TV station says Orlando shooter called during siege
The gunman responsible for the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando apparently called a local TV station during the bloody siege to announce his allegiance to the Islamic State, News13 reports.
Authorities previously said Omar Mateen made two calls to 911 during the attack early Sunday morning. CNN reported Wednesday that the FBI also interviewed a friend of Mateen who apparently received a "goodbye" call from the killer before the final shootout that ended in Mateen's death.
Producer Matthew Gentili said Mateen called the News 13 station at 2:45 a.m. Sunday, about 45 minutes after the first shots rang out at Pulse, a popular dancing nightspot south of downtown.
"I answered the phone as I always do: 'News 13, this is Matt.' And on the other end, I heard, 'Do you know about the shooting?' " Gentili said.
Gentili told the caller he had heard reports of the shooting and had been getting calls.
"I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter," the caller cut in. Mateen then said the assault was in support of the Islamic State. The militant group, which has suffered a string of defeats on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, has stepped up its call for so-called "lone wolf" attacks in the West.
Gentili said he was momentarily speechless. Mateen began speaking fast and, Gentili surmised, in Arabic.
"I didn't know what he was saying," Gentili said. "He was speaking fluently — whatever language he was speaking, he knew it."
Gentili asked that the caller speak English, and he did so. "I did it for ISIS. I did it for the Islamic State," Gentili quoted the caller as saying.
Gentili asked the caller for his name, but the man refused to provide it.
"It was silent for a while. I asked him: 'Is there anything else you want to say?' " Gentili said. "He said 'no' and hung up the phone."
The siege ended at about 5 a.m., when law enforcement officials stormed the nightclub. Mateen was killed in a gunfight. Police found the bodies of 49 victims, and dozens more clubgoers were wounded, some critically.
Gentili said he was interviewed at home by the FBI. News 13 said an editor researched the phone number and that it matched Mateen's.
"I'm definitely changed," Gentili said. "When you get a phone call like that, I'm never going to be able to answer the phone again without thinking this is the most serious call I'll ever get in my life."