A DAY after a gunman shot dead 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, police investigated the attacker’s ties to ISIS and Americans grieved over the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

    Omar Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Florida, carried an assault rifle and a pistol into the packed Pulse club at about 2 a.m. Sunday and started shooting. In addition to the people killed, he wounded at least 53 others, police said.

    ISIS-linked news agency Amaq said Sunday that the Islamist militant group was responsible for the shooting. ISIS group hailed the gunman as a “soldier of the caliphate,” according to a bulletin over the group’s Al-Bayan radio yesterday.

    “We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in an address to the nation from the White House.

    While the violence could have hit any American community, “this is an especially heartbreaking day for our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” he said.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and leaders of EU and other countries such as Britain, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore and France, yesterday extended condolences to Obama over the shooting.

    During the attack, Mateen called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers, according to a U.S. official.

    After a standoff of about three hours, while people trapped inside the club desperately called and messaged friends and relatives, police crashed into the building with an armored vehicle and stun grenades. They killed Mateen after the rampage — the deadliest terror attack in the United States since 9/11.

    “It appears he was organized and well-prepared,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said. Authorities said they haven’t found any accomplices.

    Mateen was born in 1986 in New York. Most recently he lived in Fort Pierce, about 193 kilometers southeast of Orlando. Fearing explosives, police evacuated about 200 people from the apartment complex where he lived while they looked through his residence for evidence.

    FBI Assistant Special Agent Ronald Hopper said the FBI interviewed him in 2013 and 2014 after he expressed sympathy for a suicide bomber.

    Before Sunday, the deadliest shootings in U.S. history were at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, with 32 and 27 killed, respectively.

    Hours after the Sunday shooting, a man from Indiana carrying assault rifles and materials to make explosives was arrested in Santa Monica, California, and told police he was headed to the Los Angeles gay pride parade.

    (SD-Agencies)

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