about all of this. eric shawn and arthel neville will take the baton from up in new york. i'll be back at 1:00 p.m. eastern time with continuing coverage here on fox news channel. we begin with a fox news alert. america under attack. the specter of islamic terrorism apparently taking more inn dent lives overnight. the latest horrendous mass shooting in orlando, now the worst in american history. >> oh, my god. they are all shooting back and forth. >> as we have been reporting police say the gunman, a u.s.-born citizen of afghan parents, stormed the gay nightclub early this morning opening fire with an assault rifle and handgun killing 50 people and wounding 53 others during that three-hour standoff before an orlando s.w.a.t. team

stormed the nightclub and killed the suspect. now federal authorities are investigating this incident as an act of terrorism. this is a brand new hour of america's election headquarters. i'm eric shawn. >> and i'm arthel neville. right now the mayor of orlando, buddy dyer, asking florida governor rick scott to declare a state of emergency as this investigation picks up steam, and we're just getting police scanner audio capturing the chaos at the scene. let's take a listen. >> orlando, we have shots fired and authorities are asking you to stand back and don't enter the scene. >> sun fire, gunfire, gunfire. >> position of cover. all personnel get back in a position of cover. >> now we have active fire. shots outside. this is ormc. we have the shooter currently inside ormc and we cannot take coverage. >> anita vogel is live in los angeles and peter doocy is live

at the scene in -- there in orlando. in fact, we'll start with peter right now. peter, what can you tell us about the very latest information that you're getting from investigators there an scene? >> reporter: arthel, the very latest is actually coming from a democratic united states senator bill nelson who just a few minutes ago came to the location that we have set up for law enforcement pressers have that have been happening every three hours and senator nelson said that he's spoken to intelligence committee staff and that it is their understanding that they relayed to him that there is some kind of radical islamic terrorist connection to the pulse orlando shooter. that is brand new information. we'll try to nlrb out -- to flush out several more details from senator radical. i asked this morning if there was a radical terrorism connection and it appeared to them that the suspect had

leanings in that direction. the suspect, omar mateen, who lives in florida, and that's also consistent with what we just heard on our air a little bit ago from congressman peter king. listen to this. >> i don't want to release it before they do, but i understand now why the fbi was so quick to say this morning that they thought that this had, you know, isis connections or at least isis ideology. again, there's a lot more that has to be learned on this, burks again, we do have his name. he is from afghanistan originally and -- and it's -- what's into question now is was this a lone wolf acting? was he recruited by isis? was he directed by isis? >> we're also getting the first picture from the aftermath of the fire fight that ensued when a nine-man s.w.a.t. team decided after a three-hour long hostage situation to go in and try to

save the teethes inside pulse night clufnl the orlando police released a photograph of the helmet of an officer who was shot in the head but they say that the kevlar material saved his life. he's at the hospital with an eye injury and he's expected to be just fine. we also understand that pulse now after about five or six hours following the -- following the hostage situation, pulse has finally been cleared and so has the suspect's vehicle which we know is a van that was parked right "outfront." the quick time line is 2:00 this morning. van pulls up and the shooter is engaged by a police officer who was working secure for pulse nightclub. he holds hostages for three hours. those 30 were eventually released but 50 people were killed inside and another 53 are at the hospital officials from the hospital say they are gravely wounded, many of them, from gunshot wounds.

back to you. >> peter, i know you're there in orlando just about an hour and 40 minutes drive from port st. lucie where omar mateen had been living. what sort of information from this hour is filtering to you there on scene as investigators are at the home of omar mateen investigating there and also speaking to his parents. >> the latest information that we're getting into terms of victims would be that there is an urgent call for blood donation. that's something that u.s. senator marco rubio has posted a link to, first one to do it and hospital officials are saying they could really use some blood right now as well and in terms of the investigation we're not hearing a ton of information aside -- in fact, i asked the gathered law enforcement authorities here earlier if they would classify this as a terrorist attack or hate crime and they are reluctant to do

anything until they officially release the name. we were able to confirm the suspect's name is omar mateen. they want to come out with the name and notify his next of kin before they proceed any further with classifying this officially as either a terrorist attack or a hate crime, and it is an important distinction because it happened at pulse club which bills itself as orlando's premiere gay nightclub so there are a lot of questions about the motive. why did somebody target the premiere gay club in this part of florida, and we do hope to get more answers about the suspect, about the investigation within the next hour. >> and we have eric, of course, eric shawn is here with me and i believe he has a question for you. >> mateen was apparently investigated by the fbi for some type of terrorism ties or activities. do we know anything else about him, whether or not he may have gone to syria and come back, writings, anything that he said during the time because this unfolded over a three-hour period inside that nightclub. authorities releasing any

information about that investigation and that background? >> the concede information that we have about the suspect is he was a united states citizen and that he was a muslim. his parents are from afghanistan but we really don't know much else about the family. there are authorities at the suspect's home right now. as you just mentioned it's about an hour and a half drive away from here and this is something where they are going to want to know every detail about who he has been talking to, what he's been look at on the computer and anything he may have had in his possession and they are doing that is as we speak. they are in a part of florida about an hour and 40 away. >> all right, peter. we'll let you go to continue collect information on scene. peter doocy, thank you. president obama will be making a speech or some sort of remarks on this horrific story that we're reporting to you here this

sunday morning east coast time at 1:30 p.m. east coast time. president obama will be addressing the nation and making remarks and we will bring that to you live right here on fox news channel. >> as we've been reporting, law enforcement officials identifying the suspect as 29-year-old omar seddique mateen, a u.s. citizen from port st. lucie, florida, 120 miles away from orlando. authorities combing through his background searching for the definite motive for this and reports today says his father reported his son became angry when he saw two men kissing in miami and from there this apparently to the father has nothing to do with religion but clearly all this part of the background and all this part of the investigation and anita vogel has more about the suspected gunman. anita? >> reporter: hi there, eric. of course we're all getting familiar with his name.

omar mir seddique mateen from port st. lucie, florida. apparently the fbi was quite familiar with his name. he was an american citizen born in new york to parents of afghan origin and was a muslim. he had no known criminal record, but as i mentioned apparently the fbi had been taking a loo t 2014. they opened up an investigation into him. didn't find anything and then close it had, but, again, it seems like they were quite familiar with him. other things we've learned this morning, he was a registered democrat, according to the state voter records there in florida. right now we're taking a look to see what kind of social media accounts he had and whether he may have posted any strange postings. we're going to take a look at that. we know he was married to a woman from uzbekistan. they were married in florida. we've also learned that he what is a licensed security officer with a statewide firearms license. this morning i had a chance to speak to a private investigator there in florida by the name of

jim costa, and he told me that mateen had what's known as a g license. that gives the person the ability to carry firearm many places statewide there in florida. it's not just a regular license. it's a little bit more advanced giving him the ability to travel many places with a firearm and certainly we know he was very experienced in the use of a firearm. he must have loaded and unloaded his weapons very quickly. it is remarkable to think that one person could kill so many people in such a short period of time. eric? >> anita, of course, this morning, lots of suggestions about radical islamic terrorism as being a motive. a hate crime being a motive or perhaps a sad tragic nexus of both of those coming together with him apparently targeting the gay nightclub with hatred of homosexuals. do we know anything else about the motive or what caused him to commit this horrific attack?

>> reporter: we're still waiting to get confirmation on this. this morning officials alluded to perhaps some tie to radical islam and then they kind of walked that statement back a little bit and then just a little while ago we heard from florida senator bill nelson who said he had spoken to members of congress on the intelligence staff and that perhaps there was some connection to radical islam, so we're hearing a lot about that this morning. not too many details about exactly what that tie might be. of course, we did also hear from mateen's father this morning. he spoke to other members of the media and he told them, as you mentioned earlier, that his son was bothered or angered by -- by seeing two men kissing in florida. that bothered him and that perhaps that set him off into this known gay nightclub last night, that that perhaps could be the motive but, of course, eric, we're still collecting facts this morning. we're working on it, and as soon as we have anything new, of course, we'll bring it to you.

i'll send it back to you. >> we'll probably also learn more as the days unfold that mateen was known by the fbi as part of two terrorist investigations, one in 2015 and another recently that were both closed that. information likely to come out in the coming days. arthel? >> orlando police scale nine s.w.a.t. team members stormed the nightclub after a tense three-hour standoff killing the gunman in a fierce gun fight and that one -- one of the officers was injured when a bullet struck his kevlar helmet and for more on the ongoing police investigation let's bring in michael solomon. a former nypd, a special investigator and former intelligence officer with the u.s. state department. let's start with what the investigators there on the ground are looking for in terms of collecting physical evidence, you know, gun shells, et cetera.

you tell me. what are they looking for? >> good morning, arthel. my prayers and heart go out to the families and these victims. it's an amazing horrific act, but what they are doing right now is they are gathering any evidence that they can. you know, it's inconceivable to believe that one person with one ar-15 can do this, but it can happen, and -- and they are going around and they are looking for everything. they are going to try to trace anything they can to indicate most probably this morning as they are looking for the -- all the empty ammunition and the shell case its that are lying around to see possibly what his path of action was when he came into the premise. that's probably happening right now, but first and foremost thing that the police department does is they want to take care of the victims and get them secure and get them out of here and get them to medical help first thing. that's the first thing that has to be done. but, you know, we have to look at what the cause of all this violence is down the road and until we identify and call it what it is, whether it's radical

terrorism or home grown terrorism, it's terrorism in the sense and that's it. i mean, i listened to other reports this morning on other mainstream networks. don't want to use the word terrorism. the "t" word. it's like saying don't instead of do not. it's terrorism and call it what it is. >> and peter doocy just reported, mr. solomon, senator bill nelson had contact with the congressional intelligence staff saying omar mateen had radical islamic terror connections so with that information on the table, also knowing that mateen was on fbi's radar not once but twice, many people are asking how and why? how does a guy who is trained -- trained security officer with a statewide firearms license category g as anita vogel just told him which gives us far more leeway in terms of the gun and where he can carry it, how does a man slip into a nightclub at

2:00 in the morning and snuff out 50 lives? >> political correctness strikes again. you can't ask questions about people's medical records, whether they were in a psychotic ward or not or whether they are mentally unstable. that's the problem today. we've got to the get back and stop being politically correct. we have to learn to treat people as what they are. if they are radicalized and they are on a watch list -- you know, in the '50s we picked up communists just because they were communists and questioned and held them. we don't do that. in the '30s they were picking up nazis under the fdr administration. we can't do that today because it's politically incorrect. we have to get back to this. all of this political correct stuff didn't occur until after 9/11 at cair came in and demanding prayer rooms and foot baths and prayer rooms in airports. >> sure, your point is well

taken, very well understood. i do want to find out, if i could, before i let you go, if you can give us an idea of how this investigation is going to move forward. we do know, it has been report, that there are some ties to radical islamic terrorism so what happens now? we know that he was born in new york. he's a u.s. citizen. his parents are from afghanistan. he has a wife from uzbekistan. this man is 29 years old, omar mate mateen. he's born in 1986 so at some point this year he'll turn 30 so how will investigators go about finding out if there are connections, not just here in the country and perhaps in another country as well to this mateen person? >> develop -- they will have to investigation everything from the social media accounts all the way through. they can go back and look at the internet and can go back and find the -- the ip addresses and see where they have originated from and any messages he may have sent out or received and try to interpret those and see

if there are ties there. it's no different, you know, than taking a dna sample at a murder scene and try to bring it back to find somebody. we can do it electronically today. social media has been the -- the vehicle that they have been using all these years and it's amazing and now we want to -- now congress has got a bill in front of it to turn over the internet to the control of the united nations. what is that going to do to it down the road? what kind of investigative tools are we going to have when the u.n. controls it and we can't get in to control certain information. >> go ahead and finish your thought, sir. >> i just want to say we've got to really realize what's going down here and we're -- we realize we're at war. it may not be a war with a army and uniform and the war will be declared on the united states and anybody who is not a muslim and that's coming right out of the koran. i encourage theme treat and see what's going on. >> war has been declared on the united states. that's from michael solomon, former nypd special settingor

and former intelligence officer to the u.s. state department. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, arthel. have a great day. >> and we will continue our coverage of this horrendous crime that is yet another attack against our country and our freedoms and way of life and one that echos the bataclan massacre that happened in paris. 89 dead last fall. overnight in our country 50 folks, 50 folks out on a saturday night having a good time in downtown orlando. 53 are wounded and many in critical condition fight for their lives at this very moment in what's being identified as a domestic terrorist attack. coming up, some gripping and heartfelt witness accounts of what they saw when this happened. >> sounds like something they come out and he turned around and the person next to you is like screaming. there's blood splattering. i'm terrible at golf.

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let's go to florida governor rick scott who is speaking about this tragedy in orlando, florida. >> the person is doing their job and health care workers are doing everything they can for the victims. pray for everybody. thank god we have the law enforcement that we have at this

state. the orange county police department, the sheriff's department, fdla, federal agencies, everybody has coordinated their efforts very well. it's heroic all that went into the building knowing there was an active shooter so we have to be very thankful that there are individuals willing to risk their lives that clearly saved other lives. for anybody that thinks that they should do this, i can tell you the state of florida, the local law enforcement will be swift in their justice. we have great law enforcement in our state and they are always going to do the right thing. we -- i declared a state of emergency for orange county. we're going to proskrid all the

resources that anyone needs and i can tell you everybody is going to work together and that's one thing great about our state, orlando, orange county and i want to thank all the federal agencies for their support. right now our hearts and prayers go out to everybody that has been impacted by this. i can't imagine a family member that's still trying to find out what happened to their loved one. it has to be heart wrenching, and i know the state attorney wanted to say something. did you want to say something? >> thank you. i just want to thank the governor for coming down to join us. this is a terrible, terrible evil act. as a father of seven i called and checked on some of my kids this morning to make sure they were okay. we're doing everything we can. law enforcement is working well together. our victim advocates are helping out to see if we can help with families and i just encourage everyone as i did my staff to please donate blood because we're going to need a lot of it. i want to thank our local law enforcement officers for the amazing job that they have been

doing. >> thank you, sir. >> be glad to take any questions. excuse me for a second. the law enforcement already said when the mayors is a said when they will have another press conference which will provide more information. there's a lot of unanswered questions and at that time they will be able to answer the questions. >> the suspect is someone that's on your radar beforehand. were authorities in florida aware of this suspect and that activity? >> i know there's a later press conference. law enforcement will answer all those questions. >> is it an act of terrorism? [ inaudible ] >> this is clearly an act of terror. i mean, i just can't imagine that this would happen to our community or our state or anywhere in the country and for someone to be in there and be an active shooter and that number of lives, any life, but that number of lives, it's clearly an act of terror.

>> [inaudible question ]. >> right now we are -- this is the time to find out exactly what happened, the time to pray for those who have lost their families, lost their lives hand pray for the victims. there's going to be plenty of time to deal with how society comes together. let me tell you, the orlando area and orange county and state authority, we're very resilient. you know, we will come together and do everything we can and hebb everyone that's impacted and bring this community back together again. >> [inaudible question ]. >> i've not talked to him yet. >> [inaudible question ]. >> sure. we declared a state of emergency to make sure that all the resources that would be necessary for the city and county would be necessary. anything that would be needed from the state is available

immediately. the head of the florida department law enforcement and we worked with the mayors and sheriffs and police chiefs to make sure they have all the information that they need. >> how many families of the victims have been contacted? >> law enforcement will answer all of those questions. they are having another press conference i think at 1:30. >> governor, do you know how many members of the family have been contacted at this point? >> i know that -- again, all of that will come out as law enforcement will put all of that out and they are working hard to reach every member and they have victim advocates and the state attorney said to take care of all of these families. i have daughters, i have grandchildren. i can't emergency this happening in my family. >> [inaudible question ]. >> it's devastating. you don't want this to happen anywhere in the world but i can tell you law enforcement, our elected officials, the mayors,

at the state level, coordinated activities hoped they would never happen and it's devastating when you see, you know how many people lost their life and just the impact that it's going to have on their family. i mean, i've got kids and grandkids. you can't imagine. >> will you be meeting with your families themselves? >> i'll meet with the families at the appropriate time. look what they are going through right now. >> there was some kind of impedment this morning between the families and the hospital staff due to privacy regulation, what role did you play in trying to facilitate with the families being able to connect with those at the hospital? >> the way i understand that's been resolved. >> is there anything you can do on a policy level to stop something like this? >> look, we're dealing with a tragedy right now. our prayers go out to everybody

impacted. law enforcement is doing their job. the -- there will be plenty of time to think about how do we make -- continue to improve our society and we'll continue to work on that and we're a resilient state. >> i'll answer you one hipaa question real quick. so the ceo of the hospital came do me and said they had an issue related to the families who had come to the emergency room. because of hipaa regulations they could not give them any information so i reached out to the white house to see if we can get the hipaa regulations waived. white house responded through appropriate channels to waive those so that the hospital could communicate with the families that were there. >> [inaudible question ]. >> i don't know. i think the majority of them have been. we have not identified the victims that are still in the nightclub, but i believe that the ones that have been

transported to the hospital and are deceased have been identified. thank you. >> have you spoken with the president? >> i have spoken with the president, the governor and everybody has lent their support to this. the president offered any resources that the federal government could possibly provide. the fdla has been tremendous, the fbi, so no complaint about our state or federal partners and their help. >> [inaudible question ]. >> well, the waiving of the hipaa laws so that the doctors and health care personnel can communicate with family members was probably the most important but a we've got on the ground what we need from the federal government right now which is the fbi and all of their resources and the coordination with fdle and opd so there's not too much more that i can ask of