welcome to a special edition of "early today." i'm betty nguyen. president obama will head to ordinarily on thursday. he will pay his respects to the families of the victims, as well as the survivors and the first responders. time after the president said it appears the gunman acted alone. >> it does appear that at the last minute, he announced allegiance to isil, but there's no evidence so far that he was, in fact, directed by -- at this stage, also no direct evidence that was part of a larger 34rpl >> today, new ige

the nied club where the terror attack took place and we know minute-by-minute how the gunman carried out that attack. >> reporter: new images inside pulse. a gay nightclub during its popular latin night. music. dancing. and then gunfire. amanda alvear who captured the shooting is among the dead. today, survivors in new detail describing the scene of terror. >> gunshots to the head, legs, arms, soldiers, stomach, backs. >> i could just smell the ammo in the air and said this is a gun. >> it's awful to experience this with my fellow families. >> oh, my god. people are shot. >> reporter: at 2:00 a.m., an offduty officer engages omar mateen armed with an ar-15 assault style rifle like this, a handgun, and plenty of ammunition. nbc news has learned from authorities that the

arrived in two minutes. the injured pouring out. but others like eddie justice trapped inside, texting his mother, mommy, i love you. a team of responding officers then engaged mateen in another gun fight and forcing him to retrieve in a bathroom where he takes four to five hostages and another 15 people are hiding in a nearby restroom. dozens make a break for him, running for their lives. now a standoff from the bathroom. three 911 calls. mateen, said to be calm, pledges allegiance to isis twice and calls the saroynov brothers his home boys accused of the boston marathon shooting. >> he was in the bathroom shut and we had an active shooter to a barricaded gunman hostage situation. >> reporter: from inside a bathroom, eie

he is coming. i'm going to die. three hours after the first shot was fired, police decide to storm the building. in armored vehicle, it breaks the bathroom wall where mateen is hunkered down. according to survivors mateen hid from the dead to try to hide from police. soon after, a hail of gunfire, he shoots one officer in the head. the 29-year-old suspect is finally killed. inside the club, 38 victims are dead. nine more would die on their way to or at the hospital. two bodies were found on the street. a night of celebration ending in terror. the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. >> terrific to hear. it appears the orlando gunman may have visited the scene of the attack before, though. one witness sells the ordinarily sent

-- orlando send nell he had seen him inside the pulse a few times before. one regular at the nightclub said he recognized the gunman from dating apps for gay men and also from seeing him inside pulse. >> one of my friends, he doesn't want to be spoken to on media, ed he knew this guy from back in 2007 where he has been coming to orlando and to a lot of this area and he used to talk to him on the adam for adam app. once he saw the guy's picture on the news, like, he told his parents, he told his mom and he was, like, i know this guy, i know this guy. his mom, you couldn't have known him. no, i know this guy, he said. as of today, i spoke to my friend and i showed him. that is from the gay dating app. he instantly was, my gosh, i knew i wasn't crazy. like i know this guy. >> so, i mean, you're saying you and friends of yours -- ga dating app? >> one of my friends had seen him in pulse before. he

that is not his first time going there. i know that for a fact. he had his picture on adam for adam and he had his picture up on grinder and in jack he had his pictures up on there. two of my friends already went to the fbi and they already spoke with them and turned in their phones and they already got all of that information. >> joining me from orlando is nbc's blake mccoy. what more can you tell us about mateen's visits to that club? >> he is one of several men coming forward to say they have witnessed mateen at this club before and one person saying he has been frequenting this club for several times. the fbi we can tell you is looking into these claims and does this mean he had been scouting the club for several years as a potentially terror target or was he, in fact, a patron who then, at some way along the way, became hostile toward the club and had different feelings and started plotting this attack? that is what they are looking into right now. some of these patrons

witnessed that agitated hostile behavior at the club. he would be alone drinking and be prone to violent outbursts and sometimes talking about his family. that is all under investigation. one thing that is going to be a huge help to investigators is the electronics they now have of mateen, including a samsung cell phone. we can tell you they have had no trouble accessing that cell phone so far. of course, we all know that these can be a treasure trove of information not only talking about the gay dating appears that some of the men said mateen was messaging them from and if that is the case there may be apps on the phone. they are talking about google searches and the ability to then go and track his movements over the last several weeks and months so the fact they have these electronic records is huge and the fact that there has been no barrier so far in accessing them is even bigger. >> sound like a lot more to come. thank you, blake. there are growing questions and concerns how a man investigated by the fbi and once put on a terror

legally purchase the guns used in the massacre and the fbi says no system in place to notify investigators when that purchase was made. nbc justice correspondent pete williams reports. >> reporter: the fbi director says agents thoroughly investigated omar mateen beginning in may 2013 while working as a security guard the fbi says he told coworkers he had family connections with al qaeda and he, himself, was a member of hezbollah. agents put him under surveillance and watched his communications and had an undercover informant meet hm and searched terrorism gazes and interviewed him twice. conclusion? he made it all up. the fbi questioned him again about going to the game mosque as another ft. pierceman who became a suicide bomber in syria salha. case closed. the fbi director says he doesn't believe agents missed any sign that mateen would later become a terrorist.

a nationwide haystack but we are also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay might someday become needles. that is hard work. if we can find a way to do that better, we will. >> reporter: during the ten months mateen was under investigation, his name was on a terror watch list. if he had tried to buy a gun then, the fbi would have been notified. but not after the case was closed. a former top atf official says the system should be changed to send an alert when anyone who has ever been investigated for terrorism goes to buy a gun. >> if something changed and a neighbor called you and said he was coming in with large barrels of chemicals, that would be a trip wire you'd want to act on. the same could be true in a person is buying assault weapons and large amounts of ammunition. >> reporter: a little over a week ago mateen went to this ft. pierce gun store and bought these according to the gun store owner. >> officially, he isively. we

he picked and nothing else i can say. >> reporter: mateen's cell phone covered in blood and other devices in his home are now being analyzed bit fbi lab in virginia. >> now to extreme weather in texas. storm chasers they got a close-up view of a stronger tornado northeast of amarillo that reportedly damaged wind farm and it brought lightning and hail. check out this time lapse video of a wall cloud about to produce a tornado. it looks like something out of a move. that thing is massive. bill karins is a look at the weather outside. that is frightening looking at it. >> it was. that can produce a tornado as you mentioned. yesterday, six reports of tornado. severe threat is minimal right now. people at risk of severe storms minneapolis to kansas city and focusing around the des moines area. 48 million people tomorrow have a threat of severe weather from

valley. more severe weather the next two days. that is your national weather. now a closer look at your day ahead. well, it will be hot and then the thunderstorms will pop up this afternoon and this evening from wichita to des moines. wind damage the biggest threat. 97 in atlanta and showers and storms will hopefully, cool you off later today. hopefully, not too many tornadoes the next two days. >> thank you. in the wake of the ordinarily massacre, gun sales of the ar-15 have skyrocketed but that is just the tipping point. the shocking statistics just ahead. can you actually love wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. no other sunscreen works better or feels better. clinically proven helioplex® provides unbeatable uva/uvb protection to help prevent early skin aging and skin cancer all with a clean light feel. for unbeatable protection. it's the one. the best for your skin.

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>> reporter: at a nightclub calls pulse, they were full of life. 49 people, young, vibrant, dancing. luis was just 22 and worked at the harry potter at universal studio. a.j. rowling tweeted i can't stop crying. >> they say he shot twice. >> reporter: colon's son survived and is telling a chilling story of the gunman coming back to the slaughter. >> checking everybody and shooting people and shooting people on the ground. like make sure they were dead. >> reporter: so many more killed whose stories were just beginning to learn. shane tomlinson graduated from east carolina university where singing was his passion. kimberly morris was a cell phone store manager with an independent streak. eric ortiz rivera had moved to florida from puerto rico and sacrificed a lot for his family. ed war sotomayor worked for a travel company. between the gonzalez cruz was always the life of the pa

of hope. keenan carter was shot three times. >> he got away. you got to come out of there. you got to make it. >> reporter: his sister even says doctors told the family he had passed away. >> and i said you hear me? he was just like this. he shook his head. and i was, like, i see this! you see what is going on. it was just, like, a miracle, like, right before my eyes. >> that was gabe gutierrez reporting remember more than 40 of the 53 people injured in the orlando shooting remain hospitalized and some in grave condition. sara dolloff is live outside of regional center. what is the latest there? >> reporter: the hospital behind me where the gravely injured was taken is offering a glimmer of hope this morning, saying that all patients appear to be improving. they say, right now, the prognosis is good for all of those inside. now, doctors and two of the people they treated, they are going to be speaking to the

massive cooperative effort it took to treat this sudden influx of gunshot victims the morning of the shooting. meanwhile the community continues to come together. those who lost friend, lost loved ones, who are hurting, setting aside those feelings in order to help others. >> as you can see here today, it has brought us together, brought us together in a way that we are not going to let this tear us apart. it brings us together. and makes us look very sincerely into friendships and our community, how we can be there for each other. >> reporter: now the day of the shooting, blood banks put out an urgent call and people responded in masses. the lines were stretching for blocks and people waiting for hours to donate. today, the blood banks are encouraging people to still donate. they don't have an immediate need to the blood since patients are continuing

they say their backlog has been depleted and if they were to get into another large-scale disaster, they could potentially be in a vulnerable position. >> thank you. the politics of terror. the presidential candidates weighed in with different perspectives how they would prevent such ab attan attack. a special report from katy tur is next. ♪ ...even if you're just staying in. ♪ walgreens has all the beauty products you need for whatever makes you feel beautiful. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. now buy two select skin care products, get the third free. in stores and online. no, no, no, no, [music] people are both soft and strong...

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the fallout from the orlando terror attack is reverberating on the gain trail. donald trump's unsubstantiated accusations suggesting that president obama doesn't want to is to be terrorists. he and hillary clinton laid out radically different approaches to fighting terror on. nbc's katy tur has more. >> reporter: donald trump taking a dark turn, suggesting president obama can't stop terror because he doesn't want to. >> he doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. it's one or the other. and either one is unacceptable. >> reporter: the white house pushing back. >> take a look at the president's record. special speaks for itself and that record includes a lot of dead terrorists. >> reporter: trump also going head-to-head with hillary clinton. on national security. trump attacked falsely characterized clinton's stance

americans' guns and then admit the very people who want to slaughter us. let them come into the country, we don't have guns. let them come in. let them have all of the fun they want. >> reporter: clinton didn't name her republican rival and instead calling for the same unity in the face of fear after 9/11. >> we did not attack each other. we worked with each other to protect our country and to rebuild our state. >> reporter: trump message the same as it was after the terror in san bernardino, paris and brussels. one rushed to tweet self-congratulations and aappreciate the congrats. thank you for giving me credit. i've proven to be far more correct about terrorism than anybody. the tweets often coming before offering could be dondolences. >> they have to work with us and kroopt with us on law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad and they know it. >> reporter: and extend that down to president

think maybe he doesn't want to get it. a lot of people think he doesn't want to know about it. >> reporter: trump is going farther to the right. hoping the same extreme rhetoric he championed in the primary will work again in november. following trump's jabs at president obama, "the washington post" published this article with a headlined that said the following. soon after, trump revoked "the washington post" press credentials calling the paper, quote, phony and dishonest. the post executive editor responded saying trump's action is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press and that the paper would continue to cover donald trump as it has all along on our -- "the washington post" joins the daily beast, mother jones and national revuf and buzz feed and others that have been banned by trump. following the orlando shooting, gun sales in america have skyrocketed. a shocking report is just ahead.

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now at 4:26, new information is unfolding about the gunman in the orlando club shooting. what we're learning about him in the days leading up to the massacre. the presidential nominations are practically set in stone, but that is not stopping d.c. voters from heading to the polls. what else is at stake in the district's primary today. good morning. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm angie goff in for aaron gilchrist who is still on assignment. we'll get you up to speed on all that news in a minute, but first kristin wright at the live desk. terrorist act, words from french president hollande

killing of two police officials in a paris suburb. the two police officials were a man and a woman who lived together, their attacker we've learned had past terror convictions according to officials. he's said to have recruited fighters for g s fos for jihad . he was killed in a police raid. the president of france condemning the attacks and expressing condolences to the families. interior minister of france also expressing sadness. no motive so far for the attack. back to you. we want to turn our attention to the forecast now. we had a beautiful picture perfect day yesterday. chuck bell with more on our forecast. good morning, chuck. >> good morning, everybody. tuesday off to a nice quiet start. a little bit more cloud cover out there this morning than when you went to bed last night, but on the whole there will be enough sunshine to make it a very pleasant day today. humidity still on the low side. and our cool pattern stretch

future still. i don't see any 90s anytime soon and that's always good news in the summertime. right now it's 68 in frederick, maryland, 64 in winchester and milder 72 inside the beltway. hourly temperatures today, 60s out the door. 70s by noontime and up into the low 80s for afternoon highs today. perfectly good day to be outside driving around. let's find out from jack taylor at wtop if it's an easy morning to drive around. >> a few work zones hanging in there. one that will be a paving project going on for a little while, between leesburg and basically point of rocks bridge. 15 in both spots, up near st. clair lane and down near summit town road, it's a paving project. 95 north at the fairfax county parkway, two left lanes getting by. and inner loop, pothole repair crews at 50. arlington boulevard, two right lanes getting

volume still light. this morning we're learning more details about the deadliest shooting in u.s. history. all 49 people who died in the pass shooting inside pulse night club have been identified. the youngest was 18 years old. investigators have removed all the bodies from inside the club and are beginning to recreate the shooting scene. they're also digging into gunman omar mateen's past including claims he visited the night club several times to the shooting. on thursday, president obama will travel to orlando to pay his respects to the families. >> and as the investigation continues, millions around the country are gathering to remember the victims. can di candlelight vigils were held in several major cities including right here in d.c. in new york city, governor cuomo attended a memorial vigil at the stonewall inn. and this philadelphia, members

candles and prayed outside city hall. in l.a., members of the gay men's choir sang in front of hundreds. the crowd held signs and embraced as they held a moment of silence for the victims. >> no one should have ever died. no one should. >> back here at home, dozens of people gathered. in dupont circle, they wrote town the names of every person who died. [ bells tolling ] >> and in orlando, the bells tolled 49 times to honor and remember the 49 innocent people who lost their lives. people from every walk of life attended the vigil and vowed that this tragic incident would not define their city. the staff from pulse night club also attended raising their