Orlando, June 13
Orlando Police have revealed how Omar Mateen, the Florida gunman who killed 50 people in a shooting spree inside a gay nightclub, was finally killed as police officers cornered him and then gunned him down as he was trying to flee from a bathroom at the Pulse club.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, police said an officer who was present inside the club started shooting back when the Afghan-origin Mateen, 29, opened fire around 2 a.m., the Mirror reported.
More officers arrived and drove the killer into the bathroom where he had hostages.
The police believed he was about to explode a suicide vest. It tried to blow a hole through the wall.
They used a Bearcat armoured vehicle to crash into his hideaway.
Mateen then clambered out through the hole and was gunned down by the police.
Orlando police tweeted to clarify the shooter had acted alone, and was killed.
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in Orlando which left over 100 people dead or injured was carried out by an Islamic State fighter," Amaq News Agency reported.
"One of the Caliphate's soldiers in America carried out a security invasion where he was able to enter a crusader gathering at a nightclub for homosexuals in Orlando," the group said in a broadcast on its Albayan Radio.
About 350 people were attending a Latin music event at Pulse, a well-known gay nightspot in the city, where survivors described scenes of carnage and pandemonium as the shooter took hostages inside a bathroom.
Orlando shooter not first G4S employee to go on deadly rampage
Orlando, June 13
Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was not the first employee of British security giant G4S to go on a rampage. Sunday morning's attack in Florida has raised questions over the quality of vetting procedures among the firm's recruits.
The Orlando killer was believed to be 29-year-old Omar Mateen, an Afghan-American G4S security guard. The killing spree, carried out with apparently legally acquired automatic rifles, claimed the lives of 49 partygoers and injured 53 according to the latest figures.
The gunman was shot dead after police stormed the club in a bid to rescue 30 hostages being held there.
The British firm is one of the world's biggest military and security providers. It employs more than half a million people -- many of them ex-military -- in 110 countries including conflict zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been rocked by repeated controversy.
The firm's shares plunged to a seven year low in the wake of its admission that Mateen was an employee, losing over $285 million (£200) million.
Orlando may be the worst atrocity attributed to a G4S employee, but it was not the first.
In 2009 former paratrooper Danny Fitzsimons -- an employee of Armour Group, a division of G4S -- was convicted of killing two colleagues and sentenced to life in prison.
According to human rights NGO Reprieve, Fitzsimons was employed by the mercenary firm despite having been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in May 2008 -- the same month G4S took over Armour Group.
He was thought to have developed the condition after exposure to a number of brutal events as a combatant in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some 36 hours after arriving in Baghdad as a mercenary in 2009, Fitzsimmons killed fellow security operators Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare following what was reported to have been a drunken brawl.
It emerged in 2012 following a BBC investigation that emails had been sent to Armour Group by G4S warning them not to employ Fitzsimons.
RT asked G4S about current vetting process used by the firm in reference to both the Mateen and Fitzsimons cases.
A spokesman said given the radically different operating environments in Iraq and the mainland US it is important not to conflate the two cases.
However, he said all staff undergo thorough tests including criminal records, right to work, identity and the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory test -- a well-regarded psychometric assessment process.
The spokesman also restated the G4S position that Mateen was "re-screened" in 2013, the first year in which he was reportedly questioned by the FBI.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Orlando attacks, though Mateen's connection with the terror group was not yet clear.
