ORLANDO, Fla.— Omar Mateen reached over the wall of the men’s room stall and pointed his 9mm handgun.
Norman Casiano was among some 20 men and women jammed in the bathroom stall who had sought refuge from the gunman’s barrage and instead found themselves trapped with him. It was 2:13 a.m. on
June 12 at Pulse nightclub.
Mr. Casiano saw the gun’s black barrel and heard the shots. At 2:15 a.m., he called his parents to say he had been shot. He was one of the lucky ones. After Mateen left, Mr. Casiano fled the bathroom and escaped.
Over the course of
Mateen’s shooting rampage, which left 49 people dead and 53 injured, the gunman took the lives of roughly 15 people in the men’s and women’s bathrooms, including some shot after police had him cornered.
For crucial minutes after police entered the nightclub, Mateen moved between the two bathrooms, shooting people there, survivors said.
How the Orlando Shootings Unfolded
Between about 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on June 12, police were involved in a violent stand-off with Omar Mateen, the man they say shot 49 dead at an Orlando nightclub. Here's how events played out at the scene.
It may take weeks or more for authorities to piece together a detailed account of the police response, especially the minutes after a half dozen armed officers first entered the club and confronted Mateen.
But some survivors and family members of victims have asked in recent days why police, after cornering the gunman, didn’t raid the bathrooms right away. According to the FBI, 3 hours and 6 minutes elapsed from the time officers entered the club to the killing of Mateen during the hostage rescue, when he shot as many as three more people.
“I just feel that with so many cops to one person, it should have been a little quicker,” said Albert Murray, whose 18-year-old daughter Akyra Monet Murray was the night’s youngest victim, killed in the women’s bathroom.
Coverage of the Orlando Shooting
Orlando Police Department officials said they rescued dozens of people from the club while Mateen was pinned by officers in the bathroom. “I’m extremely proud of the heroic actions of our officers and I am very confident they saved many, many, many lives,” Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference.
This exclusive account of Mateen’s movements was based on recollections by more than a dozen survivors and five law enforcement officers in interviews and at news conferences, as well as an FBI timeline.
Police received the first call for help at 2:02 a.m., and officers on patrol around the crowded bar scene in nearby downtown started to arrive at Pulse by 2:04 a.m. At 2:08 a.m., as many as six armed officers entered the club and found many dead and injured. Over some portion of the next 10 minutes they exchanged gunfire with Mateen, a police spokeswoman said Sunday.
By about 2:18 a.m. they had cornered Mateen in the bathrooms, which were accessible only by a narrow hallway. They guarded the mouth of the hallway, guns drawn, positioned at angles several feet away. Mateen was trapped.
Authorities soon learned at least two dozen people also were in the bathrooms, alone with Mateen and his rage. Their active shooter had become a hostage-taker.
First shots
Mateen, 29 years old, left home that night with a SIG Sauer semiautomatic rifle, the handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Around midnight, he arrived at Pulse. Roughly 300 people were drinking and listening to salsa and reggaeton in the main room and hip-hop in another.
Selvin Dubon, a 30-year-old cook from Davenport, Fla., had arrived at about 11 p.m. with two friends. They noticed a man they believe was Mateen, at a corner of the bar, scowling. The man gave Mr. Dubon an unsettling look, one of Mr. Dubon’s friends told him.
Mateen left the club and returned through the nightclub’s patio shortly before 2 a.m., according to law-enforcement officials. He was standing near the club’s front entrance when he opened fire. Mr. Dubon saw the muzzle flashes.
An aerial view of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday, June 12. Photo: Red Huber/TNS/Zuma Press
The gunman made sweeping motions with the rifle, spraying the room with bullets, as people screamed and bodies fell. “All of you are gonna die, motherf—s!” Mateen yelled, even as he appeared amused, Mr. Dubon said.
Mr. Dubon dropped to the floor. He told his friend they should try to escape, but his friend worried they would be targets if they got up. Mr. Dubon took off alone, dragging himself along the ground, to a rear exit.
He glanced back and saw Mateen in the VIP section of the main room, firing weapons in each hand. Mr. Dubon’s friend was killed.
Adam Gruler, a uniformed off-duty police officer, was posted outside, part of the club’s routine security. He heard the shots and notified police. A police dispatcher announced: Multiple gunshots fired at Pulse. Orlando police put out a Signal 43, an all-hands-on-deck call for any officers nearby.
As squad cars headed to the club, Mr. Gruler, armed with a handgun, approached the club and exchanged fire with Mateen near the club entrance. He was outgunned and retreated, according to officers who arrived later.
In the club’s Adonis Lounge—a dance area and bar connected to the main room by two doors— Kraig Matthews, stage name DJ Flawless, was spinning hip-hop when he heard shots from the main room. “Fireworks!” someone shouted. Mr. Matthews dropped to the ground and rolled off the stage.
A minute or two later, Mateen entered the hip-hop room shooting.
‘Don’t kill me’
Miguel Leiva, a 29-year-old welder from nearby Sanford, Fla., also saw the flashes from Mateen’s SIG Sauer rifle. He ran toward a pair of bathrooms—a smaller one set aside for men and a larger one for women—divided by a narrow hallway off the Adonis Lounge.
“Everybody is gonna die!” Mr. Leiva said he heard Mateen yell as he ran toward the men’s room, a handicapped stall and a urinal.
ENLARGE
Mr. Leiva and roughly 20 others, some on top of each other, had locked themselves in the oversize stall when Mateen entered the bathroom. One woman who couldn’t squeeze into the stall pleaded, “Please, don’t kill me.” Mr. Leiva heard a shot and her body fell to the floor.
A man on his knees repeatedly invoked God before Mateen shot him, too. Then the gunman shot through the door and walls of the stall.
A bullet tore into the head of a woman next to Mr. Leiva, ripping off part of her face. Another bullet pierced Mr. Leiva’s foot. Two bodies fell on his leg. One man collapsed, his head landing facedown on the toilet. More than a dozen were killed.
Across the hall in the women’s bathroom, Orlando Torres, a 52-year-old club promoter, hid with a friend in a stall. In the adjacent handicapped stall, Richard Aiken huddled with at least five others.
Mateen entered and fired, killing a friend of Mr. Aiken. Two others were fatally shot on either side of him, Mr. Aiken said.
The gunman left and fired repeatedly at prone bodies in the club, witnesses said. About 10 minutes had passed since Mateen’s first shots.
Lt. Scott Smith, a 24-year veteran and member of Orlando Police Department’s SWAT team, was one of the first officers to enter the club at 2:08 a.m. said Capt. Mark Canty, the SWAT commander.
Lt. Smith and Sgt. Jeffrey Backhaus were armed with rifles and wore light body armor under their uniforms. They entered through a large window at the front of the club with four other officers, Capt. Canty said. Five of the men had SWAT training.
Their goal was to stop Mateen, Capt. Canty said. What happened next remains under investigation. Lt. Smith reported they exchanged gunfire with Mateen, Capt. Canty said.
Mateen returned to the men’s bathroom and shot under the stall door. “You guys aren’t dead yet!” Mateen said, laughing, Mr. Leiva recalled.
“It sounded like the officers were still exchanging gunfire with the suspect,” said Oviedo Police Officer Joseph Bologna, who arrived at the club at around 2:15 a.m.
Lt. Smith and others took positions outside the two bathrooms, training their guns on the hallway between the men’s and women’s, Capt. Canty said.
By about 2:30 a.m., Mateen had moved to the women’s bathroom, where he would remain with about eight people.
“People don’t understand that it went from an active shooter to a hostage situation,” said Sgt. Keith Vidler, of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, who helped rescue survivors. “As long as there are no shots being fired, we can wait all day.”
The hostages communicated through text messages and phone calls with authorities and loved ones. “Please do not text,” Mateen told them. Phones continued to ring, some on the dead, irritating the gunman. “Hand them over,” he said.
In the men’s room, some of the half dozen or so survivors were hyperventilating or throwing up at the sight of the carnage, Mr. Leiva said. Others appeared near death. “We just kept saying to people losing consciousness, ‘Don’t go to sleep.’ We kept trying to keep them up,” he said.
With the gunman pinned, Officer Omar Delgado, of the Eatonville Police Department, and other officers searched the club for survivors.
Dance lights flashed on floors strewn with bodies and slick with blood and spilled drinks. It smelled of liquor, gunpowder and sweat, he said.
Officer Delgado saw someone alive: Angel Colon had been shot in the leg during the first barrage and the hand and hip when the gunman returned. He dragged Mr. Colon out of the club.
“I don’t think I saw any patient that wasn’t shot more than once,” said Kathryn Bondani, an emergency room doctor on call that night.
Inside the women’s bathroom, Mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to Islamic State. “I’m the shooter. It’s me,” he told a local TV station.
By 3 a.m., arriving SWAT officers replaced most of the men watching the hallway to the bathrooms. They moved their position farther back.
Mateen had three calls with crisis negotiators that ended around 3:27 a.m. He claimed he had a vehicle rigged with bombs. “You people are gonna get it, and I’m gonna ignite it if they try to do anything stupid,” he said.
Mr. Aiken, hiding in a stall, said he sent text messages to a friend relaying what Mateen said about bombs. The friend shared the texts with police.
Police and sheriff’s K-9 officers gathered across the street, said Officer Bologna, who ferried survivors from the club. He said bomb-sniffing dogs focused on a van believed to be Mateen’s. Officers began to dismantle it.
A SWAT team of about 40 officers in military helmets and body armor stood watch as police leaders deliberated their next step. Police rescued one group at 4:21 a.m. after pulling an air-conditioning unit from the window of a dressing room next to the women’s bathroom.
The rescued people told police Mateen said he was going to soon put bomb vests on four people, matching similar reports from hostages inside.
Authorities planned to breach the wall bordering the bathrooms and force Mateen to face officers either outside or in the club, Capt. Canty said.
Police tried to blow open the wall of the men’s bathroom at 5:02 a.m. They needed an armored vehicle to penetrate it.
In the men’s room, pipes burst and water pooled, floating some of the bodies, Mr. Leiva said. He helped police pull out the injured through the hole in the wall.
In the women’s bathroom, Mateen said snipers would protect him, according to Mr. Torres, the club promoter. In the distance, Mr. Torres said, he heard, “Get your hands up, get your hands up.”
Mateen shuffled backward into one of the stalls. “Hey you,” he shouted, then shot three people, said Patience Carter, who was in a stall.
The gunman then went into the hallway toward one of the holes opened by police. As Mateen fired, at least 10 officers shot at him, according to police. Capt. Canty watched it unfold by video on a monitor a block away.
At 5:15 a.m., a police radio announced the suspect was down. Capt. Canty said he didn’t get a good look at him. Mateen’s body was already covered by a sheet.
—Jennifer Levitz, Devlin Barrett, Lisa Schwartz and Jim Oberman contributed to this article.
