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US Authorities to Release “Limited Transcripts” of Orlando Shooter
Attorney general Loretta Lynch said they will release “limited transcripts” of shooter Omar Mateen and police negotiators’ telephone conversations during the attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
The attack left 49 people dead.
The conversations included Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS). However, those statements will not be included in the transcripts to be released because they are “not going to further this man’s propaganda. We’re not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance,” Lynch said.
She said that the transcripts would only include portions of police negotiations so as “to avoid re-victimizing those who went through this horror.”
Mateen was a 29-year-old Muslim security guard who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun. He went into the Pulse nightclub in June 12 in Orland, Florida and started shooting the crowd.
The attacked turned into a 3-hour hostage taking. Mateen was shot dead by a police SWAT team during an exchange of gunshots.
Mateen’s ex-wife described him a physically abusive and prone to fits of anger. His motives of the shooting appear to be mixed up.
His father initially told reporters that he [Omar Mateen] was angry upon seeing two men kissing. However, other witnesses report that he was a regular at Pulse and has accounts at various gay dating applications.
In addition to that is the claim of possible Islamic extremism.
The Orlando massacre is “an act of terrorism and an act of hate, targeted against a community, the LGBT community, the Latino community,” added Lynch.
