And i call on everybody in the community, anybody who has any information to please california the fbi, share what you know. It may help answer many Unanswered Questions yet. I also call on my fellow faisst leaders, jewish, christian, muslim, hindu, whatever faith you follow, please pray for the victims and their families in in this hour on this sunday morning. Its supposed to be a beautiful morning, but this is already a very heartbreaking morning, and i want to praise the courageous efforts of our opd who risk their lives, put their lives on the line. One. Officers, as we heard, was injured, and thats a risk they take every day to protect us. No one could have predicted this. No one could have prepared for it. This could have happened anywhere. Its like a lightning. So they have done a marvelous job to save as many lives after the shooter began shooting, and we are glad that the situation is completely under control. There are no other shooters that this person is not known to be connected with, a network or other people, so the City Residents and the visitors should feel safe. The city is as safe as the best city in the world. And i want to also caution many in the media from rushing to judgment and from, you know, sensationalizing the story because we do not want this story to be shifted from the focus where it is. Its a horrible tragedy. We are mourning. We are sad. We are heartbroken. And its not really time for any sensational news and rushing to judgment. So we should all wait until information, facts come out from the investigators, and we will all see what happened, understand it and stay together, to Work Together to keep our community strong. I want to thank mayor dyer, mayor jacobs, our city leaders. The chief and sheriff demmings for their leadership and juan from the fbi. I think many times in the past this has been discussed as the worst nightmare, and we are sorry to know that it happened to us. We dont wish this on anybody else, and we hope that this would be the last of the Mass Shootings that our country has been going through. I think as a nation we need to look at this issue of Mass Shootings because we just had one too many today, and i think we should do something about it to stop the the Mass Shootings that are happening all the time. Thank you. [inaudib [inaudible question ]. How is it that you guys were so quickly so sure of that islamic terrorist connection as opposed to this being a hate crime given that it happened at a gay nightclub . Early on when we had a possible investigation made, we run it through the ground, and whether it ends up being the actual individual or not and i cant say who the deceased suspect or shooter is. Once the identification is made details will be able to be shared, most likely from the Counterterrorism Division up at fbi headquarters. Can you tell us how many rounds you think were fired . Right now the weapons recovered from the suspect who is dead was a handgun and an ar15 type Assault Rifle and an unknown number of rounds but there were additional rounds. Were there any calls prior to the shooting to 911 or another location indicating anything . No indication of that of yet. Any communication with the suspect in the three hours before you went in . Between the arrival when shots were fired and you finally going in to rescue the hostage . There was some communication but were not going to release that right now. Why did you wait three hours . This is a situation involving hostages, a situation involving things that happened very fast and, you know, i think it was important for them to know exactly what they had. Once the initial shots were stopped, they were dealing with a hostage situation, so, you know, in that in that time we need to set up, reevaluate and reassess whats happening and make sure all the pieces are in place. We have enough staffing to take care of any situation. We have Armored Vehicles that come to the scene, and those were crucial in the rescue of those hostages, so when any time we have a hostage situation, were definitely going to use extreme measures to make sure that we have enough personnel on the scene. Were any of the hostages executed before you went in and i cant speak to that. That will all be part of the investigation. Early this morning there were thoughts there were maybe 20 victims inside. That number has risen to 50. Is this now one of the five top Mass Shootings in the country . Absolute i absolutely, yes it is. Based on what the officer saw, without jeopardizing any safety it was at least 20 but now its up to 50 so definitely one of the worst tragedies. One of the worst shootings in American History . Yes. Any indication that the suspect had any help, outside help . Theres no indication of that right now, but that will be all part of the investigation. Of all the 50 who were killed, were shot during the initial shooting or were shots fired after the initial shooting at 2 02 . There was an initial shooting at 2 02, numerous shots fired and then there were gunshots exchanged between the s. W. A. T. Team and the suspect at at 0500. Of the 50 fatalities, do we know if they were killed during the initial shooting at 2 02 or after that . Thats unknown at this time. Classified right now as a hate crime or as a terrorist attack . At this point in time were just conducting a general investigation period. Well determine officially whether its a hate crime or terrorism incident or even a Violent Crime once we have all the facts in place. Were at the very early stages and as much as i would like to give you everything we have we cant give you things that arent 100 accurate. You are saying you guys came back with an imam a bomb . An imam. Oh, okay. What has changed in the last three hours that youre giving us less information but now youre calling for calm . Well, again, since the subject has not been positively identified to the next of kin, theres not had a whole lot more we can share with you at this time. Also bear in mind, we do not want to jeopardize the investigation. While we feel confident that are no other threats to the immediate area or United States we need to be certain of that before we put any further information out. Is he a u. S. Citizen . Were anybody injured by officer fire or any officers injured . There was one officer injured, he had in the kevlar he will in the, the kevlar helmet stopped that round but he does have injuries to the face from that gunshot. Did he come in shooting or was he able to smuggle the weapons in its still unknown how he got inside the club. Appears that he was in there and the shots were fired. How bad is this compared to other shootings across the country . Its absolutely terrible. I mean, 50 victims in one location, one shooting, absolutely one of the worst tragedies weve seen. [inaudible question ]. One more time. Exactly. There were more victims inside than originally thought so once it was safe for us to go in, we determined there were no revises, thats when we were able to discover how many victims were actually in there. [inaudible question ]. Its all going to come out in the investigation. Right now were going to focus on obviously the identification of all the victims and the notification and next of kin. How long of a period when you first thought there were 20 and then discovered 50, what time of period . A few hours. Can you speak to that at all . No. One of the worst Mass Shootings in the u. S. Your thoughts . Absolutely definitely a tragedy, not only for the city but for our entire nation. We believe this is a tragedy that could happen anywhere in the United States of america and what we need to do is continue to be vigilant and call. If you see something, say something. Call 911, call the fbi. If you see something thats out of place or you see someone thats acting strange, strange behavi behavior. [inaudible question ]. No, we cant confirm that . Absolutely to look into the eyes of our officer told the whole story. Obviously some of those officers had 20plus years on. One of the lieutenants who is one of the first on the scene, 23year member of the Police Department and almost 20 years on the s. W. A. T. Team, and you could tell that they were all shaken by this incident, by what they saw inside the club. They did an unbelievable job being, courageous efforts in rescuing many, many hostages, at least 30, from inside the club, but after it was all said and done you could really tell this kind of tragedy takes a toll on everyone. Even Law Enforcement officers. Can you describe what they saw. So were going to brief youre watching nbc News Coverage of the worst mass shooting in u. S. History with a death toll that now stands at 50. Lets go back to the press conference now. Absolutely as much information as we can disclose or guidelines for opd and for the fbi and fdla but well give you everything that we can possibly give to you. Right now were going to focus on identifying the victims and notifying their families so i would hope you would lead with the information about how families can call in and check on their loved ones or give information about they might think that their loved one was among those who are missing, and we will can you give that informat n information. 4072464357 and people can call if loved ones want to call and give information or help us with information. They can also call the fbi for any tips, 1800callfbi, and these just hit option number two. 1800callfbi, option number two when prompted and one more time, our hotline for family members is 4702464357. Well target the next Media Briefing at 1 30 today. We do understand that Governor Scott is en route so he may want to do something before that and well keep you guys updated on that but the next Law Enforcement briefing will be at 1 30. We can now classify this as the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States of america, with 50 now dead according to police. 53 more injured. Doctors saying many of those critically, so that number could rise. The fbi saying an ar15 Assault Rifle was used along with a handgun found on the man, shooter named omar mateen, born in 1986 in new york, with an address in port st. Llucie. His father released a statement saying hes shocked and he saw his son were saying were apologizing for the whole incident. Not aware of any action hes taking. In shock like the whole country this. Had nothing to do with religion, from the shooters father when reached by nbc news, but he did go on to say, keep in mind the shooting took place at a very popular gay nightclub in orlando. The mans father went on to say that omar mateen saw two men kissing a couple months ago in miami and became enraged by that. So the his own father suspects that may have something to do with it. Lets bring in nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams. Pete, what more can you tell us about the press conference . Mateen is 29 years old. Theres confusion because his fathers name is sediqqi. Now were shower its omar mir mateen, he used the last name of mateen even though his fathers last name is sediqqi. Born in new york. We think the fbi looked at him a couple years ago because of people he was associated with and nothing came of that and he was not on any kind of any kind of current surveillance. Now, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms is tracing to see how he got the weapons that he used, the assaultstyle weapon as police described it, ar15 assault style rifle which can carry high capacity magazine and also a handgun. Thats going to take a long time for the forensic work to be done to see whether the people who are shot inside were shot with a handgun or with the ar15 type weapon. He did have a license to carry guns. He had a security guards license, and either was or had been at one time working at a security guard, so he had some we believe some familiarity with firearms. We dont know of any criminal past so he would have been legally entitled to buy those weapons. There was no restriction on that in florida on acquiring assault weapons. Not sure about the florida gun law and high capacity magazines but off seen in the Mass Shootings people who carry them out use high capacity magazines because of the simple fact they can repeatedly fire without having to reload or change magazine. The magazine is the term for the device that attaches to the weapon that holds the rounds. But its going to be a while before we know what was used to carry out the attacks. So theres a very aggressive investigation to go on now to see whether, as you heard the police say, was this an act of radical terrorism, islamicinspired radicalism, or was it a height crime or were there aspects of both . And and its going to be a while before we know the answer to that . But thats a very urgent question. You heard the Authorities Say the next of kin are still being notified, but i think they pretty well finished with that. Now maybe the word hasnt reached the authorities in florida but that work is pretty well done now, so they will be releasing the name here shortly and were told by a number of officials and family members that it is omar mir mateen, 29 careers old. Originally born in new york. Not sure when he and the family moved to florida, but thats something that the investigators will now trying to go, retrace his steps or build i should say a time line, cron olitygy of all the events leading up to this, going back certainly in granular detail hours and days leading up to this. Who was this person talking to . When did this plan come into focus . Why and when did he choose this particular nightclub in orlando which is not right outside his home . If he was living in port st. Lucie thats 100 miles or so away. Why then, why that police . Those are always the questions that they will try to answer. Okay, the initial assessment from Law Enforcement, from their first press briefing, was that approximately 20 people had been killed, but in the intervening hours they went into that club and found 50 killed in this nightclub shooting. The pulse nightclub, very popular place in south orlando. Police said there were 300 or more people in the club when the shooting began sometime around 2 00 this morning. If youre just joining us, heres basically how it happened. 2 00 in the morning orlando time the man we now know to be omar mateen armed with an assaultstyle rifle, ar15 and handgun, starts shooting at 9 pulse nightclub. There was a uniformed Orlando Police officer working security who immediately engaged the shooter, but it developed into a hostage situation that lasted more than three hours. Sometime around 5 00 eastern time, 5 00 in the morning, that is, a s. W. A. T. Team was sent. In the decision was made that they had to go in and take out omar mateen. They did just that. Nine Orlando Police officers were involved. One of them injured when he was shot in the head, saved, police say, by the kevlar helmet he was wearing. Again, the number now 50, 50 dead in orlando in this now historically awful nightclub shooting. Pete, when we spoke a little bit earlier, you said no criminal record as far as we know from omar mateen, but he had been touched on in some way perhaps by authorities, perhaps in the span of another investigation. Any more information on that and whether or not he was perhaps known by authorities . No more information on that. Were told by a couple federal officials his name was in a watch list or at least someone who had come across the fbis range of interest three or four years ago, but more because we believe at this point that he was in touch with some other people that were investigate the. In other words, he was sort of on the periphery of people he was looking at, but this happens all the time where the fbi becomes interested in someone. This is such a difficult thing for Law Enforcement, somebody says something that they are interested in carrying out the attack or they are in touch with known rad calls and then you look at those other people, but you cant just look at them forever, and if they dont seem to be in any kind of an active role or supporting anyone then you move on. Our official information is that he was sort of on the edge. He was someone who other people were the focus of interest were looking at. All right. Pete williams. Well be back with you shortly. Want to turn to orlando mayor buddy dyer, kind enough to take some time with us. I again with extended National Condolences to you and your city to the unthinkable loss that youve suffered this morning, sir. Well, thank you. Its certainly unimaginable and the worst tragedy thats ever occurred in our city. Tell me about the phone call you received this morning. What time was it, and what did you hear . I got a phone call about 3 00 letting me know that we had a hostage situation at the nightclub. The majority of the shootings had already occurred at that time. We had set up a command center and we knew that there were hostages inside. We were receiving text messages. The shooter was in one area and in with a number of hostages, we think six or seven. But there were another 15 to 20 hostages in another area. About 5 00 opd made the decision that they would breech the wall in the area where the 15 to 20 hofltages were, essentially evacuated all of those hostages but during that course of time the shooter emerged. Thats when one of our officers got wounded, and when the shooter was taken down. Can you tell us the status of that officer. We understand he was shot in the head and was wearing a kevlar helmet. He received scratches. Hes going to be fine, but the helmet several saved his life. The response from your uniformed officer working security there at 2 00 this morning at the nightclub, he may have saved a lot of lives by engaging this man as he walked in. What can you say about the work that your police force did today . All of our Police Officers as well as sheriffs deputies who also responded are true heros today. As bad as the total is, it could have been worse. There were at least 300 people in the nightclub when the shooter began his rampage. One of