it's dark. you don't know what's going on. we're falling, people are running and glasses are dropped

and i'm being covered in blood from other people. >> this was an act of terror and an act of hate. >> around 1:30 in the morning we lost her inside the club. >> just had another baby three months ago. the family is devastated. >> no one can tell me where my son is. if he's been shot, if he's dead. >> i haven't heard anything, no dead body, if he's alive or is he breathing. >> we are making it clear, anyone who attacks our lgbt community and anyone who attacks anyone in our state will be gone after to the fullest extent of the law. >> we, as a gay community, we are a resilient people. we will have people lined up behind the blood banks and we will show what the good heart of humanity is. >> this is cnn breaking news live in orlando, florida. i'm erin burnett and just down the street from the pulse nightclub. it is behind me a couple of blocks down this way where you see the police cars blocking the

street and it is a crime scene at this hour. it is a crime scene because 53 people are fighting for their lives in hospitals right where we are, and 50 people died between midnight and dawn this morning all of them killed by a heavily armed man. he walked into the club at 2:00 in the morning. that is a gay club and that was the reason t -- and why he did this horrific, horrific thing. 50 people killed and more than 50 people wounded and most of them are still in hospitals, as i said, here in greater orlando. officials have been adding to the growing list of names of victims who died there. the names are being released as soon as proper notifications have been given to the family. so far the names of seven victims have been made public. only seven out of 50. that is the crime scene they are dealing with tonight. we also know the name of the killer. he is 29 years old.

his name is omar mateen. he was born in the united states in new york, his parents came to america. they were from afghanistan. mateen is dead. he was killed by orlando police officers when they stormed into the club after a hostage situation so he had started shooting and then he took hostages. hours went by and then there was this gun battle as they went to free the hostages, they killed him. we are learning more and more about the gunman and what may have motivated him. as we continue our live coverage, flags are being flown at half-staff across the nation today and that is an order from president obama who came out speaking to the nation calling the nightclub shooting an act of terror and an act of hate. just a few moments ago i talked to the dj, the dj who was there last night about what happened when he first heard the shots ring out. >> two people went underneath my dj booth. it was a guy and a girl. the guy took off and the girl was down there panicking and i told her she needed to be quiet and as soon as there was a break in the shots then i kind of just

pushed her and said come on, let's go, and we ran out the door and the cops were having us go around the corner where there was no bullets or anything. >> and drew griffin is now outside the suspect's home in fort pierce which, drew, is about just under two hours from here. he got in his car. he drove through the night to come here to this nightclub to commit his horrific crime. what are police looking for at his home? >> reporter: well, they're going to be looking for in the investigation any kind of electronic communication and certainly any planning that was done and anything this person may have written down and certainly, though there's no indication, anything that may link him to another person, another cell or a directive that may be coming from overseas and that is generic fodder for any kind of investigation, but in addition to that, they're also looking for any danger that still may be here which is why much of the apartment or condo community in back of me remains

evacuated and has been all day as police and investigators and the fbi scour this condominium for not only the evidence, but any potential danger that is still here. erin, we just learned in the last few minutes something that will be troubling for anyone of the islamic faith and anyone of any faith. we can confirm now that this suspect was at friday prayers just about ten minutes from where we are and had attended mosques since 2003 and the imam there who talked to the my colleague pablo sandoval said it was just unbelievable that this would have happened and during prayers tonight in english said we have to stop this killing, and this bloodshed. the suspect has long ties to the community here, has long ties to the islamic community and a very, very long employment history and everybody is scratching their heads and trying to figure out why, why this could have happened? erin? >> all right.

drew griffin, thank you very much with that crucial detail attending mosque did i days ago, a mosque that he's attended since 2003 and one thing we are learning about this individual. this is not a person who just joined the community. he'd joined the mask since 2003 and had been in florida and had been at his job for nine years with the same employer. his ex-wife held a press conference, with her fiance, a marriage a troubled one with severe domestic abuse and she now lives in boulder. they just spoke at this press conference and i want to play it for you now. >> i was woken up by my parents saying sitora, wake up, sitora, wake up and i called them and the first thing that they told me was your ex-husband was involved in a mass shooting and, you know, reporters are at our house and calling us and they will probably be at your house, too, so i was devastated, shocked. i started shaking and crying because more than anything i was

so, so deeply hurt and heart broken for the people that lost their loved ones and the families that are now suffering, the people that are -- that are wounded and that are healing and it's everything that i stand for to not have that, for humanity to be in harmony, for people to not have to go through that and to be in some way affiliated at one point in my life to somebody that caused such a tragedy was -- it shook me off the ground. yeah. really difficult and it will take a while to process. >> what's the hardest part about it? >> my sympathy -- what i feel for the people, what i feel for the souls that are transitioning, for the people that are wounded and for their families that are probably left with questions and heart broken wondering why this happened and why somebody would do this. that's my biggest concern, and i

pray for their healing. i pray for their peace, to find their peace. [ inaudible question ] >> of course. the work that i do, that me and my fiance do in the world is we bring people together and we open them up to harmony of religion, of race and homosexuality of orientation -- >> acceptance. >> of each other. >> of everyone with humanity and each other to live in harmony on our earth and for us, this is the most tragic thing that can happen. >> what was he like as a husband? >> in the beginning he was a normal being that cared about family, loved to joke. loved to have fun, but then a few months after we were married i saw his instability, and i saw that he was bipolar and he would get mad out of nowhere. that's when i started worrying about my safety and then after a few months he started abusing me

physically, very often and not allowing me to speak to my family, keeping me hostage from them, and i tried to see the good in him even then, but my family was very tuned into what i was going through and decided to visit me and rescue me out of that situation. [ inaudible question ] >> instability -- emotional instability, sickness, mentally. he was mentally unstable and mentally ill. that's the only explanation that i could give and he was obviously disturbed, deeply and traumatized. [ inaudible question ] >> i'm not sure about that, but i know that he had a history of steroids. i don't know if that caused it. i'm sure it had something to do with it, you know? but -- [ inaudible question ]

>> when he would get in his tempers he would express hate toward things, toward everything, so in that respect, you know, yeah, but it was the moments when you would see his emotional instability and turning totally different. [ inaudible question ] >> yeah. my family literally rescued me. the night that they were there they had to pull me out of his arms and find an emergency flight. i left all my belongings and made a police report and, you know, because we were in a distance, i was in jersey and he was in florida the divorce took a year and a half to finalize because we were doing it from a distance. >> did you ever see him support terrorism in any way? >> not while i was with him. no. >> he did follow religion. he did practice and he had his

faith. >> islam? >> yeah. >> that has nothing to do with it. >> i don't follow any one particular religion. like i said, the work we do is for people to accept each other so i believe in christianity, in judaism, in islam, in hinduism, and i follow and i'm guided by all these faiths. yeah. >> and you haven't had -- you haven't seen him or talked to him. >> i had cut him off and blocked everything and my family actually warned him that if he would try to contact me they would go to the authorities and i blocked him totally and he we did not have contact with him for years. >> with his family? >> no, for no contact, seven, eight years. until these news. >>. [ inaudible question ] >> i was with him for about four

months. i stayed with him and my family rescued me and after that started the process of divorce. >> yeah. [ inaudible question ] >> well, yeah. he was very short tempered and he would often get into fights and arguments with his parents, you know, but because i guess i was the only one in his life most of the violence was towards me at that time. so -- [ inaudible question ] >> my family. my guidance, my ancestors that came to my dreams and made me, like, open my eyes and follow their guidance and told me to get out and my family being there and coming to visit me and making sure for themselves if i'm okay and then when they saw that i was not they immediately got me out of that situation. >> did he have firearms? >> he did own a gun. [ inaudible question ] >> he wanted to be a police officer, so he trained with his friends who were police officers

and he had a license to have a gun in florida. you're allowed to do that. so he didn't practice anything in front of me, but i'm sure he went to shooting ranges. [ inaudible question ] >> yeah. that i saw. >> it was one of those old silver -- >> pistol. >> pistol. yeah. >> he had an nypd t-shirt on. >> like i said. he wanted to be a police officer, he applied to the police academy and he worked as a correctional officer or something at a juvenile delinquent center so he was working up and gaining experience to become an officer. >> do you remember what the name of that facility was? >> i'm not sure, but i believe it was in fort pierce, a juvenile delinquent center in fort pierce. >> no, i don't know any of that information. >> any of his friends at the time, like anything sort of radical or anything about them that you remember? >> no, i don't. it was -- there was no sign of

any of this at all. huh? >> how did you meet him? >> online. >> did he ever express feelings? >> a few times. i personally am not a person that remembers anything negative about anybody. i don't hold that -- if anything i do everything to kill my ego every day and kill anything that i remember, so -- >> but you did feel like you had that sense -- >> her and her family have felt that from the beginning that he was an unbalanced person. i hear the media trying to make this about isis or islam or this or that and it's just about imbalanced and it's about society, you know? it's about parenting. it's about accepting each other, you know? it's not about differences and

wars and it's about looking at ourselveses and how can we be different to help people, you know? >> so you're thinking of it's more mental illness. >> it is definitely a mental illness, and i feel for his family, too, because you know sometimes people can be out toed as radicals or fundamentalists but from the things i see from his father and what he said, you know, no one ever expected that he would do this. no one ever expected because even the things she told me about from the beginning he was a man who was very confused and very troubled, you know? and abused women and like there are so many all over the world, and like buddhists and even gandhi in india. that's why i pray and i ask for everyone to forgive everybody else, too. it's not about our differences and it's about us helping each other to live in a more harmonious way so we can accept

each other so people don't feel so like they can't fit in. and they're so different that they may be brought to something like this, you know? so that's what i ask you as the media, we have a responsibility, you know, because this is a very delicate matter. let's not make this about another reason to invade afghanistan or something. that's not what this is about. this is about making peace with each other and with ourselves and our children and our families and our wives our mothers and our fathers and now i just -- ask you all to understand that we have had a long, long day especially sitora, you know? and thank you. >> can you spell your names for us and pronounce? >> sitora. sitora. s-i-t-o-r-a. >> you've been listening to a press conference in boulder, colorado. the woman that you are hearing is the ex-wife of the shooter, omar mateen and her current

fiance. she was talking about their relationship. basically, she said they were only together about four months. they have not talked in about seven years, but during that time at first it started normal, but then he started getting mad out of nowhere. he would beat her. she was worried about her safety and didn't allow her to speak to her family. she believes he's mentally unstable and mentally ill and her fiance seconding that and also saying that they believe this is mental illness and not something else. i've got my panel here, general mark hertling and tom fuentes all with me. tom fuentes when you hear that and you hear this story and you heard her talking about how she was beaten in some sort of a -- we don't know exactly what kind of marriage this was and to what degree it was along those lines and talking about how he physically abused her and she believed he was mentally unstable and mental illness. >> erin, it could be, if she was

only with him a short period of time and it was more than seven years ago the time of radicalization and other issues kicking in with mateen probably are very recent and she would have no way to know that. so i sympathize with her, and know that she went through a terrible ordeal with him, but that doesn't tell us, you know, what happened in the seven years since they were together. >> and peter bergen, of course, when you look at those seven years you now must take what she is saying about his character and his person that she knew and put that together with what our drew griffin was reporting and was going three to four times a week and had been there as recently as two days ago. they said he was sort of a quiet member of the islamic community at that mosque, but abvowsly, a very active one. >> i have been told in the sense that you could be a terrible husband and be an angry husband and be someone that abuses your wife and that doesn't mean that

you're mentally ill and what we know about this guy doesn't suggest mental illness. he kept a job for almost nine years at the same place. he was, as you say, a regular at a mosque in the community. we're not hearing about a guy with a serious mental illness and typically terrorists are not mentally ill. if you are mentally ill you can't carry out the kind of attack we saw carefully carried out and get the training and that's not typical for terrorists to be mentally ill. it's more than a network.

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and i am back here in orlando, just a couple of blocks away from the pulse nightclub and general mark hertling and along with pamela brown, our justice reporter. in the press conference was a very emotional ex-wife and they met online and did not know each other very long.

it was a troubled marriage. he had beaten her and that's what she talked about. >> right. >> and now we're finding out in the seven years since they spoke because they have not spoken in seven years he was regularly attending a mosque three to four times a week and as recently as two days ago. so when she and her fiance say this is mental illness? is this mental illness? this guy planned this, this guy came here and put this together. >> i don't think so. it takes a bit of skill to do this, but it also shows that you have all these different categories of someone who would attack. are they a radical islamist? are they part of a hate group? are they just crazy? all of these things in order to know your enemy and counter him you have to figure out what is driving the person? what is the ideology? what's the driver and we don't know that yet with this guy. >> pamela, they don't know and now it's literally we're piecing this together and some things that peter bergen is pointing out don't add up to a normal profi

profile. you have someone who had a job for nine years and belonged to a job since 2003 and doing something that doesn't fit that profi profile. >> right now law enforcement officials are looking at the hybrid scenario whether this was a combination of a hate crime where he was targeting the gay community combined with international terrorism and that is really what the investigation is focused on and the sources i've spoken to said at this point it's not cut and dry, but it's still very early and they still have to pull items from his home and look through all of those electronics and it takes a lot of time, but what is under scrutiny is at one point he was on the fbi's radar in 2013 for making inflammatory remarks and made his coworkers believe that he was tied to radical islam and there was an investigation that ensued and he was interviewed twice and the fbi didn't find wrongdoing and actually closed the case and last year they looked into whether they had a substantive relationship with the american suicide bomber. they found that he didn't, and so they closed that case, as well. for the fbi to close a case they really believed that there was nothing there.

if they had any inkling -- >> they will keep going. they will keep driving it. so i think that that is telling and his family seemed to be more focused on the fact that he had these anti-gay views than ties to any sort of terrorist group according to what we've learned from those interviews and there's still a lot to learn here. when you look at the fact that he was able to buy these guns in just the past few days. if you think you had been the subject of two fbi investigations and to your involvement with isis, how could you be allowed to go and do that and tom fuentes is saying there wouldn't even have been a red flag. >> tom is right. when you have an active investigation and you keep going after it and you keep going down that rabbit hole, if you're an agent or analyst, you want the guy. you want to get him and guys, when you give it up, it's just because there's nothing there and evidently there was nothing there with this guy. >> you have to move on to other priorities especially right now with the isis threat, there are

900-plus isis investigations this guy was very low on the totem pole and there was nothing recent raising a red flag with this suspect, but again, they're going back to see if any red flags were missed. >> which, of course, we don't yet know at this point. that is is one of the most terrifying things about this. that he did this and nobody perhaps could have caught it. >> and it gets back to the point that we have got to be right 100% of the time. we have to pick the right target. we've got to analyze it the right way in order to counter terrorism, and sometimes you don't get it right 100% of the time and a guy like this will sneak through. that's the hard part about counter terrorist operations, you've got to always have it right. >> thanks to both of you here in orlando. we'll take a brief break. we'll be right back. ♪ so let's restart the show that started at nine ♪ ♪ and while we're at it, let's give you back your 'do ♪ ♪ and give her back the guy she liked before you ♪

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grayson represents central florida including parts of orlando where we are tonight. hours after the shooting, he tweeted words cannot express the horror and the loss that we feel over this terrible loss. senator nelson was with me just a moment ago. you woke up this morning and you saw this.

you were awoken, i'm sure, in the early hours. >> yes. this woke me up. >> could you even comprehend what you were being told? >> no, in retrospect it's shocking to me. one human being with one weapon can kill 50 people in a matter of two or three minutes and that's disturbing to me. it is way too easy in america today to kill lots of people very quickly and we have to think hard over whether we'll allow that. the weapon used today of the a weapon that was illegal for ten years and it is now legal in 44 states. one of those states where it's illegal is connecticut. connecticut went through the sandy hook tragedy where a couple of dozen children were killed verdict quickly. until today the second worst mass shooting in history and now sadly the third worst, and i hope that in the same way that the people of connecticut stepped up and made sure that could never happen again, i hope that we'll do the same. >> and what do you understand at this time from what you're being

told? what happened? how did he choose this nightclub. why did he choose this nightclub? why did he drive two hours to do this here just on that issue, putting aside for a moment that we don't yet know what mix this was of terror and hate. >> well, the simple answer is that it was homophobia. it was a hate crime according to his own father. he said according to an earlier report, he saw two men kissing and he got very upset about that and he went and killed 50 of them. that is the saddest thing imagine and so deeply disturbed and demented that it's hard to believe that is even part of human nature. >> you're right about that and it certainly is a hate crime. do you think it is also islamic terrorism when you think about the fact that there weregagzs b they resolved and they didn't keep asking questions of him and

they related to his relationship with isis and he called in the early hours of this morning and pledged allegiance to isis about 20 minutes into the shooting. was this also islamic radicalism. >> it was terrorism in the literal sense because it was meant to terrorize people and not just the 50 people who died and the 53 injured, but everybody who is part of the lgbt community. he wanted to inflict terror on them and make them afraid to go to a place like this down the block, made them afraid to live their lives in peace, but we are the land of the free and the home of the brave, and we're not so easily shaken. >> so what happens now from here, in terms of your understanding of this investigation and are they getting the information that they need right now? >> yes. i just spoke to the fbi about this a few moments ago. what's happening is they're doing a very thorough investigation in every conceivable respect. they're checking his phone records and computer and checking his personal items and seeing if he left a note behind explaining what he intended and

above all, to make sure he acted alone. the police this morning described it as a lone wolf attack. all of the evidence suggest that's probably the case, but we have to make sure of that for the sake of people's safety. >> at this point, do they think he was operating completely alone? obviously, you had reports of someone with an arsenal of weapons at the los angeles gay pride parade and they were able to apprehend that person before anything horrific could happen and no links between the two at this time, but is there possible there could have been some sort of coordination or anything else involved? >> there is no evidence that he acted on the basis of his ideology any not on the basis of coordination with anyone else. hatred of the gays and hatred of the west and so on. that's a terrible, terrible shame to think that anyone had to lose their life, and the idea, that there is no

distinction of innocent people between these victims and everyone else. >> the imam and his mosque is devastated as are others in the muslim community that he interacted with, but this was a young man that we understand was going to mosque, the same mosque since 2003 in recent years very regularly, three, four times a week and he'd been there as recently as two days ago. is this something that somebody could have noticed and could have seen coming? that there was the risk of this person doing something horrific in that community? >> yes, but we're limited by the constitution. you know, there's no preventive detention in the united states. you can't lock people up for their thoughts or what they might do and we can't discriminate on the race, religion, and other than your actions and the fact is that his actions did not give the fbi enough to work with in order to lock him up or even keep him on the watch list. he was very clever in what he did. he didn't give any clues or any hints and there were he got away with it, but the fact of the matter is that in the land of

the free and the home of the brave, inevitably there will be tragedies like this as long as people like him have hatred in their hearts. >> congressman grayson, thank you very much. >> if i may say this one thing further. >> yeah. >> if he was who he was and he was not able to buy a weapon that shoots off 700 rounds in a minute, a lot of those people would still be alive. that's exactly right. if somebody like him had nothing worse to deal with than a glock pistol which was his other victim he might have killed three or four people and not 50. it's way too easy to kill people in america today and we have to think long and hard about what to do about that. >> you're right about that. thank you very much. the shooting at the pulse nightclub just a few blocks behind where we are standing right now lasted for a terrifying three hours. there was all of that shooting in the first few minutes and then there were hostages that had been taken for hours. police were trying desperately during that time to negotiate with the shooter and at other

times they were exchanging gun fire and all why some of the survivors were staying as still and silent as possible desperately waiting for help to arrive and some, something that we heard when we were in paris actually having to hide under those who had already died to try to survive themselves. the horrific story continues. >> the dj was playing a typical set that incorporated what we thought was gunshots as part of the music. four shots, bop, bop, bop, bop. no one put two and two together until the fifth and six and two and 20 and that's when everything started getting real and we went out, we jetted and tried to just saving ourselves and saving as many people as we could just to get out of there. >> 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. >> how many shots do you think there were? >> oh, more than 20 or 30. i mean, it was just one after

another, after another, after everybody was out, and people -- the shootings were still going and the cops were yelling, go! go! clear the area! clear the area! >> my son hasn't been heard from so i don't know if he was left in the club, if he got shot or if he's being worked on here. they won't let us know. they're not letting us know any names of anybody. because my dentures fit well. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. so it's not about keeping my dentures in, it's about keeping the food particles out. try super poligrip free.

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welcome back to our breaking news coverage. i'm erin burnett live in orlando, florida, tonight. just behind me just a few blocks back pulse nightclub, and that is the mainstay of the lgbt community and it is the scene of the worst mass shooting in modern american history and the worst terror attack on american soil since 9/11. this attack is an act of terror and also an act of hate. at least 50 people were killed, slaughtered in the early hours of this morning and 53 others wounded and they, most of them are in hospitals near where we are right now in surgery, fighting for their lives tonight. a witness captured just a small portion of the shooter's standoff with police. let me play it for you. [ gun fire ] >> they're shooting back and forth. [ speaking spanish ]

>> look at this. >> let's go! [ speaking spanish entrepreneur [ . >> oh, my god. they're all shooting back and forth. [ speaking spanish ] >> let's go. >> one survivor said she hid in the bathroom and covering herself with dead bodies until police arrived. a horrific thing to imagine and no one can truly comprehend and something that happened at the bataclan in paris and others climbed out through the window after police removed an air conditioner and they were able to jump out into the street and so far seven of the 50 people coupled have been identified and that means family members and friends are desperately gathering outside of hospitals and hoping that their missing loved ones are being treated inside and are alive. >> we're spreading his picture on the media just in case he's hurt and a nurse see it and recognize him, but you just do

that by default. i know -- >> the shooter identified as a 29-year-old man, omar mir saddiqui mateen. police say he called 91120 minutes into the attack and pledged allegiance to isis and mentioned of the boston marathon bombing. they thwarted a similar man today a man with weapons and explosive materials that could be used with pipe bombs was arrested on his y to e los angeles gay pride festival. police called him for prowling around and thank god they did and they found his car and found that arsenal. let's get to jessica schneider. as we try to piece together what happened in the early hours of this morning at this nightclub here in orlando. what is the latest that you understand about the minute by minute, the time line of what happened in that club? >> yeah, erin, first of all, this club was packed. the club's just behind me about

a block away. there were 350 people inside this club. it was saturday night. it was the club's most popular night. it was latin night and what we know about the time line is that at 2:00 in the morning that gunman entered the club and went to the door and the first person he encountered was an off-duty police officer and that officer serving as security. he got past the officer and then went into the club. that's when the shooting began and that's when he began taking hostages. for three tense hours he was moving around the club in two different areas and taking hostages and shooting people. we've actually seen some text messages from people who were frantically texting their loved ones asking for help and one we saw was someone in a bathroom texting their mother saying mommy, mommy, call police, we need help in here. for three hours that was going on. finally at 5:00 in the morning that's when police moved in and they actually used an armored vehicle to bust down some of the

walls and that's when they took the hostages out and that's when they shot and killed that gunman. in the hours that have passed we've been hearing some incredible, harrowing and frightening stories from the witnesses and the people and the victims who were inside the club. one person we heard from, a source of the club's owner actually says that one of the people was inside a bathroom and she was forced to cover herself with dead bodies in order to stay safe. she did survive. there was a bartender who hid under the glass bar and when police came around they said if anyone's alive here please raise your hand. we always heard about performers who were in a back dressing room and they huddled together to stay safe and when police came the police actually took out an air-conditioning unit and got those people out that way. we have heard from the owner of pulse nightclub and in part, the owner said i want to express my profound sadness and condolences to all who have lost loved ones. of course, just a terrifying

point of time for all these people, and now people just trying to deal with all of this immense grief. erin? >> jessica schneider, thank you so much. and of course, the immense grief as police had the armored vehicle and broke through the door and there were 30 people were able to be able to run free and people who had endured hours of being a hostage and somehow managed to survive. the gunman's ex-wife has spoken out just a short time ago from colorado and she gave a very disturbing description of the man she knew in a very brief and very troubled marriage. much more about the background on the gunman behind the orlando shooting.

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as people in the united states here in orlando and around the world are desperately trying to come to terms with what just happened, trying to understand how a human being could do something so deeply inhuman, at the center of the shooting is the man, the gunman, 29-year-old omar mateen. police shot him dead as they rushed into the thiet clnightcl. they had been trying to negotiate with him for several hours and he had hostages and 20 minutes before the initial shooting he called 911 and pledged allegiance to isis and mentioned the boston marathon

bombing during that call. here's what we know about mateen. born in new york, his parents were from afghanistan and that's the basics that we know and he moved to florida. he worked as a security guard for nine years and his nine-year anniversary for the company he worked for would be this september and because of his position as a security guard he was legally able to purchase the firearms and those purchases of the weapons used in the nightclub shooting happened within just the past few days. we don't know much more about him. we do know that he was a part of an islamic community here attending mosque regularly since 2003, three to four times a week and as recently as two days ago. the fbi, though, did know about him. they had interviewed him in two different occasions in 2013 and 2014 both of which were related to his sympathies for isis. in one case to a man to the united states who went to syria who became a suicide bomber for isis.

tom foreman joins me now from washington. tom, we're starting to get bits and pieces coming together about this individual, but still yielding a very confusing picture as to how much of this was driven by terror and how much of this was driven by hate. >> it's not clear at all yet, erin. sitora yusufiy just talked to reporters from colorado and she talked about she had been married to him for four months back in 2009 and her marriage soured and her family, quote, rescued me and then started the process of divorce. she said her family had to pull her out of his arms and he did exhibit anger issues and she said mateen seemed normal in the beginning of the marriage and a few months in he became unstable and she also said that he wanted to be a police officer, erin. >> and the big question is when you hear her just speaking out moments ago, tom, she also talked about their relationship

was very short. they had met, obviously, online and she continued to talk about how the relationship very quickly turned violent, but she believes this is mental illness and that he's mentally unstable. >> well, and there are things in his past which, of course, law enforcement has to look at to consider whether or not that's part of the issue. according to the fbi, they first became aware of mateen in 2013 when he made inflammatory comments to coworkers alleging possible terrorist ties. the fbi said today it thoroughly investigated the matter and was unable to verify the substance of the allegations and then in 2014 he came to their attention again because, as the fbi said, mateen had been in contact with an american citizen who became a suicide bomber. in total, he was interviewed three times by the fbi, in both investigations, in the second investigation regarding the suicide bomber, the fbi said today the contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship. erin?

>> all right. tom foreman, thank you very much. as we try to pull together these small threads about who the man who comitted this horrific crime was. we'll take a quick break and we'll be back live from orlando as our special coverage continues. ou back your 'do ♪ ♪ and give her back the guy she liked before you ♪ ♪ hey, that's the power to turn back time. ♪ (vo) get the ultimate all-included bundle. call 1-800-directv. schwarzkopf presents hair in 30 minutes? our most caring color collection: keratin color with keratin-care-complex. formulated for full gray coverage and up to 80% less hair breakage. ready to rejuvenate your hair? keratin color. from schwarzkopf.

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we're on this camera. all right. we are live in orlando. i am here with general mark hertling. general, as we are just starting to learn little pieces about this individual, the question is right now from the fbi. are they going to be able to glean enough from what they're going to have, right? which is going to be his cell phone primarily and they're looking at social media postings and a lot of people and that cell phone device itself? >> well, if the fbi has information on the cell phone they'll be able to get a lot out of it. there are so many things in this, erin. you talk about the potential for

radical islamist terrorism, hate-filed diatribes against the gay community, perhaps some mental illness, the way he associated with people around him, his parents and what they're doing, too. all of these things are going to provide a wealth of information over the next couple of weeks of what we can get about this guy. >> it is impossible to imagine, though, and i'm not saying it's not true, if feels impossible to imagine when you think about what just happened that nobody would have known. that there would have been no signs that this person was about to do something so huge and so evil. we talk about a lone wolf, but for someone to be able to do this with no signs at all where no one around them would have said something is wrong? all we said was that the father said that he saw two gay men kissing and that bothered him. that's it? >> it's incomprehensible and he would have come here to recon this location and to scope it out and to find others that might support him. i don't know who those might be. >> or if he had some sort of link to this club, why did he

pick this club? 150 miles away from where he's living and a lot of it just doesn't make sense and i think as we start pulling the threads over the next couple of days we'll find more and more and it's going to be critical to give us more insight into terrorism and hate crimes. >> and also the big question, of course, is nobody said anything. >> right. >> but it's hard to say at what point you would say something. >> right. >> this is a man who was regularly attending mosque. his imam says he had no idea that anything was a miss. certainly if you were talking about the islamic radical aspect. >> you would think so. one of your reports said that he went back to the mosque and he's been there for a weil and you would think he was talking about these kinds of things to someone, whether it was a friend or a compatriat or imam and that's the hard part that we have to figure out. >> certainly is and who was or were that someone her who is

that someone. now let's hand it off to don lemon. this is our breaking news tonight, the worst terror attack in u.s. history. this is cnn breaking news. good evening, everyone. our breaking news tonight the worst terror attack in u.s. history since 9/11. this is cnn tonight and i'm don lemon in orlando. here's what we know. 50 dead and 53 injured at the pulse nightclub, a gay club here in orlando. the gunman identified as omar mateen of fort pierce, florida. he was shot and killed by police, a source says. the gunman called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to isis, mentioning of the boston bombers. the shooter was armed with an assault type weapon, a handgun and an unknown number of rounds. according to a neighbor mateen worked as a security guard at the port st. louucie courthouse. he's been investigated by the fbi for possible