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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Nicky Woolf (now), Amanda Holpuch and Alan Yuhas (earlier)

Orlando shooting: thousands gather in city for vigil – as it happened

Orlando nightclub shooting: what we know so far

Here's where things stand at 9:30pm EST

  • The mayor of Orlando spoke to a crowd of thousands at a vigil for the victims of Sunday morning’s shooting
  • Neema Bahrami, the manager of Pulse nightclub, also spoke, saying “We will not be defeated”
  • The 49th and final victim of the attack has been named as 25-year-old Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez
  • President Obama will travel to Orlando on Thursday, the White House announced.
  • A vigil in London’s Soho also turned out thousands and thousands in support
  • The shooter’s father spoke to reporters at his home in Port St Lucie, Florida. “The loss of these people, I feel more than the loss of my son,” he told the Guardian. “What he did, I don’t forgive him.”
  • In a speech, Donald Trump upped the demagoguery against Muslims, deriding Hillary Clinton for saying “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people” and saying that admitting Syrian refugees “could be a better, bigger more horrible version of the legendary Trojan horse.”

Updated

The other striking thing about tonight is what has not been mentioned, Ed Pilkington reports from the vigil in Orlando.

Not once has the name of the shooter been mentioned - his identity has been discarded by everyone here into the dustbin of history.

Ed took these pictures:

Vigil in Orlando
Vigil in Orlando Photograph: Ed Pilkington for the Guardian
Vigil in Orlando
Vigil in Orlando Photograph: Ed Pilkington for the Guardian

The bells of the First Methodist church in downtown Orlando are tolling 49 times for each of the victims of the Pulse massacre, reports Ed Pilkington.

The crowd of about 6000 people that has packed the central square in front of an arts center that has been lit in rainbow colors is holding up candles in their memory at the end of the ceremony.

The two hour vigil has been marked by defiant statements that love will conquer hate and that Orlando will overcome through unity. As one speaker put it: “we don’t tolerate, we cherish”.

President Obama will travel to Orlando on Thrusday, the White House just announced.

Oliver Laughland has been investigating G4S, the private security contractor for whom Mateen worked.

A ray of light in an unexpected place - the media, as Southern California News Group sends dinner to the newsroom of the Orlando Sentinel.

Dinner for the Orlando Sentinel


In Washington, senator Dick Durbin today spoke on the Senate floor about yesterday’s mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, and called on the Senate to take immediate action to close loopholes in law that allow dangerous people to purchase guns and explosives.

“We don’t know all the details, but we know this was an act of terror and it was an act of hate, and it was directed at the LGBT community,” Durbin said.

We must pursue smart, common sense reforms to keep dangerous, hateful people from getting their hands on dangerous weapons. America just suffered its deadliest mass shooting event in history—worse than San Bernardino, worse than Newtown, worse than Virginia Tech.

If there ever was a time for Congress to do its job and keep guns out of dangerous hands, it’s now.

In New York’s West Village, a huge crowd has gathered outside Stonewall, the famous gay bar which lent its name to the riots which began the gay rights movement.

Terry DeCarlo, the executive director of the Orlando GLBT community center, is speaking now.

“We have come together as a force here in Orlando that can not be broken,” he says, his voice near-tearful but defiant.

“It was Saturday morning at 3am, my husband I I were asleep, and all of a sudden my phone styarts to go crazy,” he says.

“All we heard was, there’s a shooting at Pulse. We put our clothes on, we said we’ve got to get down. We didn’t realize the enormity of what was happening until we got down.” He praises the police department. “We cannot thank them enough for keeping us safe.”

DeCarlo says he’s gotten calls from the mayors of, among others, Berlin and London. “All of them say Orlando, we love you, we stand with you.”

A moment of silence now for the Pulse shooting victims in Orlando.

Next up, Rasha Mubarak from the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Florida.

“It was just yesterday when Orlando, the City beautiful was dismantled,” she says. “But this, right here, is a unity message. It is a powerful message that we will not late fear and hate divide us.”

Dyer says that: “hate will not define our city.”

Now, all the names of the victims are being read.

48 of 49 have been released on the Mayor of Orlando website. They are:

Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old

Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old

Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old

Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old

Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old

Kimberly Morris, 37 years old

Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old

Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old

Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old

Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old

Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old

Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old

Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old

Amanda Alvear, 25 years old

Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old

Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old

Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old

Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old

Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old

Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old

Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old

Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old

Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old

Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old

Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old

Cory James Connell, 21 years old

Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old

Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old

Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old

Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old

Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old

Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old

Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old

Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 years old

Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27 years old

Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33 years old

Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 years old

Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24 years old

Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32 years old

Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28 years old

Frank Hernandez, 27 years old

Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old

Antonio Davon Brown, 29 years old

Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 years old

Akyra Monet Murray, 18 years old

Meanwhile, in Orlando, the crowd for the vigil is growing.

Orlando mayor Dyer says that $700,000 has been committed by the Orlando Magic, JetBlue and Darden Restaurants to a newly-opened Orlando fund.

“This is no longer your fight. This is our fight. This is America’s fight,” he says.

Pulse manager Neema Bahrami also speaking. “We will not be defeated,” he says, before leading the crowd in a chant of “we are here to stay.”

The NRA, whose official twitter account has not tweeted since June 10, have broken their silence.

Media in Mexico are reporting Luis S. Vielma as another Mexican victim in the Pulse shooting, though he had dual Mexican-US nationality.

His family is originally from Acapulco, El Financiero TV reported. He operated a Harry Potter ride in an Orlando theme park.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling tweeted her sorrow at Vielma’s death earlier today:

The square in downtown Orland is already filling up with several thousand local people coming to mark a vigil for the 49 victims of the Pulse shooting which starts shortly, reports Ed Pilkington.

A giant rainbow ribbon has been laid out on the grass and people have been invited to leave messages on a scroll of paper running the length of the park

“You will be forever in our hearts” someone has written. “RIP angels another”. Many have simply said “Orlando strong” and “love will conquer hate”.

Hatim Hamidullah
Hatim Hamidullah Photograph: Ed Pilkington for the Guardian

Hatim Hamidullah, an imam from a mosque just five minutes walk away, left a message that said “God bless America. May God be with the families of those affected by this tragedy.”

He told the Guardian that he wanted to convey that as an American born in Texas, Islam had nothing to do with the carnage at the night club. “people are very embarrassed,” he said of his community of Orlando Muslims.

“And we are hurt,” he went on. “The terrible image the killer put forward is no way Islamic. And we hurt along with the families, here in Orlando the city of entertainment and vacations.”

Ribbons laid out for Orlando vigil
Ribbons laid out for Orlando vigil Photograph: Ed Pilkington for the Guardian

Updated

As The Oregonian points out, much of the commentary describing the Orlando shooting as “the deadliest in US history” makes the mistake of discounting some of the early massacres of Native Americans.

When Autumn Depoe-Hughes—a descendant of survivors from the Sand Creek massacre in 1864 in which at least 70 Native Americans were killed— started seeing the headlines, her stomach dropped.

“It looked to me like a rewriting of history,” she said. “I saw my family’s history disappearing before my eyes.”

The article goes on to point out that Sand Creek was by no means the only massacre of Native Americans missed out by the headlines. Most famous - and largest of all - is the December 1890 massacre of at least 150 people of the Sioux tribe at Wounded Knee.

Some estimates put the death toll closer to 300 and, though Wounded Knee is the most known massacre, it is just one of roughly half a dozen similar incidents that haven’t been counted on our country’s morbid historical tally of gun deaths.

To be sure, many thousands have died in armed military conflicts in the U.S. throughout history and those deaths should be counted in a different category than the events in Orlando, but Depoe-Hughes noted that “these massacres differ from wars and battles because some were done under the waving of white flags, and promises of safety,” as was the case at Wounded Knee.

Depoe-Hughes emailed every publication she saw using the headline. The article continues that she
“was quick to note that her anger was in no way meant to diminish the heart-wrenching events in Orlando in which 49 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community—people who don’t have access to many of the safe spaces afforded to the heterosexual community—sought to enjoy each other’s company in an environment that should have been a refuge from the dangers they face every day.”

But presenting the events in Orlando without historical context does a disservice to us all, Depoe-Hughes said, especially Native Americans, whose brutal treatment at the hands of the U.S. government has often been given less attention than it deserves.

You can read the whole article here.

In Orlando, people are writing messages on paper taped to the ground where the vigil is starting

Mayor Buddy Dyer is on the scene.

Chaotic scenes in Congress

House Democrats interrupt the moment of silence to demand action on gun control.

In this heartbreaking interactive, meet the 48 named victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Stanley Almodovar
Stanley Almodovar

Like Stanley Almodovar, 23, who worked as a pharmacy technician, was described as “kind but sassy”, by a friend, Ivelisse Santiago, according to the Washington Post. She said he defended her when she fell down dancing at a club. “He was so proud of who he was,” she told the newspaper.

Almodovar’s mother, Rosalie Ramos, was awakened by a call at 2am on Sunday telling her something had happened. She told the Sentinel her son posted a Snapchat video of himself singing and laughing on his way to Pulse nightclub. “I wish I had that (video) to remember him forever,” she told the newspaper.

Jerald Arthur Wright
Jerald Arthur Wright

Or Jerald Arthur Wright, 31, known to friends as Jerry, who went to Pulse on Saturday night to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Wright worked at Disney World, and had previously attended Northeastern University. “Jerry, you touched the lives of countless people and you will continue to live on in our hearts and memories,” wrote one friend on Facebook.

A snap from actor and theatre producer Simon McBurney from the vigil at Old Compton Street in London’s Soho.

In Orlando, hundreds have already begun to gather for tonight’s vigil for the victims of the attack at Pulse nightclub.

The vigil is scheduled to start at 7pm EST.

Three of the victims of Sunday morning’s shooting were Mexican citizens, diplomatic sources and Florida officials have said.

Juan Chávez Martínez, 25, from Huichapan in Hidalgo state just north of Mexico City, lived in Davenport, outside Orlando, according to his Facebook profile. On Monday his friend Tomas Martinez told the Orlando Sentinel that he was still shaken by the weekend’s tragedy. “My heart is still breaking for my friend. It is very hard to talk right now. He had a lot of friends. I do not know any information about his family,” Martinez said.

Joel Rayón Paniagua, 32, from Veracruz state.

Miguel Angel Honorato, 30, from Apopka, Florida, had been in the club with three friends, all of whom made it home safe. But Honorato, who had a wife and three children, did not. One of his eight siblings, Jose, told local media Miguel owned a Mexican restaurants with their parents.

The owner of the gun range and store that sold a pair of semi-automatic firearms to the shooter at the Pulse nightclub has put out a statement trying to justify his actions, reports Ed Pilkington in Orlando.

Ed Henson, a retired New York City cop, told local reporters in front of his store, the St Lucie Shooting Center, that it made no difference where Omar Mateen acquired his deadly weapons. “If he hadn’t purchased them from us I’m sure he would’ve gotten them from another shop in the area,” he said.

He added: “He’s evil, we happened to be the gun store he picked.”

Over three hours early on Sunday morning, the gunman killed 49 club goers and put 53 more in hospital by wielding .223 assault rifle made by Sig Sauer and a Glock 9mm handgun.

He came to the Pulse loaded with high-capacity clips carrying 30 rounds each – all of which he bought in three days in early June at the shooting center about 15 miles from his home in Fort Pierce.

Hillary Clinton earlier today lamented how easy it was for Mateen in Florida to buy firearms that she described as “weapons of war”. But Henson attempted to rebut the argument that the shooter exploited lax gun laws by insisting he completed a full federal background check before acquiring the weapons.

Henson told the Orlando Sentinel that if it were too easy for Mateen to acquire lethal firearms, then that was not his fault. “I have a business. I follow the law, I don’t make the law.”

At least four regular customers at the gay Orlando nightclub where a gunman killed 49 people Sunday morning said today that they believe they had seen the killer, Omar Mateen, there before, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

“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,” said Ty Smith, who also uses the name Aries.

He saw Mateen at the club at least a dozen times, he told the Orlando Sentinel.

“We didn’t really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times,” Smith said. “He told us he had a wife and child.”

You can read the whole piece here.

Updated

In a statement naming the officers involved in the shootout at the Pulse nightclub, the Orlando police department spoke of the emotional challenges their officers face in the wake of the tragedy.

One of the most difficult tasks for any law enforcement officer is making death notifications to next of kin.

Our personnel have done that over more than 24 hours with great care and compassion for the families and loved ones who have suffered devastating losses.

Those relatives and friends have been kind and gracious in a most unbearable time of grief.

The officers involved were:

Officer working extra duty at Pulse: Officer Adam Gruler, member of OPD since 2001

First Patrol Unit On Scene (Also a SWAT Member): Lieutenant Scott Smith, member of OPD since 1992

First Patrol Unit On Scene (Also a SWAT Member): Sergeant Jeffrey Backhaus, member of OPD since 2004

SWAT: Officer Timothy Stanley, member of OPD since 1998

SWAT: Officer Kevin Easterling, member of OPD since 1994

SWAT: Officer Andrew Bishop, member of OPD since 1994

SWAT: Sergeant James Parker, member of OPD since 1991

SWAT: Detective Raul Rivas, member of OPD since 1992

SWAT: Lieutenant Jonathan Bigelow, member of OPD since 2001

SWAT: Officer Ricardo Duenas, member of OPD since 2014

Officer shot in the Kevlar helmet: Officer Michael Napolitano, member of OPD since 2012

48 of the 49 victims of the shooting at Pulse nightclub have been identified, according to the Orlando mayor’s office.

The latest to be identified is Akyra Monet Murray, who was 18 years old.

Orlando gunman's father speaks

The Guardian’s Jessica Glenza has spoken with the father of the gunman at his house in Port St. Lucie.

Reporters were allowed into Seddique Mateen’s house one-by-one, and asked to take their shoes off. Mateen was wearing a grey suit and a blue silk tie, Glenza says.

“The loss of these people, I feel more than the loss of my son,” he told the Guardian. “What he did, I don’t forgive him.”

Seddique Mir Mateen
Seddique Mir Mateen Photograph: AP

He said his son could have got “a master’s degree, become a doctor, make a lot of money.”

Mateen said his son visited him “two to three times a week” at his house. He said he came there on Saturday, the day of the shooting, at “around three or four.”

Asked what they spoke about, he said he didn’t remember.

However, he attempted to cast aspersions on his son’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, who said that his son, Omar Mateen, beat her. “I think she did to get some fame and some news,” he said, calling her “an opportunist”.

About the incident in Miami, where in previous interviews he has said that the sight of two men kissing appeared to enrage his son, Mateen said that “it was unusual behaviour in front of the kids and women.”

Updated

The vigil in the heart of London’s gay community is being followed up with parties that are still going hard on the streets of Soho, reports Ben Quinn.

There’s a defiant buzz outside the Admiral Duncan pub, scene of a horrific nail bomb attack 17 years ago by a British neo-nazi.

Andrea Dykes, 27, who was pregnant, John Light, 32, and Nick Moore, 31, were killed by the blast. All were having a drink before a night out in London’s West End. Seventy-nine others were seriously hurt.

Elsewhere along Old Compton Street, other little gatherings of faith groups, drag Queens and all sorts of Londoners are continuing.

At one point, a man from Florida spoke movingly to crowds who had gathered around a group of dancers at one end of the street.

Here’s a flavor of what’s still going on after that vigil earlier:

And another view, captured from a rooftop by Imani Amrani.

More from Ben Jacobs at this afternoon’s Trump rally, who reports that the presumptive Republican nominee for president also used his speech to make the election a referendum on “radical Islam.”

The presumptive nominee said “this is not just a national security issue, it’s a quality of life issue” and argued We need to tell the truth about how radical Islam is coming to shores, and it’s coming with these people folks, it’s coming.

He derided Hillary Clinton for saying “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people” and warned that admitting Syrian refugees “could be a better, bigger more horrible version of the legendary Trojan horse.”

He went on to claim that Muslims in the United States are aiding terrorist attacks. “The Muslim communities, most importantly they have to work with us, they have to cooperate with us and turn in the people they know are bad. They have to do it and they have to do it forthwith,” said Trump. The presumptive nominee added that many Muslims are hiding behind “political correctness” to avoid sharing their knowledge of terrorist activities to law enforcement officials.

Trump went on to say “people who know what was going on and they knew exactly, they used the excuse of racial profiling which was probably an excuse given to them by their lawyer, so they don’t get in trouble.”

The presumptive Republican nominee also went out of his way to proclaim himself as an advocate of the LGBT community. He claimed “Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as long as she continues to support immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country who suppress women, gays and anyone who doesn’t share their views.”

Clinton though is an ardent supporter of non-discrimination laws against LGBT Americans as well as same-sex marriage. Trump is opposed to same-sex marriage and has dodged on the question of non-discrimination laws in the past.

The presumptive Republican nominee, who has already called for Obama to resign from office for not using the phrase “radical Islam,” implied earlier Monday that the president was somehow colluding with terrorists. “We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump told Fox News.

He later added “he doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands -- it’s one or the other and either one is unacceptable.”

The presumptive Republican nominee had long indulged in the conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States and claimed that he sent investigators to Hawaii to discover the truth.

Trump, who has been endorsed by the NRA, reiterated his opposition to further gun control measures. Although the New York real estate mogul once supported a ban on assault weapons, he has since become “a Second Amendment person” and has attacked Hillary Clinton based on the false claim that she wants to “repeal the Second Amendment.”

Trump also said: “The only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here”

You can read Trump’s speech in full on his Facebook page.

In a chilling foreshadowing of Sunday morning’s tragedy, this video from a PBS news hour special with President Obama from just 11 days ago shows the president speaking of his anger at the inability of the government to prevent people under investigation for Isis links from buying firearms because of the NRA.

“I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I’ve got people who we know have been on ISIL websites, living here in the United States, US citizens, and we’re allowed to put them on the no-fly list when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun,” the president says.

He continued:

This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer, and if he wants to walk in to a gun store or a gun show right now, and buy as much, as many weapons as ammo as he can, nothing is prohibiting him from doing that, even though the FBI knows how that person is.

You can watch the video in full below.

Updated

Sahil Kapur, a political reporter with Bloomberg, has been tweeting some interesting analysis about the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants to the US - a ban which Trump has returned to after the tragedy in Orlando, despite having previously downplayed it as a mere “suggestion”.

“Trump says his Muslim ban would be lifted only when the US can “properly and perfectly screen” everyone coming here,” Kapur tweeted. “Does POTUS have the legal authority to do this unilaterally?”

Later, he tweeted “Per immigration lawyers, answer is yes—president has broad power to ban entry to anyone suspected of being a threat.”

This is the relevant statute:

The US Senate just held its customary moment of silence for the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tweeted immediately afterwards praising the first responders on the scene.

Not everyone is a fan of these moments. Jim Hines, a congressman from Connecticut, tweeted his disgust yesterday at the fact that moments of silence seemed to replace meaningful change:

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took a grisly victory-lap on Sunday on Twitter in the wake of the Orlando attack:

On Monday, in a speech in Goffstown, New Hampshire, he escaleted his demagogic rhetoric, reports Ben Jacobs:

In a speech originally intended to be an attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton and refocused to be a discussion “of the serious threats facing all Americans and his solutions for making this country safe again,” Trump expanded his call for an ban on Muslims entering the United States, insisting that it could be done by executive order, and held all Muslims in the United States responsible for acts of terror.

The presumptive nominee seemingly expanded his call for a Muslim ban and insisted that he could do so unilaterally as President.

“The immigration laws of the United States give the President the power to suspend entry into the country of any class of persons that the President deems detrimental to the interests or security of the United States, as he deems appropriate,” said Trump.

He went on “I will use this power to protect the American people. When I am elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we understand how to end these threats.”

Omar Mateen, the perpetrator of the Orlando attack, was born in the United States.

Trump has long courted controversy with his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. A top advisor said at the time that the ban was based on the need to “stop, take a break, have a look and make sure everything is cool” Although Trump has since insisted that “it was just a suggestion,” he doubled down on it on Twitter in the past day and took a victory lap on Monday. “I called for a ban after San Bernardino, and was met with great scorn and anger but now, many are saying I was right to do so,” he boasted.”

Thousands gathered tonight in London’s Soho to stand in solidarity with the victims of the Orlando attack. This video, compiled by the Guardian, shows something of the scale of the crowds.

Orlando attack: thousands attend Soho vigil

What we know

Nicky Woolf here, taking over from my colleague Alan Yuhas.

Here’s a brief summary Alan prepared about where we stand at 3:30pm EST.

The worst mass shooting in American history was perpetrated at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

  • Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and left 53 others injured during an attack that authorities described in the greatest detail yet on Monday. A police officer confronted Mateen immediately after the shooting began, police chief John Mina said, causing the gunman to retreat to a bathroom and take people hostage.
  • Mateen called 911 from the bathroom and pledged allegiance to the leader of Isis on a call, FBI director James Comey said. Over three calls to an emergency dispatcher, he also called the Boston Marathon bombers his “homeboys” and expressed solidarity with clashing Middle East factions.
  • Mateen barricaded himself in a bathroom with four to five people, and officers began negotiations. Mina said Mateen was “cool and calm” and “Wasn’t asking a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking.”
  • Mina said he ordered a rescue at about 5am, for fear of a suicide bomb. Officers set off distraction explosives and blasted a hole in the bathroom wall with an explosion and armed vehicle. Dozens of people escaped through the hole, while police rescued others in the club.
  • The gunman himself came out of the hole armed with a handgun and long gun, Mina said, and was shot dead in a gun battle with police before sunrise. Mateen was the 50th person killed on Sunday.

Authorities also provided their best assessment of the investigation so far.

Nearly all the family of deceased victims have been notified by authorities, though a few continue to learn at the Orlando Regional Medical Center. My colleague Richard Luscombe reports from Orlando.

By early afternoon Monday, numbers at a family assistance site had dwindled as more relatives learned the fate of their loved ones.

Among them was Cesar Flores, whose New York-born daughter Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26, was confirmed among the dead.

“I forgive the murderer of my daughter, I cannot live with such great hatred,” said Flores, who is from Guatemala.

Mercedez Flores.
Mercedez Flores. Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

“I want you to take better care of your children, see the situation I’m going through. Be together in peace and love one another.”

In broken English, and speaking through tears, Flores said his daughter was “a great girl” who was enjoying her studies at Orlando’s Valencia Community College, but had not yet decided what she wanted to do in life.

“Mercedez, she had so many ideas, so much happening,” he said, adding that the family had moved to the central Florida city of Davenport from New York in 2012.

“She was a very happy girl all of the time, she worked hard.”

Flores also revealed that his daughter had died alongside her best friend, Amanda Alvear, 25, a nursing student who also lived in Davenport, and who was confirmed dead earlier in the day.

Amanda Alvear
Amanda Alvear Photograph: Facebook

“They grew up together, they were best friends,” Flores said. “No words can describe the pain.”

Alvear’s brother Brian told the Orlando Sentinel that he believed his sister was among a number of victims killed as they huddled together in a bathroom stall.

In contrast to Sunday, when families of the dead and missing mingled freely with reporters at a hastily set-up reception site at a hotel close to the hospital, the families were kept apart from the media on Monday at the Beardall Senior Centre, a decision made, officials said, to afford them greater privacy.

By 2pm, only a handful of families remained inside with teams of grief counsellors and religious advisers, including representatives of the Islamic Center of Orlando.

My colleague Elena Cresci is also on the scene in London, and taking pictures that suggest the sheer number of people out to stand in solidarity with the LGBT victims of Sunday’s attack.

In London thousands of people have gathered to hold vigil for the victims of Orlando and to stand together against bigotry and homophobia, at a moving scene in Soho, the city’s historic gay district. My colleague Ben Quinn reports.

They came in their thousands, gay and straight, old and young, packing the heart of London’s gay community for a vigil in memory of those slain during the Orlando massacre.

In an area famed for its revelry, heads were bowed for a minute, before defiant cheers and applause greeted the release of dozens of rainbow balloons into the skies above Soho’s Old Compton Street.

For many, the impact of the massacre in Florida was even more keenly in an area which was the scene 17 years ago of the worst homophobic attack in British history, when a nail bomb blast killed three and wounded 70.

“What happened in Florida does bring back the memories,” said Ian Davis, who was living in London at the time, as he gathered with others last night beneath rainbow flags which flew above the crowds and appeared on screens outside clubs and bars.

Did the community in Soho feel safe these days? He replied: “I think there is a lot of hatred, but there is also a lot more acceptance than there was . On the opposite side there are obviously a few people who are full of a lot of hatred.

A younger generation at the vigil might have been infants at the time of the attack on Soho, but they were just as aware of its legacy.

“Obviously we had the Paris attacks and everyone was shocked by it, but because Orlando was an attack on the LGBT community it feels very personal and a lot of people feel deeply affected by it,” said Jake Johnstone, who was was wearing the pink triangle of the 1980s “Act Up” movement and carrying a placard that read: “End Homophobia now – Stand with Orlando”.

“The reason we’re here is to show solidarity with people in Florida. We’re also aware that there are people out there who have been engaging in Islamophobia. A lot of comments have been made that the blame for this is with a religion rather than homophobia and hatred.”

Updated

The gunman called the Boston Marathon bombers his “homeboys”, according to FBI Boston special agent in charge Harold Shaw.

The Boston branch has published a statement from Shaw:

During one of the 911 calls between the operator and Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, Mateen made a reference to the Tsarnaev brothers by calling them his “homeboys”. At this point in time, all evidence collected to date shows no connection between Mateen and the Tsarnaev brothers.

FBI Boston is postured to assist FBI Tampa in the ongoing investigation, if requested. As is standard practice in Boston, we are sharing real-time information and intelligence with our federal, state, local and community partners. Currently, we have no specific, credible threats to our area as a result of the Orlando attack.

The gunman first claimed associations with the Tsarnaevs in 2013, the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman reported before the FBI announcement on Monday morning. The FBI investigated and found no evidence to back his claims, made around May that year, a month after the brothers bombed the marathon, killing three and injuring 264.

The gunman laughed as he killed people, a family friend of a clubgoer has claimed to my colleague Richard Luscombe, reporting from Orlando.

Orlando gunman Omar Mateen laughed as he murdered victims hiding in a bathroom stall with an assault rifle, a pastor who is friends with one of the survivors claimed Monday.

“He was laughing frantically,” said Deyni Ventura, “as he was spraying people with his gun.” Ventura is a pastor in nearby Sanford and a friend of the mother of the clubgoer, whom she would identify only as Norman, out of respect for the family’s privacy.

“Norman received four gunshot wounds to his back he survived, and he should be released from the hospital today or tomorrow,” added Ventura, speaking to reporters outside the family assistance center close to the Pulse nightclub.

“He was in a bathroom stall with 30 other people, and those 30 other people are deceased. He is the only one that lived,” she added.

Ventura said she spoke to Norman and his mother Vanessa at the Orlando Regional Medical Center earlier Monday, and said the 26 year old, who was at the club with friends celebrating his birthday, described the nightmare scene unfolding inside.

“When he laughed he took his gun and sprayed under the bathroom stall and on top of the bathroom stall, so then the bodies started collapsing and blood was going everywhere in the handicapped stall, 30 people squished in there getting shot,” she said. “He was laughing like he was making fun of the victims.

Deyni Ventura.
Deyni Ventura. Photograph: Richard Luscombe

“Then Norman had to climb over the bodies to try to climb on top. He said it was just horrific. While he was getting shot he felt the shots coming into his skin, he felt the warmth of it and he thought he was going to die.”

Ventura said when Norman, who is Puerto Rican, crawled out to safety through the a hole in the wall knocked out by police, he was faced with armed officers who began shooting around him.

“He said, ‘I’m not the shooter, I’m a victim, I’m a victim’ and he put his hands up in the air and then they went to him,” Ventura said.

“He said must have some protection system, how did all the people around him die and he was the only one who survived this bathroom stall? He told his friends to leave but they were scared.

“One of his best friends was a girl, another best friend was a male, and he had to climb over both their bodies to get to safety.”

Updated

Florida governor Rick Scott has requested an emergency declaration from Barack Obama, who promised as much yesterday during an address to the nation on the attack.

Yesterday’s terror attack was an attack on our state and entire nation. This morning, I have asked President Obama to declare an emergency so that the full resources of the federal government can be made available for all those impacted by this horrific massacre.

I have remained in constant communication with federal, state and local law enforcement. I have spoken with our hospitals who are caring for those who are wounded and recovering. I have also been in contact with some of the victims’ families to let them know we are grieving with them and will be there for them every step of the way. Our state is mourning, but the Orlando community is strong. We are all coming together, and we will get through this together. I ask every American to continue to pray for our state and nation and all those affected by this attack.”

In a letter, Scott asked Obama for “provision of health and safety measures” and “management, control and reduction of immediate threats to public health and safety”.

An emergency declaration would give Florida up to $5m in initial funding.

‘Most horrific day’: Orlando’s mayor on nightclub shooting

Orlando authorities have named 12 more victims killed in Sunday’s attack. They are:

  • Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old
  • Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old
  • Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old
  • Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 years old
  • Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27 years old
  • Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33 years old
  • Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 years old
  • Yilmary Rodriguez Sulivan, 24 years old
  • Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32 years old
  • Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28 years old
  • Frank Hernandez, 27 years old
  • Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old
Orlando shooting victim’s mother describes son’s last texts

Updated

What we know

A summary of the latest briefings on the worst mass shooting in American history, perpetrated at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

  • Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and left 53 others injured in three-hour Sunday attack that authorities described in the greatest detail yet on Monday. A police officer confronted Mateen immediately after the shooting began, police chief John Mina said, causing the gunman to retreat to a bathroom and take people hostage.
  • Mateen called 911 from the bathroom and pledged allegiance to the leader of Isis on a call, FBI director James Comey said. Over three calls to an emergency dispatcher, he also expressed “solidarity” with the self-radicalized Boston Marathon bombers, Comey said, and with a suicide bomber who died in the service of a faction opposed to Isis.
  • Mateen barricaded himself in a bathroom with four to five people, and officers began negotiations. Mina said Mateen was “cool and calm” and “Wasn’t asking a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking.” They spoke about explosive devices and more loss of life, worrying police who had already rescued dozens.
  • Mina said he ordered a rescue at about 5am. Officers set off distraction explosives and tried to blow a hole in the wall of the bathroom. The controlled blast was only partially successful, so they they rammed the wall with an armored vehicle, creating a hole 3-4ft wide. Dozens of people escaped through the hole, and police rescued others in the club.
  • The gunman himself came out of the hole armed with a handgun and long gun, Mina said, and Mateen was shot dead there in a gun battle with police before sunrise. Mateen was the 50th person killed on Sunday.

Authorities also provided their best assessment of the investigation so far.

Updated

Comey details FBI's past investigations into killer

Comey then explains the FBI’s past investigations into Omar Mateen in 2013 and 2014.

He says he first came to their attention in May of 2013, when he was working as a contract security guard. “He made some statements that were inflammatory and contradictory a that concerned” his coworkers, Comey says.

“First he claimed family connections to al-Qaida. then he claimed [connections] to Hezbollah, which is a Shia organization and a bitter enemy of Isil,” Comey continues.

Comey.
Comey. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Mateen also told coworkers that he hoped authorities would raid his apartment so that he could perform some kind of suicide attack.

Mateen had also claimed links to the Tsarnaev brothers, sources told the Guardian earlier on Monday. A month before coworkers contacted police the Tsarnaevs had bombed the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 264 others.

“We attempted to determine whether he was possibly a terrorist,” Comey says, “something we do in hundreds and hundreds of [cases].”

The investigation, he adds, involved introducing “confidential sources to him, recording coversations, following him, reviewing financial transciatoin,” and the like.

“We then interviewed him twice. He admitted making the statements, but explained that he did it in anger, because he thought his coworkers were discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim.”

In July 2014 he surfaced “in an indirect way”, Comey goes on. Florida FBI agents were investigating a man who later became a suicide bomber for the Nusra front in Syria, and learned that the men knew each other “casually from attending the same mosque in central Florida”.

A witness told the FBI “that he had once been concerned about the killer, because the killer had mentioned [American al-Qaida leader Anwar al-]Awlaki videos, but the witness concluded that he later got married and had a child and got a job as a security guard”, Comey says.

The FBI interviewed Mateen again, determined that he did not have substantial contact with the Nusra-linked bomber, and closed the investigation.

Comey promises a thorough look back on the investigations, but adds: “I don’t see anything in reviewing our work that I think our agents should’ve done differently.”

He makes three familiar pleas: not to give in to fear, to channel energy into helping your neighbors (eg donating blood), and to speak up to the FBI and police.

“We are looking for needles in a nation-sized haystack,” he says, and “also trying to figure out which pieces of hay might become needles.”

Blood donors wait in line at a blood bank in Orlando.
Blood donors wait in line at a blood bank in Orlando. Photograph: ddp USA/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

FBI director: gunman pledged to jihadi groups

FBI director James Comey has given a press conference at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC.

“There are strong indications of radicalization by this killer and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,” he says. “We are spending a tremendous amount of time trying to understand this killer’s path to that night in Orlando.”

He says he will avoid using the killer’s name so as not to perpetuate “some twisted notion of fame or glory” that sometimes inspires these crimes.

“We see no indication that this a was a plot directed from outside the United States,” he says, or that the killer was part of a larger cell, “although he declared his affinity at the time of the attack to Isil.”

He explains the 911 calls made by the shooter from the club. There were three different calls.

“He called and he hung up, called again and he spoke briefly with the disapcher, and he hung up.

Then the dispatcher called back, and they spoke again.

“He said he was doing this for the leader of Isil, who he named, and pledged loyalty to,” Comey says. The gunman expressed “solidarity with the bombers of the Boston Marathon, and solidarity with a man who died in a suicide bombing for al-Nusra,” a group which Comey notes is actually at odds with Isil.

Earlier on Monday, sources told the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman that the killer, Omar Mateen, had first come to the FBI’s attention by claiming links with the marathon bombers in 2013.

The Boston Marathon bombers were not affiliated with Isil, he also notes, “which adds a a little bit to the confusion around his motives.”

Finally Comey also says the FBI is investigating “what role anti-gay bigotry may have played in this attack. Again it’s early, we’re working hard to understand the killer and his motives and his sources of information.”

But he says agents are “highly confident that this killer was radicalized and at least in some part through the internet”.

Comey in Congress earlier this year.
Comey in Congress earlier this year. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Updated

Florida senator Bill Nelson has explained a bit more about what happened to the two FBI investigations into gunman Omar Mateen, in 2013 and 2014.

Mateen was first investigated in 2013 after he told co-workers that he knew the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon that spring. He was investigated in 2014 for making claims to communication with an American man who later became a suicide bomber in Syria.

FBI director James Comey is due to speak soon at a press conference at the agency’s headquarters.

Updated

Five wounded people “remain in grave condition”, the primary hospital of Orlando has just reported.

Orlando Health, the hospital that took in most of the 53 wounded people on Sunday, has just tweeted a detailed narrative of its response Sunday.

“We have had no patients die of their injuries since the initial nine who arrived Sunday morning,” the hospital wrote.

“Nine patients succumbed to their injuries; most arrived with no vital signs or profoundly ill. We had six trauma surgeons in the hospital and operating within one hour of the arrival of the first patient.”

“As of this time, six patients have been discharged and 29 patients remain in the hospital. We take care of a number of critically ill patients on a daily basis, but not to this extent. We usually see six gunshot wounds at a time.”

“A number of patients currently in our care remain critically ill & in shock. Five patients remain in grave condition.”

“We have experienced a huge outpouring of support. Local blood banks have over 600 units of blood on hand. Thank you, everyone.”

Earlier on Monday police clarified that 39 people were found dead inside the nightclub, nine people died after emergency staffers had reached them or were taking them to hospitals, and two bodies were found on the street outside the club.

Obama: FBI gun-alert rules are 'crazy'

Finally Obama talks at length about guns, and again says that their easy availability and terrorism are not mutually exclusive problems.

“It’s a challenge for law enforcement even to get, to get a word that somebody that they are watching has purchased a gun,” he says.

“And if they do get alerted sometimes it’s hard for them to stop it. It’s crazy. It’s a problem. And we have to, I think, do some soul searching.”

He adds that he is worried the country will descend into the same frozen debate about second amendment rights and terrorism. “The danger here is it ends up being the usual political debate, the NRA the gun control folks say that ‘oh, Obama doesn’t want to talk about terrorism.’ And if you talk about terrorism then people say, ‘why aren’t you talking about issues [of gun control].’”

“If we have self-radicalized individuals in this country, then they are going to be very difficult often times to find ahead of time,” he continues. “And how easy it is for them to obtain weapons is in some cases going to make a difference [as to whether] there are going to be attacks like this or not.

“And we make it very easy for individuals who are troubled or disturbed or want to engage in violent acts to obtain very powerful weapons, and quickly.

“It’s a problem regardless of motivation,” he concludes. “It’s a problem [when] a young man who walked into a church in South Carolina and murdered nine people who offered to pray with him. It’s a problem when an angry young man on a college campus decides to shoot people because he feels like he’s disrespected. It’s certainly a problem when you have organizations like Isil or al-Qaida trying to actively promote violence.”

Obama with FBI Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Yates.
Obama with FBI Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Yates. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Updated

Obama once again offers his condolences and support for the victims and their families and loved ones.

He’s asked again about terrorism, and answers by saying that the question of guns and terror need to be taken on together.

At the end of the day this is something that we are going to have to grapple with, making sure that even as we go after Isil and other extremist organizations overseas, even as we go after their leadership, and hit their infrastructure, take key personnel off the field, even as we disrupt external plots, [we have to confront] this kind of propaganda, and the perversions of Islam that we see generated on the internet, and the capacity of that to seep into the minds of troubled individuals.

“Countering this extremist ideology is increasingly important as disruptive more intensive plots,” he adds. He says that the Orlando shooting “appears to be similar to what we saw in San Bernardino, but we don’t yet know.”

“We have to make sure it is not easy for someone who decides they want to harm people in this country to get weapons.”

He cautions that in the case of Omar Mateen, “we don’t yet know the motivations,” before drawing the link between jihadi ideology and homophobia and intolerance.

He says “radical nihilistic organizations” like Isil and al-Qaida “have perverted Islam” and target gay and lesbian people while also condoning slavery and rape of women.

“So there clearly are connections between the attitudes of an organization like this and their attitudes toward tolerance and pluralism and the belief that all people are treated equally regardless of sexual orientation.”

“I’m sure we will find that there are connections regardless of the particular motivations of this killer, there are connections between this vicious bankrupt ideology and general attitudes towards gays and lesbians. and unfortunately that is something that the LGBT community is subject to not just by Isil but by a lot of groups that purport to speak on behalf of God around the world.

Obama: shooter appears to have self-radicalized on internet

President Barack Obama has said that “it appears that the shooter was inspired by various extremist information that was being distributed on the internet.”

Speaking from the White House, he says here is no clear evidence that the gunman, Omar Mateen, was directed through someone else and “no direct evidence that he was part of a larger plot”.

The FBI followed the “procedures that they were supposed to” in their handling of investigations in 2013 and 2014, he says, and the agency is now looking at all possible motivations of the killer.

Based on press conferences and interviews with Mateen’s ex-wife and father, motivations as varied as sympathies for jihadi groups to homophobia to emotional disturbances are under consideration.

“It does appear that he had in the last minute announced his allegiance to Isil but there is no evidence so far that this attack was directed,” he says.

“It also appears that he was able to obtain these weapons legally because he did not have a criminal record which in some ways would prohibit him from purchasing those weapons,” the president continues.

“It appears that one of those weapons he was just able to carry out of that store: an assault rifle, a handgun, a Glock, which had a lot of clips in it, which he was apparently required to wait for three days.”

“It was not difficult for him to obtain these kinds of weapons,” he says.

President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Omar Mateen visited Saudi Arabia in 2011 and 2012 for two pilgrimages, Reuters reports, quoting Saudi Interior Ministry security spokesman Major General Mansour Turki.

Turki told the news agency that Mateen performed the umrah Islamic pilgrimage for 10 days in March 2011, and eight days the following March.

The shooters in last year’s San Bernardino massacre, American Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife,Tashfeen Malik, had also travelled to Saudi Arabia in the years before they murdered 14 people last December.

Three more victims have been identified by the city of Orlando, for a total of 36 of the 49 people killed.

  • Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old
  • Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old
  • Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old
Vigils held across the US for victims of Orlando attack

The FBI first investigated Omar Mateen, the gunman of the Orlando massacre, in 2013 after he falsely claimed he knew the Tsarnaev brothers, the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing that year, my colleague Spencer Ackerman reports.

Mateen told co-workers at the private-security firm employing him that he knew Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev, according to a source close to the investigation who requested anonymity.

The FBI interviewed Mateen on two occasions in 2013. Ultimately, bureau investigators determined that Mateen had invented the connection and did not pose a security threat.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Photograph: Uncredited/AP

The FBI confirmed Mateen’s false claim, but would not comment on the invented Tsarnaev connection.

“I can confirm that the subject made allegations of terror ties that investigation proved to be unfounded, but I can’t comment on the specific association,” Matthew Berton, an FBI spokesman, told the Guardian.

Mateen was employed by the private security firm G4S and in 2013 worked as an armed security guard for a St Lucie, Florida courthouse. Mateen is believed to have voluntarily informed the company of his contact with the FBI. G4S continued to employ him, and his last role with the firm, active until his death on Sunday, was in an unarmed role, guarding a gated retirement community.

Some people close to the investigation consider Mateen’s unusual boast of terror ties to be relevant to understanding his motivations for attacking Pulse. The FBI investigation remains in its early stages, but his motive is the principal unsolved question.

The invented connection to a prior terrorist act has raised some doubts around the sincerity of his pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State in a 911 call on Sunday.

US officials preliminarily consider Mateen not to have had any ties to the jihadist group, making him a so-called lone wolf attacker – if, indeed, his motivation was to attack the US rather than violent homophobia or mental instability, as a co-worker and ex-wife have respectively suggested.

The radio station of terror group Islamic State has taken credit for the shooting in Orlando, but my colleague Jason Burke and the New York Times’ Rukmini Callimachi have each parsed the ways Isis claims responsibility for acts its members neither coordinated nor had any knowledge of.

Jason writes:

Isis also made it clear that the shooting had not been commissioned by senior commanders in the Middle East, as was the case with the Paris attacks in November. This suggests that Isis felt clearly that the fact that it was inspiring distant attackers was worth emphasising as a vindication of its ideology and strategy, as well to inspire greater fear among Americans.

On Sunday, a news agency associated with Isis also claimed the Orlando attack. A short statement said the operation had been carried out by an “Islamic State fighter”. This appears credible, but the brevity suggests that the group had no prior knowledge of the operation and that it was conducted by a “lone wolf”.

He adds that though Isis’ members have directed violence against gay people, the Pulse nightclub was the first venue targeted among bars, airports, concert halls and stadiums to be explicitly an LGBT-friendly place. More details may come with a transcript of Omar Mateen’s reported pledge to Isis – members of al-Qaida and Isis swear allegiance to a leader, not an organization; it’s not clear what exactly Mateen said to a 911 operator.

The Times’ Callimachi wrote that Isis’ radio report on Monday described Mateen as “one of the soldiers of the Caliphate,” a term used for both fighters on battlegrounds abroad and for people who act in the group’s name, “even if they have no direct ties to the group”.

“The sequence of events mirrors the manner in which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks,” she continued, citing the aftermath of last year’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by a married couple.

Then, as now, the first confirmation of the Islamic State’s role came in a bulletin issued by the Amaq News Agency, which acts as the terrorist group’s news agency. The language in the news release attempts to mimic the neutral terms used by international news outlets. …

In both cases, the initial release was followed by the formal Bayan bulletin, in which any pretense of neutrality fell away and the killers were described in religious terms, as “soldiers of the Caliphate.”

What ties Mateen had to any member of any terrorist group are not clear. The FBI investigated him in 2013 for “inflammatory remarks” and in 2014 for alleged communications with a man who later became the first Isis suicide bomber of American citizenship.

Orlando names 33 victims

Thirty-three of the 49 victims of Sunday’s shooting have now been publicly named.

The youngest was 19 years old, the oldest 50: they included a pharmacist, an employee of nearby Harry Potter World, a nursing student, the club’s bouncer, and dozens of sons, daughters, friends and partners.

  1. Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
  2. Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
  3. Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old
  4. Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
  5. Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
  6. Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old
  7. Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
  8. Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
  9. Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
  10. Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
  11. Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
  12. Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
  13. Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old
  14. Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
  15. Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old
  16. Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
  17. Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
  18. Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
  19. Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
  20. Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
  21. Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
  22. Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old
  23. Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old
  24. Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
  25. Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
  26. Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old
  27. Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
  28. Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
  29. Cory James Connell, 21 years old
  30. Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old
  31. Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
  32. Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
  33. Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old

Updated

The city of Orlando has released the names of several more victims killed – the youngest victim of the shooting was a teenager.

Updated

Readers have been sharing photographs from around the world of tributes to the Orlando victims, and my colleagues in London are helping curate images of the memorials.

If you have any photos of vigils and tributes you’d like to share you can do so by clicking on the “Contribute” button in the live blog.

In New York, the historic Stonewall Inn, where the gay rights movement began in the US, has been transformed into a monument to the victims of Orlando.

What we know

A summary of the latest police and FBI briefing on the investigation into the worst mass shooting in American history, perpetrated at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

  • Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and left 53 others injured in three-hour Sunday attack that police chief John Mina described in the greatest detail yet on Monday morning. A police officer confronted Mateen immediately after the shooting began, Mina said, causing the gunman to retreat to a bathroom and take people hostage.
  • Police then rescued “dozens and dozens of people”, many wounded, from inside the club, Mina said, and caught their first glimpse of the massacre within.
  • Mateen barricaded himself in a bathroom with four to five people, and officers began negotiations. Mina said Mateen was “cool and calm” and “Wasn’t asking a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking.” They spoke about explosive devices and more loss of life, and it was in the bathroom that Mateen called a 911 operator.
  • Mina said he ordered a rescue at about 5am. Officers set off distraction explosives and tried to blow a hole in the wall of the bathroom. The controlled blast was only partially successful, so they they rammed the wall with an armored vehicle, creating a hole 3-4ft wide. Dozens of people escaped through the hole, and police rescued others in the club.
  • The gunman himself came out of the hole armed with a handgun and long gun, Mina said, and Mateen was shot dead there in a gun battle with police before sunrise. Mateen was the 50th person killed on Sunday.

Also from Monday morning:

Updated

The Republican presumptive nominee for president, Donald Trump, has made three media appearances this morning to discuss Orlando.

He first appeared on a Fox program, Fox and Friends, where he said: “I’m getting thousands of letters and tweets that I was right about the whole situation.”

“I’ve been right about a lot of things,” he added. “I’m calling for strength. I’m calling for intelligence.”

Trump.
Trump. Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

He was not specific about what he was “right about” or how “strength” and “intelligence” would prevent mass shootings by US citizens who legally purchased weapons.

He insisted that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, won’t say “radical Islam” because “she’s afraid to mention it because her boss will be angry at her.”

Clinton appeared on CNN on Monday and said: “to me, radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing.”

“I’m not going to demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion,” she added. “That’s just plain dangerous and it plays into the hands of Isis.”

On the ABC program Good Morning America, Trump said there should be “a ban on people coming in from Syria”.

The host reminded him the gunman was a US citizen who is believed to have spent his entire life in New York and Florida. Trump continued talking about non-US citizens.

Finally Trump appeared on CNN with a new plan: “we need much better intelligence gathering information.”

“We need intelligence gathering centers,” he said, saying that “people in the area, the people in the neighborhood, they knew there’s something off with him.”

He proposed surveillance of mosques and Muslim communities.

“There are people living in the United States with the same kind of hate in their heart as he had,” he added. He notes an argument raised by Clinton: “in this case [Mateen] was licensed, which is kind of an amazing thing.”

Republicans blocked a plan to prohibit gun purchases to people on the FBI watchlist last year. Trump does not mention this. “If you had guns in that room, even if you had a number of people strapped to their ankle, strapped to their waist,” he said, “you wouldn’t have had the tragedy.”

He ignored the CNN host’s note that an armed police officer returned fire on the gunman immediately after the shooting began.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, criticized Florida’s gun laws and spoke about the potential links between Isis and the gunmen, in a Monday morning interview with CNN.

“Isis appears to be claiming credit for it whether it seem [that they actually] had anything to do with it or not they appear to [have inspired it],” Clinton said.

She was asked about whether she would call this “radical Islamic terrorism”.

Clinton.
Clinton. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

“From my perspective it matters what we do, not what we say,” she says. “I have clearly said we face terrorist enemies who use Islam [to justify violence], whether you call it radical jihadism, radical Islamism.”

On Sunday night, her challenger for the presidency, Donald Trump, said Clinton should exit the race if she refused to say “radical Islam”. He also said Barack Obama should step down from the presidency if he would not use the phrase.

“What I won’t do, because I think it is dangerous in our efforts to defeat this threat, is to demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion,” Clinton said. “That plays right into Isis’ hands.”

“We also want to reach out to the vast majority of American Muslims and Muslims around this world to help us defeat this threat which is so evil and has got to be denounced by everyone regardless of religion,” Clinton said.

She then noted that Florida has some of the most lax gun laws in the nation. The state does not regulate assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, does not require a permit to get a gun, and does not require gun owners be licensed. It also has weak background check rules.

“Common sense gun safety” measures, she said, “would at least make a difference.”

“We did have an assault weapons ban for 10 years and I think it should be reinstated.”

Updated

During the press conference, another three people were named as victims in the attack:

• Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31.

• Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26.

• Enrique L Rios Jr, 25.

Police chief: “It was a barricaded hostage situation”

Chief Mina returned to the podium to answer questions about the attack.

“It was a barricaded hostage situation,” Mina said.

Crisis negotiators were in communication with the gunman, Omar Mateen, during the hostage situation but did not hear shots fired during those calls, he said. Mina confirmed that Mateen made an allegiance to Isis during the negotiations.

He said Mateen was “cool and calm” during the discussions.

In addition to the 15 people held hostage in a Pulse bathroom, another 15 to 20 people were hiding inside another club bathroom.

Police entered the building after determining that “loss of life was imminent.”

Updated

US attorney Lee Bentley said investigators have collected a great amount of “electronic and physical evidence”.

“We do not know yet whether anyone else will be charged in connection with this crime,” Bentley said.

Regina Lombardo, a special agent in charge from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said two guns found on the scene had been traced back to the shooter. ATF is still tracing a third weapon found inside a vehicle.

Orlando police chief John Mina said there were about 15 hostages in a bathroom at Pulse.

Police decided to commence a rescue because further loss of life was imminent, he said.

Officers used an armored response attack truck, the Bearcat, to open a hole in the building.

“We were able to rescue dozens and dozens of people who came out of that hole,” Mina said.

Mina said the suspect also emerged from the hole, armed and shooting, which is when police engaged in a gunfight with him. The suspect, Omar Mateen, died in the gunfight.

Police clarified that the 50 dead includes the gunman.

Mayor says 48 victims identified

Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer is the first to speak at the Monday morning update on yesterday’s shooting.

“Yesterday was the most horrific day in the history of the city of Orlando,” Dyer begins.

He continued to thank the police and first responders for their work.

All of the victims were removed from the scene by 11pm ET, Dyer said.

He said 48 of the 49 dead had been identified and 24 of the next of kin have been notified. Dyer did not explain why he said 49 victims instead of 50, as he had reported earlier.


“We will not be defined by the act of a cowardly hater, we will be defined by how we respond,” Dyer said.

Updated

Jason Burke, the Guardian’s Africa correspondent, examined whether there are any ties between the Orlando gunman and Isis:

One indication of Mateen’s level of knowledge will be the wording of the pledge that he made. People involved with groups such as al-Qaida and Isis swear allegiance to a leader, not the organisation, which follows Arab, Islamic and other customs. So far, Mateen is reported to have pledged loyalty to Isis, which would indicate a degree of ignorance and, most likely, relatively recent radicalisation.

A final lesson from previous attacks involving lone wolves is that they are very rarely as lone as they look. In Europe, many who were described as “lone actors” by authorities have later been found to be connected to al-Qaida, Isis or other factions and splinter groups, even if only tenuously.

In US, such links are rarer, not least because far fewer Americans have travelled to the conflict zones of the Islamic world. Significantly perhaps, Mateen is reported to have referred to the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston marathon in 2013 and were not connected to any jihadi group, when he called 911 to make his pledge of allegiance to Isis before carrying out the attack in Orlando.

Orlando shooting victim’s mother describes son’s last texts – video

Orlando shooting victim’s mother describes son’s last texts

Updated

Guardian reporter Nadia Khomami has a nice round-up of tributes to the Orlando victims from across the globe.

On Monday, Paris councillors observed a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack, in which 50 people were killed and 53 injured. Cities across the world held vigils in November 2015 for the 130 who died in attacks in the French capital, often illuminating buildings in the colours of the French national flag.

In London, venues along Old Compton Street, the heart of the UK capital’s gay community, will stop serving at 7pm on Monday and people will be invited out on to the street in solidarity with the LGBT community and the people of Orlando. Rainbow flags in Manchester’s gay village have been lowered to half mast.

Orlando police said the next update is due in about 30 minutes. All updates besides press conferences are coming through the department’s official Twitter account, where police are fending off inaccurate reports.

Just before 5am local time in New York, an hour after the 4am closing time for the city’s bars, a local reporter said police presence outside gay clubs and businesses in the city’s Greenwich Village remained high.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said security is also being boosted at major LGBT community centers.


On Sunday night, Los Angeles police detained a man who was heading to the city’s LA Pride festival with a carload of weapons.

An Orlando-based network of LGBT groups, the Zebra Coalition, said that because of the high volume of calls it has received about the shooting, it has opened a new crisis hotline for people looking to speak with a counselor.

Halima Kazem writes for the Guardian about the gunman’s father, Seddique Mateen, who posted a video early on Monday morning to condemn his son’s actions. He also appeared to suggest it is for God to enact “punishment” against gay people.

Addressing the people of Afghanistan, Seddique Mateen said in the video: “I don’t know what made him [do this], I have no idea, I had no idea that he felt resentful in his heart and had gone to the gay [he uses the derogatory word hamjensbazi] club and killed men and women there.

“I am very sad and I’ve announced this to the American people as well. Why did he do this act during this holy month of Ramadan. On the topic of beinghamjensbazi, punishment and the things that they do, God will give the punishment. This is not the issue for a follower of God and he [Omar] that did this has greatly saddened me. I wanted you to know this. God give all youth complete health to keep the real path of the holy religion of Islam in mind.”

The Guardian’s posted its latest report on G4S, the security firm that had employed Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, since 2007:

G4S shares dropped by as much as 7.5% and were the biggest fallers among leading UK shares. The company employs 620,000 people in more than 110 countries and the US is one of its biggest markets.

Jasper Lawler, an analyst at CMC Markets, a City spread betting firm, said it did not look good for G4S to have employed Mateen while he was being investigated by the FBI.

“G4S has more than 50,000 employees in the US, a large proportion of which are involved in government contracts. If the name of G4S starts getting dragged through the mud, US contracts may become harder to come by.”

The company, whose activities range from supplying bodyguards and guarding buildings to running prisons and clearing mines, has been dogged by controversy. Two years ago it agreed to repay the UK government £109m after it overcharged for the electronic tagging of offenders.

Updated

Summary

It’s just after 6am in Orlando, where investigators have been working around the clock to piece together details on Sunday night’s shooting.

What we know:

• A gunman named as Omar Mateen killed 50 people and left 53 others injured, many seriously, in a 2am attack on LGBT nightclub the Pulse, in Orlando, Florida. After an hours-long standoff, police stormed the building, killed the gunman and rescued about 30 hostages.

• Mateen legally purchased an assault rifle and handgun in the last week, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms said. Questions have been raised over why he was allowed to buy the weapons.

• Of the 50 people who died in the attack, 21 have been identified. According to Orlando Police, the youngest named victim was 20-years-old and the eldest was 50. More victims are expected to be identified throughout the day once next of kin have been notified.

• Survivors and the families of victims recalled horrific stories of how the attack unfolded, and many waited in fear and anticipation to learn whether their loved ones were victims.

• Mateen’s ex-wife said he was “obviously disturbed” and that he beat her and held her hostage during their short marriage.

• Barack Obama declared the attack “an act of terror and an act of hate”. He lamented that the shooting occurred in a place of security and celebration. “We have to decide whether that’s the kind of country we want to be.,” he said. “To actively do nothing is a decision as well.”

Richard Luscombe spoke with shooting survivors in Orlando about the scene inside Pulse on Sunday.

“You’re sitting there having a great time at a club and you hear what sounds like fireworks and balloons popping, and you assume it’s part of the show,” one clubgoer who escaped the carnage told reporters.

“And then you hear people start screaming, the sound doesn’t stop and people start falling, you realise it’s not a show any more. People were screaming and falling and the shots wouldn’t stop. You realise it’s not the celebration you thought it was.”

Many other survivors, such as Carson Wells, Christopher Hansen and Luis Burbano, were also all slow to comprehend what the sounds meant, or the horror that was already beginning to unfold all around them.

Wells, who was partying with a group of friends in a back room at the club when Mateen burst in, said: “It felt like it was part of the DJ mix that was playing, just part of the music.

“When I realised it wasn’t I just ran out of the back. I didn’t look back.” He said three of his friends were hit by bullets but none suffered life-threatening injuries.

Updated

As vigils for the victims were held across the globe, LGBT people rallied online with #GaysBreaktheInternet.

The Guardian’s published an editorial on the Orlando attack:

The awful truth is that American society is vulnerable to these attacks in a way that others are not because of its belief that freedom requires easy, widespread access to lethal weapons. While it is true that guns don’t kill people, as the slogan has it, people with guns do kill people, and they do so much more quickly and effectively than people without guns can manage.

There have been 43 mass shootings in the US in the past 10 years, those in which more than four people were killed in a public space. Very few of them had recognisable ideological causes. Some occurred in states, such as Florida, where it is legal for almost anyone who applies for a licence to walk around with concealed, lethal weapons – something which does not in practice save anyone’s life if bullets start flying, but which is felt as a reassurance until they do.

Paris’s official Twitter account posted a tribute to Orlando on Sunday night. The Florida shooting drew immediate comparisons to the killing of 89 people in Paris’s Bataclan theatre in December.

France’s national football team posted the same tribute on Monday morning.

Questions have been raised about how a man who the FBI investigated twice for suspected sympathies with terrorists could be able to purchase a gun. The shooter, Omar Mateen, legally purchased an assault rifle and handgun in the week before the shooting, which left 50 people dead and 53 injured.

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington and Richard Luscombe report from Orlando:

Sunday’s attack was launched by Mateen using a .223-caliber assault rifle and 9mm semi-automatic pistol with multiple rounds of ammunition that had been purchased quite lawfully in the week before the rampage using Mateen’s firearms license.

He also held a permit to work as a security guard, which he did at a courthouse in Port St Lucie, Florida, even though he was interviewed three times by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 following separate reports of extremist behavior and connections to terrorism that were in the end deemed insubstantial.

The revelation that the bloodiest mass shooting in history had been carried out by an American-born individual on the FBI’s radar is likely to reignite the debate over the country’s lax gun laws with regard to people under investigation for terrorism.

The Orlando Sentinel’s front-page editorial on the shooting describes how the city has always been a target for terrorism because it is a popular tourist destination, but on Sunday, Orlando’s “worst fears have been realized”:

We will not — we must not — let Sunday’s heinous act of brutality and cowardice define our community.

As terror has struck other cities around the world in recent months — Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino — our shock and anger have been mixed with a growing sense of unease. Orlando, as one of the world’s most popular and iconic destinations for travelers, and a community that proudly cherishes its diversity, has long been considered a high-value target for would-be terrorists.

The Orlando Sentinel’s NBA reporter, Josh Robbins, said the basketball league will hold a moment of silence in recognition of the shooting at the fifth game of the NBA championships on Monday night in Oakland, California.

Meanwhile, congressman Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, said he would not attend another “moment of silence” for shooting victims because of his outrage over weak gun control laws in the US.

More names added to victims list

Orlando police have updated the victims list with six new names:

  • Amanda Alvear, 25.
  • Martin Benitez Torres, 33.
  • Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37.
  • Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26.
  • Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35.
  • Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25.

The 15 victims named previously are: Edward Sotomayor Jr, 34; Stanley Almodovar III, 23; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36; Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22; Luis S. Vielma, 22; Kimberly Morris, 37; Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30; Darryl Roman Burt II, 29; Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32; Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21; Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25; Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35; Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50.

Updated

You can share photos, videos or stories of vigils and reaction where you are by clicking on the blue GuardianWitness contribute button at the top of this blog.

Orlando gay bar, club and hotel, Parliament House, has use its famous neon sign to share a message of solidarity with Pulse nightclub.

Nearly 200 people attended a vigil at Parliament House on Sunday night.

Guardian business reporter, Sean Farrell, reports that shares have fallen at G4S, the employer of the Orlando nightclub shooter:

Shares of G4S, the UK security company, fell heavily on Monday after it said Omar Mateen had worked for it since 2007. G4S shares dropped as much as 6% and were the biggest fallers of the 350 biggest British companies.

G4S, the world’s biggest security firm, said Mateen carried a gun as part of his duties and that it was trying to establish whether any weapons used in the attack were related to his employment. The company said it had screened Mateen as recently as 2013 with “no findings”, Reuters reported.

Authorities have started to release the names of those killed at an Orlando nightclub on Sunday as next of kin are notified.

The Guardian’s Jessica Glenza, reporting from Orlando, has more on some of the 50 victims:

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, had only told his family he was gay before the New Year, his cousin told the Associated Press.

“He was never the type to go out to parties, would rather stay home and care for his niece and nephew,” his cousin Robert Guerrero said. He said Juan Ramon Guerrero was a telemarketer, and recently began attending school at the University of Central Florida. “He was always this amazing person ... he was like a big brother to me.”

An undated photo from the Instagram account of Juan Ramon Guerrero, who police identified as one of the victims of the shooting massacre that happened at the Pulse nightclub.
An undated photo from the Instagram account of Juan Ramon Guerrero, who police identified as one of the victims of the shooting massacre that happened at the Pulse nightclub. Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

Edward Sotomayor, 34, was a brand manager who had invited his friend Al Ferguson to the club on Sunday night. “He was super bright,” said Ferguson, owner of the Al and Chuck Travel, an agency focused on booking vacations for gay men, about his former employee, Sotomayor, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Ferguson told the Sentinel that Sotomayor, knowing the perils that gay, lesbian and transgender travelers could face because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, didn’t shy away from exploring.

“What I will say, over and over again, was he was a person who said, ‘We cannot be afraid,’” Ferguson told the Sentinel. “I know his friends are going to be the exact same way … We are not going to be afraid.”

Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, condemned the national regulation prohibiting sexually active gay men from donating blood. Polis is one of the only openly gay men in Congress.

“I’m … hopeful that we can remove the ban that the FDA has on gay people donating blood, because guess what? Many of the spouses and loved ones of the victims who need blood can’t even donate blood right now,” Polis told Denver news channel 9News. “It’s just a double tragedy that so many are facing the shortage of blood.”

Orlando-area blood donation centers were so overwhelmed by donations on Sunday that some would-be donors were turned away and asked to return in the next few days.

Hundreds line up to give blood after mass shooting in Orlando

A day after the deadliest mass shooting in US history, relatives and friends of those caught up the attack on an LBGT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, are still waiting for news of their loved ones. Sunday’s attack on the Pulse nightclub - which left 50 people dead and 53 injured – was launched by 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who made a 911 call 20 minutes into his killing spree, in which he reportedly spoke of the Islamic State terror group and the Tsarnaevs, the brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013.

Among other developments since the attack:

• Questions are mounting over why Mateen was able to legally buy an assault rifle and handgun despite having been investigated twice by the FBI for suspected terrorist sympathies.

• New York City’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton, fiercely criticized the National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun lobby in the country, that has campaigned to prevent people named on the US government no-fly list from being barred from purchasing guns.

• Mateen’s former wife has told reporters that he was physically abusive towards her, had mental health issues and was “obviously disturbed, deeply, and traumatised”.

• Barack Obama, declared the attack “an act of terror and an act of hate” as the national flag was lowered to half-mast over the White House.

• Authorities released the first names of victims, including: The first fifteen people named were Edward Sotomayor Jr, Stanley Almodovar III, Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, Juan Ramon Guerrero, Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, Luis S. Vielma, Kimberly Morris, Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, Luis S. Vielma, Kimberly Morris, Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 3Darryl Roman Burt II, Deonka Deidra Drayton, Alejandro Barrios Martinez, Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez.

• Mateen bought a long gun and a handgun legally in the last week, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms said. Questions have been raised over why he was allowed to buy the weapons.

• Muslim American leaders, LGBT groups, Pope Francis and others condemned the horrific attack, and urged Americans to rally together. The FBI solicited the public for tips to aid the investigation, blood banks asked for donations around the US, and a fundraising campaign for victims’ medical bills raised $416,000. Authorities set up hotlines for information and campaigns for donations.

• A US official told the Guardian the attack may have been a “massive hate crime”. Mateen’s father told NBC News that his son had become enraged by a gay couple kissing.

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