ORLANDO – The Pulse nightclub mass shooting was a “night of unspeakable terror” that has shaken the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
“It is indeed a cruel irony that a community defined almost exclusively by whom they love is so often a target of hate,” Lynch said during a Tuesday press conference at the George C. Young Federal Building and Courthouse in downtown Orlando.
“Let me say to our LGBT friends and family, particularly to anyone who might view this tragedy as an indication that their identities – their essential selves – might somehow be better left unexpressed or in the shadows: This Department of Justice – and your country – stands with you in the light,” she said.
Lynch’s trip occurred as the Justice Department continues investigating the June 12 massacre at Pulse, in which 49 people died and dozens were wounded. Federal investigators who have conducted hundreds of interviews haven’t ruled out charges against others in connection with the shooting and say they’re still trying to determine why Omar Mateen, who died in a gun battle with police, targeted a popular gay nightclub.
During her Orlando trip, Lynch met with U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley, law enforcement officials, relatives of victims and first responders.
More clues emerged Monday when the FBI released a partial transcript of phone calls Mateen had with a 911 operator and police crisis negotiators once the shooting got underway. He identified himself as an Islamic soldier, demanded to a crisis negotiator that the U.S. “stop bombing” Syria and Iraq, warned of future violence in the coming days and at one point pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, the FBI said.
Despite his declarations, the FBI says it’s found no evidence the attack was directed by a foreign terrorist organization. Mateen instead appears to have radicalized on his own through jihadist propaganda on the internet, part of a population of Americans that law enforcement officials have repeatedly expressed concern about.
During her press conference, Lynch announced that the Department of Justice will make $1 million in emergency funding available to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This will cover overtime expenses borne by Orlando law enforcement agencies and other first responders that responded to the attack.
“That was news to me. And I’m looking forward to participating in that application process to hopefully get some funding,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said after the press conference, standing outside the federal building.
Demings said the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is tracking overtime costs linked with the Pulse shooting, but he does not yet know the budgetary impact.
The shooting has fostered discussion about U.S. government efforts to identify and thwart individuals bent on violence — Mateen had been interviewed by the FBI three times since 2013 as part of two separate investigations and placed on a terror watch list.
“We are going back and looking at all of our contacts with him, as we are asking people to look back at their contacts with him as well, to determine what – if anything – we could have done better,” Lynch told reporters.
She declined to discuss specifics of the ongoing investigation into Mateen and his family. Asked if she is open to releasing recordings of 911 calls from the night of the massacre, she replied, “we are.”
“When you have a situation like this as we did in San Bernardino, when the killer is deceased, we are able to provide more information than we are often able to do when the matter is being handled in court as part of a court investigation,” she said.
Lynch said investigators will construct a timeline detailing Mateen’s actions to try to determine why he opened fire at Pulse – but final answers may remain unclear.
“I cannot tell you definitively that we will ever narrow it down to one motivation. People often act on more than one motivation. This was clearly an act of terror and an act of hate. So we will look at all motivations and hope to come to a conclusion there,” she said.
Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Rick Neale on Twitter: @RickNeale1
