Home Scandal and Gossip Terrorism? Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting leaves 20 dead, 42 hospitalized, shooter dead

Terrorism? Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting leaves 20 dead, 42 hospitalized, shooter dead

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Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting
Injured patrons outside Orlando's Pulse nightclub. Images via social media.
Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting
Injured patrons outside Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. Images via social media.

Pulse Orlando nightclub shooting: FBI has launched an investigation after proclaiming Sunday morning’s shooting as an act of terrorism.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina has told at a 7am Sunday morning press conference that up to 20 club patrons at Pulse Orlando nightclub have been shot dead with as many as 42 patrons transported to hospital with multiple injuries after a gunman wreaked havoc earlier that morning.

The startling revelations come after a a un-identified shooter entered the packed same sex venue just on 2 am armed with a long-gun and instantly began firing into patrons.

Mina says the shooter was armed with an assault-type rifle, a handgun and some type of suspicious device. Police had said previously on Twitter that there was a “controlled explosion” at the scene of the shooting at Pulse Orlando. Mina says that noise was caused by a device intended to distract the shooter.

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During his press conference, the police chief told the suspect had exchanged gunshots with an officer working at the club, before going back inside and taking hostages around 2 a.m. About three hours later, the police chief told of the SWAT team making the decision to go inside and rescue the hostages. The shooter died in a gunfight with those officers.

An FBI spokesman says the mass shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. He says authorities are looking into whether this was an act of domestic or international terror, and if the shooter was a lone wolf.

One witness told Sky News there had been more than 100 people inside the venue for the club’s Latin night when the gunman entered the building and began firing into the ceiling and into the crowd.

Told a club patron: ‘We just heard shots, it was less than a minute, it felt longer. There was a brief pause and we just ran. Everybody was just faces to the floor. I had someone over me, I really didn’t see [how many gunmen there were]. All I can tell you was the club was packed, there were over 100 people there, if the gunman came in through the front door people were injured or worse.’

Witnesses told of the shooting lasting between 15 and 20 minutes.

Rosie Feba, a witness, told the Orlando Sentinel she and her girlfriend were in the club near closing time when, ‘she told me someone was shooting. Everyone was getting on the floor. I told her I didn’t think it was real, I thought it was just part of the music, until I saw fire coming out of his gun.’

Posted one club patron, Ricardo J. Negron Almodovar on the club’s Facebook page after managing to escape the venue: ‘I was there. Shooter opened fire @ around 2:00am.

‘People on the dance floor and bar got down on the floor and some of us who were near the bar and back exit managed to go out through the outdoor area and just ran. I am safely home and hoping everyone gets home safely as well :(‘

Posted another user, Lilbia Carmen: ‘Nothing yet. My daughter is in there. Please keep praying for them… She’s waiting for cops to be able to come out. I was on the fone and all i hear is shot guns.’

At present authorities have yet to tell what may have motivated the Pulse nightclub gunman, except to suggest the individual was bent on maximum carnage.

Of note, Sunday morning’s shooting took place less than four miles away from where The Voice singer Christina Grimmie was shot dead at The Plaza Live in Orlando on Friday 22.45 local time at the hands of St Petersburg gunmanKevin James Loibl.

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