
CBS4 was told two of the victims who survived the shooting, along with eight of the trauma surgeons who helped save lives during the chaos on Sunday, will speak to reporters on Tuesday morning.
Mateen purchased at least two firearms legally within the last week or so, according to Trevor Velinor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Mateen also tried to buy body armor weeks ago, according to CNN.
"The weapons have been traced to the last know purchaser which was the shooter. One of the weapons, which was also the third weapon, was found in his vehicle. We are still working on tracing that weapon," according to Regina Lombard with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The FBI is reporting the shooting as an act of terrorism because he called 911 from the club at the time of the shooting and pledged his allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Mateen attended the same mosque as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, an American suicide bomber from Florida who blew himself up in Syria in May of 2014.
The FBI said they interviewed Mateen twice in the past for alleged terrorist ties - but nothing was proven.
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