republican of new york, member of the house homeland security committee, thank you so much for your time this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you, jake. cnn will continue its coverage in the next hour of this horrific terrorist attack. in fact, we're going to start again right now. good morning. i'm jake tapper in washington, continuing cnn's coverage of the breaking news. a horrific massacre at an lgbt nightclub in orlando, florida. police reporting at least 20 people have been killed in the incident, 42 injured. the fbi special agent in charge saying this morning that there are suggestions that the suspect, the killer, may have had leanings toward radical islamic terrorism, although nothing was definitive at the time of that statement. we are awaiting a new press conference with the latest information. investigators are also looking into the possibility of a hate crime given that the target was a gay nightclub. police released the first details a short time ago.

take a listen. >> the suspect is dead. he appeared to be carrying a rifle, an assault-type rifle, and a handgun and had some type of device on him. >> pamela brown reported just a few minutes ago that the device that was on the individual, on the suspected possible terrorist, the killer, was not actually a threat to law enforcement. it's unclear whether that's because it was a failed explosive device or if it wasn't an explosive device at all. the incident started around 2:00 in the morning eastern time. that's when the club would be the most packed. shortly thereafter, the nightclub posted on its facebook page this message. everyone get out of pulse, the name of the nightclub, and keep running. police now say that an officer responded, and there was a shootout with the killer outside the club. the gunman ran inside the club,

a hostage situation began. about three hours later at around 5:00 a.m., police used an armored vehicle to knock down a door and enter the club, after which they shot and killed the gunman, who according to pamela brown's reporting had identified his name during the standoff with police. throughout the entire ordeal, ambulances and emergency vehicles surrounded the nightclub. police say they received phone calls and text messages, calls for help, giving information from people who were inside hiding from the gunman. relatives of people in the club also received messages and rushed to the scene. >> 2:07 i got a text message from my daughter and two nieces. please come and get us, please come and get us now, they're shooting, they're shooting. about 2:12 i got a phone call from my daughter saying she was hit and bleeding in her arm and she was going to pass out and just come and get her and help her and call the cops. she was just afraid.

it was just tragic. >> cnn is now going to report the name of the gunman according to law enforcement sources. his name was omar mateen. omar mateen. let's go now to cnn correspondent boris sanchez, who is in orlando, florida. boris, what's the latest? what can you tell us about what's going on where you are? >> reporter: jake, they're still processing the scene right now. the law enforcement presence that was here this morning with dozens of agencies out here has diminished significantly, but there is still a huge line between us and that club back there, pulse nightclub. we're about three blocks away. we know investigators have been scanning every room inside the club. we heard from sources earlier that the suspect, omar mateen, had some kind of device on him. it's unclear what kind of device that was, whether or not it was an actual explosive, some kind of ied. but you can imagine that the investigation will go from there, and they'll look into

this person's travel records, his online history, what kind of ties he may have had, and what was going through his mind shortly before carrying this out. we're learning he's actually not far from this area. he's from ft. pierce, florida, which is just west from here. again, there's a name, but we don't have a motive. that's really the next phase of this investigation. i can also tell you that about an hour ago or so, coroner vans started driving in, so they're going through the process of identifying and recovering the remain of those deceased. hopefully later today we'll have that information for family members that are desperately awaiting any kind of information. >> boris, thanks so much. no official motive as of now, though the fbi special agent in charge did suggest earlier today that there were indications, suggestions that the gunman subscribed to radical islamist theology. let's bring back congressman pete king from the homeland security committee.

congressman, we have here the name of the assailant, the shooter, the possible terrorist. omar mateen. is that the name that you had heard earlier? >> that's the name i've heard. he's from afghanistan, i believe. he is also trained in the use of weapons. that's as far as i can go. >> is he somebody that -- i mean, how would somebody from afghanistan trained in use of weapons get into this country? was he somebody that was affiliated at all with the taliban, or god forbid, was he someone affiliated in working with the united states at one point? >> i really can't go any further than that, jake. >> all right. is there anything other than the fact he's from afghanistan and trained in the use of weapons that you could tell us about the shooter, omar mateen? >> i really can't. i don't want to get ahead of law enforcement on this. i've only, again, said what's

now become pretty much public record. i don't want to go any further. >> all right, congressman. i respect where you're coming from. thanks so much for joining us. let's bring back our panel. julia, you've heard the reporting as it's evolved, the name of the killer, omar mateen. congressman pete king says he's trained in the use of weapons and is from afghanistan originally. your reaction as this information comes in. >> so we have at least a case now in that is going to have international investigation. we don't know where that is going to lead us. what we don't know at this stage -- so you know, each of these pieces is a data point, just to describe to people how these investigations go. we have the person now. now it's a determination of what kind of training he may have

gotten abroad, if any. was he directed by anyone abroad? or was he inspired by some sort of activity abroad, afghanistan or elsewhere, that led him to do this at 2:00 on a saturday morning. so that is what the next phase of this piece is. so people watching go, it's like a bull's eye. we have the person. now we have to investigate the concentric circles. the reason why is you want to make sure there's nothing else in the works. we owe it to the victims, who are still being identified at this stage, to know whether this could have been stopped. also, we have this apparatus known as the joint terrorism task forces. they now are clearly going to be scrubbing all of their information to see whether he, omar, had ties to anyone else that they may be surveying at this time. so this is the story that's going to unfold in very interesting ways. some of them will be dead ends

for weeks. these cases, as you know, take weeks to figure out. >> that's right. we're still learning things about the tsarnaev brothers in boston. and that was several years ago. phil, while congressman king told us that his source had told him that omar mateen was from afghanistan, i should note that "the washington post" is reporting that they believe his family was originally from afghanistan, but he was born here in the united states. so as i cautioned earlier in the program, as law enforcement gets information, as cnn learns it, either on the record, on background, sometimes it's contradictory, sometimes it's proven incorrect. we're bringing you all the information as we get it from reliable sources, and we all try to make sense of it together. phil, your reaction to what we've learned since the last time we spoke. >> i think the investigation will blow up now. you can think of this in three phases, as juliet said. there will be a lot of hazy information, but the three phases over the next week, number one, imminent threat.

we already had a tragedy, but looking at this fellow's name, his facebook postings, presumably they'll get access to phone and e-mail data. are there other individuals who affiliate with him who pose an imminent threat? number two, support network. whether people were involved in the attack or not, were there people who knew, people who radicalized him, people who gave him money? third and finally, was there is a network overseas that inspired him or trained him to do this? particularly because you want to ask the question, are they in contact with other people? so as soon as you have that name in the digital world, you can blow up these three questions within the space of 12 to 24 hours to start putting that web of information together. >> art, when somebody with this name, as it's been described, it's a special fbi agent saying had he islamic leanings. congressman king saying he had

weapons training. this sounds bad, and it sounds like a possible -- possibly, although we have no evidence of it yet, possibly not just a self-radicalized individual. >> as we sat here for a couple hours, i mean, as they peel this onion back, it seems to be getting worse and worse. granted, if he was here in the u.s. already, where did he receive that weapons training? had he been overseas in the last couple years? we know he's going to go through the facebook postings, but the fbi had his name fairly on doing the negotiations. so it started at that point. for now, jttfs have been looking at his background, looking at his family members. that's why early on they came out and said there were some leanings towards radical islam. >> when art refers to the jttf, that's the joint terrific task force. it's a group of law enforcement from the fbi, local law

enforcement, et cetera. juliet, you obviously have something you want to say involving this case. >> yeah, so what's very important is this distinction about whether he is foreign and somehow traveled here and evaded immigration or if he's a u.s. citizen. neither is a good thing, we know that, but that's significant for a variety of reasons, including the radicalization process and the training process. if he got trained abroad and was sent here to do a mass casualty event that is, you know, the greatest one since sandy hook, that is a significantly different investigation. it implicates international relations in ways that if he's a u.s. citizen, gets radicalized, gets access to guns and walks into a soft target, neither are good. but in terms of understanding what's going on, in terms of the threat, it's an important d distincti distinction. >> if you're just joining us, cnn has learned the name of the

killer in the pulse orlando, florida, nightclub massacre. his name is omar mateen. this name comes after the fbi special agent in charge said this morning that there were suggestions that the shooter, that the killer subscribed to a radical islamic ideology. phil, one of the things that is terrifying in particular -- i mean, the entire incident is terrifying for any number of reasons, but one of the things that's most terrifying is that afghanistan is a nation that obviously the united states has been fighting a war there for longer than any war in the history of this country, for 15 years. one of the reasons why the united states has been fighting and has given so much blood and treasure in that fight is because of the desire for the afghan people to have a better life. >> yeah, i think when you look

at this and you look at the origin of the family, one of the questions you're going to have is you're suggesting the demands of the people throughout the world where al qaeda has spread for a fight to continue against the united states. we thought when i was at the cia 10 or 11 years ago that we were beating al qaeda. then we seat the incidents of violence from places like europe and afghanistan going into southeast asia, now in california with san bernardino and in orlando. i think the key message we may learn is not only that there are individuals here who are inspired by this movement, but that the generational fight that we thought we might be winning against al qaeda has, in fact, been spread by isis. we got maybe decades to go here. this is going to be a long campaign. >> we're going to take a quick break. we're expecting a press conference from law enforcement in orlando, florida, any moment. stay with us. cnn's coverage of this horrific breaking news story continues. when you booked this trip,

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and still haveealthy, gum disease. use gum® brand for healthy gums. soft-picks®. proxabrush® cleaners. flossers and dental floss. gum® brand. welcome back to cnn's live coverage of this horrific breaking news event. the law enforcement press conference has not started yes, but congressman alan grayson is speaking at the podium. let's join him. >> we're doing our part in my office to make sure that there are no bureaucratic impediments to letting them comfort the injured. >> what about the people who died inside? have their families been noti notified yet? >> i don't know. i don't know. every victim has been removed. >> have you heard anything about the shooter?

>> well, let me put it this way. the nationality of family members is indicative. again, the police are holding back that information until it's time for that to come out, until they've done a full background check on him and gone into his home, found whatever evidence may be in his home. computers and writings and so on, as well as checking social media. >> do you believe he might have had help? >> there's no evidence of that at this time. >> do you have an update on the bomb situation? is there still a device? >> the police never actually said it was a bomb. they said it was a suspicious device. all the killing that was done, was done with an assault rifle, with a single weapon. it was done very quickly also. >> when will the area be cleared? >> it will take many hours. there's an enormous amount of havoc in there right now. there's blood everywhere. i spoke to somebody who was on the site. there is an enormous amount of evidence to be collected

systemically over the course of many hours. >> a larger press conference is coming. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you, all, for your patience and flexibility on the time. we just wanted to make sure we had the latest information, and we were getting some last details during this time. this update will include orlando mayor buddy dyer, orange county mayor teresa jacobs, police chief john mina, sheriff jerry

demings, dr. michael cheatham at ormc, and the president of the islamic society of florida. mayor dyer? >> today we're dealing with something that we never imagined and is unimaginable. since the last update, we have gotten better access to the building. we have cleared the building, and it is with great sadness that i share we have not 20 but 50 casualties. in addition to the shooter, there are another 53 that are hospitalized. because of the scale of the crime, i've asked the governor to declare a state of emergency. we are also issuing a state of emergency for the city of orlando so that we can bring additional resources to bear to deal with the aftermath. our focus is going to be on identifying the victims and

notifying the families. we're setting up a hotline for concerned family members. 407-246-4357. the identification process may take some time. we ask for your patience because we want to be accurate. concerned family members can call the hotline, however, and let them know that you have someone that you are concerned about. i continue to be so proud of our community. the support that has shown the response that has been made. i'm also thankful to entities from all around the country and all over the state of florida. president governor has made all the resources of the state of florida available. orange county has made all of their resources available. we have assistance from the white house. so every possible asset we have brought to bear. mayor jacobs? >> thank you, mayor dyer. of course, let me start with

expressing my sympathy for the families, for the loved ones of those who we have lost in the last 24 hours. we know that this affects a large segment of our community. we know that we have a very close-knit lgbt community who has been dramatically impacted by this. so to everyone who is impacted, i want you to know our thoughts and prayers are with you. we are a united community, and what we saw last night does not reflect what we feel in our hearts and our souls here in orange county. i am calling on every citizen here in orange county no never forget we stand together in times of adversity. but we don't just stand together as a city of orlando in orange county. we stand together as a country. we have heard from texas. we have heard from states all across the country wanting to know what they can do to help. so when evil like this comes to our community, we respond in force. i guarantee you we will do that again.

thank you, all, for everything that you do to make this such a wonderful maplace to be. we know it's going to take time to answer the questions of the loved ones. there's nothing more difficult than waiting to find out the status of people you love. please be patient. we're doing our best. thank you. >> as mayor dyer said, at this point the nightclub pulse has been cleared and deemed safe of any devices. we're in the process of clearing the suspect's vehicle, which is a van right outside. we ask that people be patient. unfortunately, there are many victims inside the club. like was said, our priority will be on the identification of the victims, notification of the next of kin. i also want to take this opportunity to thank all the outpouring of the law enforcement support from as far away as boston and chicago, that let us use their resources if

needed. of course, great community support from the central florida law enforcement community as well. i also want to commend the heroic and courageous actions of the initial responding officers who exchanged gunfire with the suspect and also the heroic and courageous actions of our s.w.a.t. team, who rescued at least 30 victims, possible victims, and brought them to safety. so again, at this point, just patience because unfortunately this tragedy and the amount of bodies that are in there, amount of victims, it's going to take some time. thank you. we'll answer questions at the end. >> i'm sheriff jerry demings. i join our entire community in offering our sympathy to these families who have lost loved ones. this has certainly been a tragic day for all of us, in that this is a day of worship, and in most

places of america, we call upon members of the clergy to pray for family members and this community for healing. in the last several hours, the men and women here in law enforcement have been working diligently to ensure the overall safety of everyone involved. you all have seen most recently where there were members of our hazardous device team, bomb units working from the orange county sheriffs office with units from the orlando fire department to make certain that we do not have any secondary type device or what have you that were in the crisis site itself. that process has taken an extended period of time to ensure the safety of everyone. so that's why we have not been able to remove all of the

victims, if you will, from the crisis site at this point. that process is continuing. we likely have another hour or two of operational necessity to ensure the safety before we can begin that process. but we do appreciate the collaborative effort amongst all of the different local governments as well as our state and our federal government. we've all come together in unity to address this issue. on behalf of our entire community, we thank you, the media, for covering these events and this tragedy. thank you very much. >> can you please confirm 5-0 dead? >> we'll take questions after we're finished with the prepared statements. >> hello, the fbi has confirmed the subject involved in this shooting incident. at this time, we're making the notifications to the next of

kin. we'll have that name to be officially released to you at the next press conference. what i want to put out right now is that as we all know in many situations, people come and go tonight clubs can such as these. what i'm asking is if anyone out there attended this nightclub and then left before the shooting happened, i would urge you to still call in and come and talk to our investigators because you don't know exactly what you may or may not have seen. we would appreciate everyone coming forward, no matter how small the evidence in your mind may be. the other thing is, we are actually setting up a family assistance center at the hampton inn located at 34 columbia street. we're going to move it to the hotel in order to accommodate more family members in an attempt to reunite people with either their loved ones or gather information on people who have not yet been located. >> can you confirm that number again? did you say 50 deaths? >> 50. >> in addition to 53 in the

hospital? >> i thought we had one more. we have a couple more people who are going to speak. then we'll answer some questions. >> good morning. as many of you are aware, a little after 2:00 this morning we were notified of many victims, gunshot victims. as central florida's only level-one trauma center, we immediately activated our mass casualty instance plan. we immediately brought in six trauma surgeons to respond, including one pediatric trauma surgeon. we have spent the morning operating on a number of victims. we continue to operate on them. we have found many of them are critically ill as a result of their injuries. we are in the process of trying to reunite families as we identify the names of these victims. as has been mentioned, this will take some time. we ask for your patience. we will reunite the families and

the victims just as it quickly as we can. thank you. >> do you need blood donors? >> blood is a wonderful gift. that can all be arranged through the local blood banks. please don't come to the local hospitals. you can work through the local blood banks to be able to donate. that would be a tremendous help. thank you. >> good morning. my name is muhammad. i am the president and senior imam of the islamic center of florida. i'm here today to stand as a faith leader with our law enforcement community and our city leadership in this hour of horror that was brought upon our city. i've worked with these leaders for over 20 years. i know their caliber, their

strength, and their determination to make sure this city is safe. i call on everybody in the community, anybody who has any information to please call the fbi, share what you know. it may help answer questions yet. i also call on my fellow faith leaders, jewish, christian, muslim, hindu, whatever faith you follow. please, pray for the victims and their families in this hour, on this sunday morning. it's supposed to be a beautiful morning, but it is already a very heartbreaking morning. i want to praise the courageous effort of our opd who risked

their lives, put their lives on the line. one of the officers, as we heard, was injured. that's a risk they take every day to protect us. no one could have predicted this. no one could have prepared for it. this could have happened anywhere. it's like lightning. so they have done a marvelous job to save as many lives after the shooter began shooting, and we are glad that the situation is completely under control. there are no other shooters that this person is known to be connected with, a network or other people. so the city, residents, and the visitors should feel safe. the city is as safe as the best

city in the world. and i want to also caution many in the media from rushing to judgment and from, you know, sensationalizing the story because we do not want the story to be shifted from the focus of what it is. it's a horrible tragedy. we are mourning. we are sad. we are heartbroken. and it's not really time for any sensational news and rushing to judgment. so we should all wait until information, facts, come out from the investigators, and we will all see what happened, understand it, and stay together, to work together to keep our community strong.

i want to thank mayor dyer, mayor jacobs, our city leaders, chief mina, and sheriff demings for their leadership. ron from the fbi. i think many times in the past this has been discussed as the worst nightmare, and we are sorry to know that it happened to us. we don't wish this on anybody else. we hope this would be the last of the mass shootings that our country has been going through. i think as a nation, we need to look at this issue of mass shootings because we just had one too many today. i think we should do something about it to stop the mass shootings that are happening all the time. thank you. >> question for ron. >> sure. >> you were able to very early

on say that the shooter appears to have leanings toward a rad quality islamic terror connection. how is it you guys were so quick, so sure of that instead of a hate crime? >> early on when we had possible identification made, we run everything to ground, whether it winds up being the actual individual or not. as i mentioned earlier, i can't say exactly who the suspect or deceased shooter is. once we're able to do that, once the notification is made, then more details will be able to be shared. most likely from our counterterrorism division up at fbi headquarters. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> right now the weapons recovered from the suspect, who is dead, was a handgun and an ar-15 type assault rifle. an unknown number of rounds, but there were additional rounds.

>> did the suspect make any sort of call prior to the shooting, maybe to 911 or to another location, kind of indicating anything? >> we have no indication of that as of yet. >> was there any communication with the suspect in those three hours before you went in? between the shots first fired and you finally going in to rescue the hostages? >> there was some communication, but we're not going to release that right now. >> why did the s.w.a.t. team wait three hours? >> well, remember, this is a situation involving hostages, a situation involving things that happened very fast. i think it was important for them to know exactly what they had. once the initial shots were stopped, they were dealing with a hostage situation. in that time, we need to set up, re-evaluate, reassess what's happening, and make sure all the pieces are in place. we have enough staffing to take care of any situation.

we have armored vehicles that come to the scene. those were crucial in the rescue of those hostages. any time we have a hostage situation, we're definitely going to use extreme measures to make sure that we have enough personnel on the scene. >> early this morning, there was a thought it may be 20 victims inside. that number has risen to 50. is this now one of the five, if not the top mass shooting event in this country? >> absolutely, yes, it is. this morning, just based on what the initial officers saw without jeopardizing anymore safety, they thought there were about at least 20. but now it's up to 50. so definitely one of the worst tragedies. >> would you say this is the worst shooting in american history? >> yes.

>> any indication the suspect had any outside help? >> there's no indication of that right now, but that all will be part of the investigation. >> were there any shots fired after that initial shooting? >> there was an initial shooting at 2:02. numerous shots fired. then there were gunshots exchanged between the s.w.a.t. team and the suspect at 0500 hours. >> so of the 50 fatalities we have, do we know if they were all killed at the initial shooting? >> that's unknown at this time. >> so is this classified right now as a hate crime or as a terrorist event? >> we'll determine whether it's officially a hate crime, terrorism. as much as i'd like to give you all the information we have, we

can't give you anything that's not 100% accurate. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> again, since the subject has not been positively identified to the next of kin, there's not a whole lot more we can share with you at this time. also bear in mind we do not want top jeopardize the investigation. while we feel confident there are no immediate threats to the area or the united states of america, we need to be certain of that before we put anymore information out. >> was anyone injured by officers' fire, and were any officers injured? >> unknown at this time. there was one officer injured. he was hit in the kevlar helmet with a round from the suspect. the kevlar helmet did stop that round, but the officer does have some injuries to his face from that gunshot. >> chief, how would you characterize the shooting?

>> did he come in shooting, or was he able to smuggle these weapons in? >> we're still early in the investigation. unknown how he got inside the club. it appears he was in there and then the shots were fired. >> how bad is this compared to other shootings across the country? >> it's absolutely terrible. i mean, 50 victims in one location, one shooting. absolutely one of the worst tragedies we've seen. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> one more time. >> [ inaudible ]. >> exactly. there were more victims inside than originally thought. so once it was safe for us to go in and we determined there were no devices, that's when we were able to discover how many victims were actually in there. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> that's all going to come out

in the investigation. right now we're going to focus on obviously the identification of all the victims and the notification of next of kin. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> a number of hours. >> congressman peter king said the shooter was from afghanistan. [ inaudible ]. >> no. >> one of the worst mass shootings in the u.s. your thoughts? >> absolutely. definitely a tragedy not only for the city but for our entire nation. we believe this is a tragedy that could happen anywhere in the united states of america. what we need to do is continue to be vigilant and call. if you see something, say something. call 911, call the fbi.

if you see something that's out of place or see someone that's acting strange, strange behavior. >> [ inaudible ]. >> absolutely. just to look into the eyes of our officers told the whole story. some of those officers had 20-plus years on. one of the lieutenants who was one of the first on the scene, he's a 23-year member of the police department and almost 20 years on the s.w.a.t. team. you could tell they were all shaken by this incident, by what they saw inside the club. they did an unbelievable job, courageous efforts in rescuing many, many hostages, at least 30, from inside the club. after it was all said and done, you could tell this kind of tragedy takes a toll on everyone, even law enforcement officers. >> can you describe what they say? >> were you receiving calls from people inside? >> we're going to brief every

two hours. >> three hours, actually. >> we're going to brief in about three hours. we're going to give you absolutely as much information as we can disclose. there are guidelines for opd and for the fbi and fdle. we're going to give you everything we can possibly give to you. right now we want to focus on identifying the victims and notifying their families. so i would hope you would leave with the information about how families can call in and check on their loved ones or give information about they might think that their loved one was among those who are missing. >> can you give us that hotline number again? >> 407-246-4357. 407-246-4357. people can call, if loved ones want to call and try to help us with information. they could also call the fbi for any tips.

that's 1-800-call-fbi. they'll just hit option number two when prompted. 1-800-call-fbi, option number two. one more time, our hotline for family members is 407-246-4357. >> we're targeting the next media briefing at 1:30 today. we do understand that governor scott is en route. he may want to do something before that, and we'll keep you guys updated on that. the next law enforcement briefing will be at 1:30. >> we just heard some devastating news from orlando officials. confirming 50 killed at the pulse nightclub last night. 50 would make this the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the united states. there are 53 wounded, some of

them grievously, we're told. they would not name the gunman, although cnn has already independently reported that his name is omar mateen, apparently born in florida. although, his parents are from afghanistan. let's talk more about this devastating news, this horrible day in american history, with senator marco rubio from florida, who serves on the intelligence committee and obviously born and bred in the state of florida. senator, first of all, our thoughts and prayers are with you and the entire state of florida right now. i know that there is -- there's a lot for us to talk about, but you have a message for people in central florida right now, something they can do to help right now. what is that? >> yeah, well, first of all, thanks for giving this the coverage it deserves. it's a horrifying incident, obviously. for people in central florida, they are looking for blood donors, particularly the o-plus

and o-negative blood types. i put that up on twitter. don't just show up at the hospital, but get in touch with local blood bank authorities. i linked an article to my twitter feed so people can know where to call. you have this level of mass casualty and loss of life here, you can just imagine the demand on the blood banks. i would encourage those who are eligible and can give blood to please try to do that. that's one thing we can do. and you know in the days to come here, as the authorities try to piece this together, it is possible that someone watching this broadcast might have information that will lead us to know more about this animal who did this. you've already touched on some of the -- i don't want to say anything or go beyond it because i don't want to undermine their investigation, but i think -- let me just suffice it to say that over the next couple days, they're going to be looking to see where this individual was inspired to carry out this horrifying act of terrorism.

i think we're going to be talking about a very different kind of case soon, is my sense. >> yeah, the fbi special agent in charge has already said that they have suspicions, suggestions as to omar mateen being inspired by radical islamic ideology. when we have more definitive information on that, we will bring that to the viewers. one other issue that i think a lot of people are concerned about, especially people in the lgbt community, senator, is that this is pride month. obviously we don't know the twisted motivations as to why the gunman picked a gay nightclub for his attack, but obviously this is a month where there are a lot of gay pride events throughout the nation. here in washington, d.c., police have said they have increased security at events for the lgbt community. do you know of any information

that you may have learned from law enforcement or the intelligence committee in the senate that suggests any other possible attack that might be planned? >> well, as of now, the indications are this is an individual that acted on their own. obviously in the next couple days we're going to learn a lot more about it. if you look at the nature of the attack, basically the use of the handgun to storm a nightclub and start shooting people, it doesn't take a tremendous amount of coordination. you don't need a phone call from afghanistan or an e-mail from syria to tell you to go do this. we have seen the way radical islamists have treated the gay and lesbians in other countries. we've seen it's punishable by death. we've seen horrifying pronouncements of things they've done. if, in fact, this crime is one inspired by radical islamic ideolo ideology, it's quite frankly not surprising they would target this community in this horrifying way. i think it's something we're going to have to talk about more here across the country. i would also want to say, and i

don't want to leave without saying the orlando police department -- we say this every day. it's almost cliche. what these people did is extraordinary. they've really put their lives on the line to confront this individual. quite frankly, save lives. they had to go in and extract him. that ended up in a gun battle and his death. one officer was wounded. thankfully it was a slight wound, but it was a bullet wound. apparently he's doing okay. it's extraordinary courage on their part. but going back to the lgbt issue, if this is a terrorist attack -- and common sense plays out here. this is an individual. there are indications while he's u.s. born, his family is originally from afghanistan. that in and of itself says nothing, other than if leads turn into something that this is inspired by radical ideology, then common sense tells you he specifically targeted the gay community because of the views that exist in the radical islamic community with regards to the gay community. >> one last question, senator.

then i know you have to go. we thank you for calling in. you're a father of four children, two of them younger. i'm a father of two children. how do you explain this? i think there are probably a lot of parents watching right now in who want to know how somebody like you, how do you explain this to your children? >> unfortunately, we've had a lot of practice in explaining this over the last few years. the only way i can figure it out is that there's this radical ideology in the world that teaches people at a very young age that you have a right to kill people who don't agree with your religion, and you have a right to kill them, even if they're not doing anything bad to you. again, we don't know yet, but i think there is growing indications from everything we've learned, and we'll learn more in the next few days. sounds like this is an individual who worked for a security company. obviously he had to do some background checks and things of this nature. we'll have more information based on that. we'll see what the fbi is able to gather from social media accounts and his cell phone. we'll see what information is available, but if, in fact, this leads to that explanation, and

right now there's a lot of indications this has some link to radical islam, i think we have to continue to explain to people, this is the new face of the war on terror. they have said openly they sbend to target us here. one of the hardest parts of this war is the individual who carries out an attack by themselves in a soft target like this. it's a reminder that the war on terror has evolved into something we've never had to confront before. individua individuals capable of conducting these sorts of maskemaske massacres in places you wouldn't expect. we'll learn more in the next few days, but i have confidence that the fbi and the department of homeland security are on this. we're going to learn a lot more about this fairly quickly. >> senator marco rubio, republican of florida, thank you so much for your time this morning, sir. >> thank you, jake. >> for those individuals in central florida, please heed the advice, the suggestions, the request from senator rubio. there is a dire need for blood,

especially those who belong to the universal donor type of o-positive. please seek your local hospital, see if you can contribute. there are 53 individuals, many of whom have been grievously injured. we'll be right back after this quick break. the big hilton world sale is on honors members save up to 25% on brands like hampton, doubletree, hilton garden inn, and waldorf astoria so stop clicking around. book direct at hilton.com now that's satisfaction. youthat's why you drink ensure. sidelined. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure.

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good morning. we're following horrific breaking news. a mass shooting at an lgbt nightclub in orlando, florida, which now ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in the history of this nation. this is orlando's mayor just a few minutes ago. >> and it is with great sad nne that i share we have not 20 but 50 casualties, in addition to the shooter. there are another 53 hospitalized. >> that's 50 dead. the incident started a couple minutes after 2:00 a.m. eastern time, shortly after the nightclub posted on its facebook page this message. everyone get out of pulse, that's the name of the club, and keep running.

police now say an officer responded, and there was a shootout outside the club. the gunman ran inside the club, and a hostage situation began. about three hours later at around 5:00 a.m., police used an armored vehicle to knock down a door and enter the club. they shot and killed the gunman. he now is identified by law enforcement sources as omar mateen. mateen worked as a private security guard. police say throughout the ordeal, they were getting phone calls and text messages from terrified individuals inside the nightclub but away from the gunman. complicating the situation, people friends and relatives also got messages and rushed down to the club. people who were inside the club are now telling harrowing stories about trying to get out. >> just shocking. >> how many shots do you think there were? >> oh, more than 20 or 30. it was just one after another after another after another.

it could have lasted a whole song. after everybody was out, the shootings were still going. the cops were yelling go, go, clear the area, clear the area. we're like [ bleep ]. so when i bend down to help this guy, it's like t are you kidding? it's like, you're still watching yourself and you see people on the side of buildings. i jumped a couple times because i wasn't sure if that person was someone with a gun or somebody who was hiding. you don't know. you don't know who's what and where. you're just like, oh, man. >> bring in cnn justice correspondent evan perez. evan, what can you tell us about the shooter, omar mateen? >> well, jake, we know that he worked as a security guard in ft. pierce, florida. he worked for one of the major security companies that does a lot of security, including for the u.s. government. that is something now that the investigators, the fbi investigators that are working on this case are going to be looking into. we know that he rented a car in

ft. pierce and traveled specifically to orlando to carry out this terrorist attack that now has claimed the lives of 50 people and perhaps more. that might explain why perhaps there was some earlier indications from peter king, the congressman who was on the air earlier, who was talking about some weapons training. he worked as a security guard for a major security company. that might explain why he perhaps had some expertise with using these weapons and was able to kill these people so quickly. what we know, as you mentioned, in the washington, d.c., area, there's a big observance of gay pride weekend. we know the police there in washington they zaire going to increase security. we expect that'll happen in other cities as well. in orlando, this was not gay pride weekend. they celebrate it at a different

time. 24 club was packed with hundreds of people obviously. that's one reason why the death count is so high, jake. >> and evan, just to clear something up from earlier, do you have any information about the birthplace of the shooter? >> that's right. he was a u.s.-born citizen of the united states. his family is not -- they're not u.s. citizens. he was born in the united states. that might be one reason for the confusion earlier, jake. >> and the fbi is gathering right now outside the home of the dead terrorist. >> that's right. they are now looking -- they're inside the house trying to see if there's any weapons or perhaps explosives. that's one of the things they have to do to secure first of all the place, and then they're going to start digging into his background. at this point, jake, as the fbi noted earlier in the previous press conference, there are indications that