ORLANDO, Fla. �� Orlando Police Chief John Mina has asked the U.S. Justice Department to assess his department's response to the June 12 Pulse nightclub shootings.
Mina said in an interview Friday that he decided to ask for assessment after talking with other chiefs around the nation who said it's important to have an outside agency look into the response.
One of the questions that will be part of the Justice Department review: When did the gunman stop shooting inside the club?
The FBI and Orlando police have maintained that the gunman stopped shooting at 2:18 a.m. But some survivors and dispatch reports from other police agencies indicate that shots were heard up to 16 minutes later.
Mina said he is confident that was not the case and that the officers did their job well.
"I personally have talked to officers that were in Pulse nightclub for the entire night �� they were within feet from the bathroom," Mina said. "I've looked into their eyes and asked them, 'Is it possible that there could have been shots?' They say, 'Unequivocally no way.' And they say if they had heard him shooting people in the bathroom, they would have entered that bathroom without regard for their own safety."
Mina said his department hopes to release supplemental reports soon to substantiate that claim by officers who responded to the shootings. He said those reports will paint a "pretty clear picture" of what happened inside the nightclub where 49 people were killed and more than 50 others were wounded by Omar Mateen.
Maitland police dispatch records list reports of shots fired at 2:20 a.m. and 2:22 a.m. Orange County Sheriff's Office dispatch records show reports of shots fired at 2:30 a.m. and 2:34 a.m.
But Mina did provide some wiggle room for the time that Mateen became a barricaded gunman. He said he was not sure how the FBI determined the 2:18 a.m. time.
"Was it 2:18? 2:20? Who knows?" he said.
In addition to the Justice Department, reviews are also being done by the FBI, the Federal Department of Law Enforcement and Orlando Police Department's internal affairs department, Mina said.
Mina said he hopes the FBI will be completed with its investigation soon so more information can be released.
