Orlando in mourning as possible motives emerge for club gunman

ORLANDO / AP

As thousands in Orlando turned out to mourn 49 people killed inside a nightclub, federal investigators examined possible motives for the gunman who committed the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
The White House and the FBI said 29-year-old Omar Mateen, an American born Muslim, appears to be a “homegrown extremist” who had touted support not just for the IS, but other radical groups that are its enemies.
“So far, we see no indication that this was a plot directed from outside the United States, and we see no indication that he was part of any kind of network,” FBI Director James Comey said Monday. He said Mateen was clearly “radicalized,” at least in part via the internet.
Despite Mateen’s pledge of support to the IS, other possible explanations emerged. His ex-wife said he suffered from mental illness. And his Afghan-immigrant father suggested he may have acted out of hatred. He said his son got angry recently about seeing two men kiss.
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in downtown Orlando for a vigil to support the victims and survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting. The names of the dead were read aloud. It was held on the lawn of Orlando’s main performing arts venue, where mourners created a makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes for the victims. Many in the crowd said they felt compelled to attend the vigil because of the important role Pulse played in their lives.
Some, like Jason Primar, who lost two friends in the massacre, released balloons that flew high above the downtown skyscrapers.
Primar went to the club at 2 am on Sunday, hoping to have a good time with friends. Instead, he was greeted with gunshots and the anxiety of worrying about his two friends inside. “I felt like I was over in Iraq,” he said.
He called his two friends inside and they never answered. He later discovered they died.
Comey said the FBI was also trying to determine whether Mateen had recently scouted Disney World as a potential target, as reported by People.com, which cited an unidentified federal law enforcement source.
“We’re still working through that,” Comey said.
The FBI chief defended the bureau’s handling of Mateen during two previous investigations into his apparent terrorist sympathies. As for whether there was anything the FBI should have done differently, “so far, the honest answer is, I don’t think so,” Comey said.
The Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations quoted regular customers at the nightclub as saying they had seen Mateen there a number of times.
“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” said Ty Smith. Smith said he saw the killer inside at least a dozen times.
Jim Van Horn, 71, said he was a frequent patron at Pulse and said another “regular” there was Mateen.
Van Horn said he met Mateen once. He said the younger man was telling him about his ex-wife. “My friends came out from the back and said, ‘Let’s go take pictures on the patio,’” Van Horn said. “So I left. And then they told me they didn’t want me talking to him, because they thought he was a strange person.”
Wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at Pulse Orlando early on Sunday in a three-hour shooting rampage and hostage siege that ended with a SWAT team killing him. During the attack, he called 911 to profess allegiance to the IS group.
At the White House, President Barack Obama said there is no clear evidence so far that Mateen was directed by the group, calling the attack an apparent example of “homegrown extremism.” Obama is traveling to Orlando on Thursday to pay respect to the victims and stand in solidarity with the community, the White House said on Monday evening.
More details of the bloodbath emerged, with Orlando Police Chief John Mina saying Mateen was “cool and calm” during phone calls with police negotiators. But the chief said he decided to send the SWAT team in and bash through a wall after Mateen holed up with hostages in a bathroom and began to talk about bombs and an explosive vest.
“We knew there would be an imminent loss of life,” Mina said. As it turned out, Mateen had no explosives with him.