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Gunman Attacks Orlando Gay Nightclub; FBI Investigating Orlando Shooter Ties to ISIS; Arrest May Have Avert Another Attack. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 13, 2016 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[01:00:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was dark. You don't know who -- what's going on. More people are falling. People are running. Glasses are getting dropped. I'm getting covered in blood from other people.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Around a 1:30 in the morning, we lost her inside the club. She just had another baby three months ago. The family is devastated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one can tell me where my son is. If he's been shot, if he is dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't heard anything, if he is alive or if he is breathing.

PAM BONDI, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are making it clear anyone who attacks our LGBT community, anyone who attacks anyone in our state will be gone after with the fullest extent of the law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We as a gay community, we are a resilient people. We're going to have people lined up behind the blood banks. We're going to show what the good heart of humanity is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay in Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Vause live in Orlando. It's just gone 1:00 a.m. here. And the FBI is investigating the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. 50 people were killed, 53 wounded in a terror attack in a gay nightclub here. Authorities say the gunman, Omar Mateen called 911 and pledged allegiance to ISIS during the three-hour long siege. But his ties to the militant group remain unclear.

A witness showed video of the gunfire as police stormed the club. Mateen was killed when police went to rescue the hostages. The FBI

had investigated the 29-year-old in the past to his ties to terrorism, but he wasn't found to be a threat. Mateen's ex-wife says he was bipolar and abusive.

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SITORA YUSUFIY, GUNMAN'S EX-WIFE: Instability, emotional instability, sickness. Mentally -- he was mentally unstable and mentally ill. That's the only explanation that I could give. And he was obviously disturbed deeply and traumatized.

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VAUSE: This was the 15th mass shooting during Barack Obama's presidency. He once again raised the issue of gun control.

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OBAMA: Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or in a house of worship or a movie theater or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.

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VAUSE: Mourners gathered at candlelight vigils in Orlando and around the world on Sunday to honor the victims of this tragedy.

CNN's Nick Valencia joins us in just a moment with the very latest on the victims. But we will start with Jessica Schneider who is near the Pulse nightclub.

And Jessica, walk us through the timeline of exactly what happened and when.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, you know, Pulse nightclub, it was packed when this all started unfolding. About 350 people inside the nightclub. This is a very popular night for Pulse. This was Latin night on Saturday night, their big night. Then law enforcement says at 2:00 a.m., that gunman burst in. The first person he encountered was an off-duty police officer who was standing by on the security team there.

Then we know at about 2:22 a.m. in the midst of this when the gunman had started shooting and taking hostages, we know that he called 911 and pledged his allegiance to ISIS and a also mentioned the Boston marathon bombers. After that, it was just a tense about three hours. The gunman was taking hostages. He was shooting people. This was occurring in two different areas of the nightclub.

In the meantime, about 100 or more officers were surrounding the nightclub. And finally, at 5:00 a.m., that's when police bust through a wall with an armored vehicle. They were able to take away some of those hostage, rescue them. And that's ultimately, John, when they shot and killed that gunman around 5:00 a.m.

VAUSE: And Jessica, in between the time when the guns -- when the gunfire first began and that 5:00 a.m. raid by the police, the three hours, there is now some horrific stories of how people managed to survive inside that club.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, you know, we're just getting a glimpse of it, John. We're even seeing text messages between some of the people inside the club, desperately asking their family members to call police for help.

[01:05:07] And we're also hearing stories about some of the survivors. We heard about one person, one woman who was inside a bathroom and actually used some dead bodies to cover herself to stay safe. She did survive. A bartender hid underneath the glass bar until she heard police finally come in after hours. And police said if you're alive, put your hand up. And we also heard some stories about people in a back dressing room, and those people huddling together to stay safe. Finally, police bust through an air conditioning unit. And that's how those people got out, through a window. So a lot of harrowing and frightening and tense moments that some of these people did survive -- John.

VAUSE: OK, Jessica, thank you.

Let's go to Nick Valencia now. Here is more on the victims and their families.

And Nick, just only a handful of the victims have been officially identified. This must be an agonizing wait for the loved ones of anybody who may be inside that club.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Of the 50 people who were gunned down, just seven names have officially been released by authorities here. So many other of these friends and family of the victims that were affected by this senseless terrorist attack here in Orlando at 2:00 a.m. yesterday. It had just been a very painstaking process.

News has been in limited supply. We spoke last hour with one woman who still doesn't know the fate of her brother. And they won't know until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. So it's going to be a really long road ahead for so many people here in this community that are in a lot of ways going to have to relive it once they find out if their loved ones were among those killed.

We have been talking about this all morning long, all night long, I should say. And it -- you know, when you talk about this being the deadliest shooting on U.S. soil since 9/11, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, you know, that is jaw-dropping. But then when you start to hear the stories, the personalized stories that affected these people, that's when it really brings meaning to the jaw-dropping numbers.

And one of those people that we spoke to was Andy Moss. He was at that nightclub last night when the gunman began his massacre. And he says that he left his friend in the club. He has no idea if that friend is still alive.

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ANDY MOSS, WITNESS TO ORLANDO SHOOTING ATTACK: At first it sound like it was part of the show because there was an event going on. Like we were all just having a good time. But once people started screaming and shots just keep ringing out, you know that it's not a show anymore. And you got do what you got to do.

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VALENCIA: We're out in front of the new staging area for friends and family of the victims of this tragedy. This is the second staging area. The friends and family that still don't know what the fate of their loved ones. They're behind me here in this building. A lot of really tense moments here. We saw a short time ago, I should say about two hours ago, a family just inconsolable. We don't know what they were crying about. Maybe it was a lack of information. Perhaps they had received news of their loved one. But it just speaks to the raw emotion here in this community. Nearly 24 hours since this attack took place -- John.

VAUSE: And Nick, is there any indication from the authorities why this seems to be taking such a long time?

VALENCIA: Well, you think about the numbers there's well over 100 people that were shot that includes the 50 dead. So this is -- this is a long process. This is a frustrating process for a lot of the family because they haven't been given a reason why it's taking so long. They can only speculate that because of the sheer volume of casualties in this case that it's taking a really long time.

Still that has not stopped people here from being very critical of the local authorities. In fact, a little while ago when we were at the first staging area, there was an individual who was crying in tears who came out blaming authorities by name saying that if this happened in a richer community, if this happened in another community, that perhaps the offices for information would not be closed at this hour. Perhaps they would be given news of their loved ones.

They're really frustrated right now. They want answers and those answers don't be -- don't seem to be out there right now for many of these friends and families -- John.

VAUSE: Yes. OK. Nick, thank you. Nick Valencia there. Also, Jessica Schneider. Thanks to you both.

I'm joined now by CNN's military analyst Lt. Gen. Mike Hertling here in Orlando and Brian Levin is with us from Irvine, California. He is the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and extremism.

And Brian, first to you. We do know that ISIS put out this call at the start of Ramadan, the wholly month of Ramadan, about a week or so ago, to carry out these kinds of attacks. What more do we know about that call? Where did it from? Exactly how was it worded and how was it communicated to -- I guess to people like Mateen here?

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: Well, they put this out on a variety of social media, also on the dark Web.

[01:10:02] It's my guess that this is someone who was inspired by ISIS rather orchestrated and directed. Several weeks ago, ISIS came out with a new magazine, "Dabiq." Interestingly enough, in that magazine, they were primarily aiming their ire at Muslims around the world, whether it be Egypt, the United States, Saudi Arabia or elsewhere. But the bottom line is that these folks can get radicalized by one group and the baton can be passed to another group. That's what we found happened with respect to the terrible attacks that hit in San Bernardino.

And one of the things that I warned Congress late last year was because of ISIS' ability to use the Internet, the dark Web, and social media, even when they were under pressure, they were still getting their message out, and unlike Europe, where they're orchestrating folks who have gone in theater and then come back here, here they're inspiring malcontents, disenfranchised people, mentally unstable folks, and others.

And what we've seen is a significant increase over the last several years with respect to these attacks. Indeed, San Bernardino and this attack alone represent a significant amount of the fatalities post 9/11 from jihadi attacks. We also see lone wolves on the right-wing as well. But the biggest threat our center says are self-jihadist lone wolves.

And also remember, ISIS would love to coordinate an attack, too, if they could. They just don't have that wide and deep bench that they have of criminals and malcontents and recruiters that they have on the ground in places like Belgium and France.

VAUSE: OK. Let's go to General Hertling now.

Given the fact that ISIS is being squeezed militarily, especially in Iraq and Syria, right now, is this kind of attack that we're seeing in Orlando, is that now their major way of striking a blow on Western targets?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It certainly is. It's at least contributing to that. When you talk about the fact that you have an element that's being defeated on the battlefield, that's losing ground, that's losing their capability, having to strike out, that was part of the message that we just talked about, go out and attack in other places. Certainly, easier to do in Europe because you have that flow. But here, the kind of jihadists you're having here, the radical extremists, are those who are, like this one, has been misbehaving somewhat in a variety of ways, has run into law problems, has been noticed by other people, and they're ready to conduct operations because they just don't fit in at times.

VAUSE: And, Brian, to you, the fact that Mateen made this telephone call to the authorities, this 911 call, pledging allegiance to al- Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, do you have any idea why he would do it that way as opposed to, I don't know, leaving behind a note or posting something on social media? What was the purpose of that call?

LEVIN: The purpose of it was he probably didn't get to do it on social media and it might have come as an afterthought. Tashfeen Malik, who attacked our community, pledged allegiance on social media. Interestingly enough, at that time, ISIS radio, for instance, declared her like a follower and a supporter rather than a warrior, which is how this assailant was referred to. But right now it doesn't appear that there was evidence that there was any direct orchestration.

And indeed one of the things I think is so interesting, as ISIS is losing the number of foreign fighters who are coming into theater, how their ground war is closing in a bit, yet they're still able to inspire these attacks. And like a caged animal, they can be the most dangerous when they appear under pressure.

This is going to be a long thing. And as I said before, we will get hit again because we have so many people, we have 800 to 900 investigations going on in all 50 states, and a very sophisticated, though under pressure, Internet and dark Web presence. So they'll fight back the only way they can, which is through this "catch as catch can" inspirational, rather than operationally, trained folks, like this particular assailant.

VAUSE: OK. And, General, I just want to -- I want to take a different tack here because you live here. You moved here, made a decision to make this your home after retiring. As someone who is a member of this community, how difficult has this been for you and how difficult will it be, you know, for everyone who you share this community with?

HERTLING: Striking. John, this was -- this morning, I can't describe what this felt like because as you said, I've seen multiple years in combat. I've seen soldiers die fighting against terrorists.

[01:15:02] And when you wake up in the middle of the night and find something that occurred in your hometown, to this degree -- you know, this isn't far away anymore. This is not Paris. This isn't Brussels. This is Orlando, Florida, a place that is known for Mickey Mouse and Disneyworld. So, yes, it was tough to take. The combination of an extremist fighting in this land, in this city, as well as someone with this much hate against this many people, and to have it affect the community.

But the community is rebounding. This is a wonderful place to live and you're seeing that in the people that are coming out providing support, the hospitals and the emergency services that are coming together and working together to treat the patients and to care for the people around. That's a very good thing about Orlando.

VAUSE: And soldiers fight back. They're trained. They go to the battlefield. These were innocent, defenseless people.

HERTLING: They were. And I'd say another thing about that. And it has to do with this style of attack, when you're using automatic rifles with bullets that tumble and the carnage that this creates, these are the kind of things that occur when you have a terrorist attacking unarmed people like this. And no amount of fighting back in this kind of environment is going to do anything.

VAUSE: General, good to speak with you. Thank you for being with us.

HERTLING: Thanks, John.

VAUSE: And Brian, we will talk to you a little later this hour. So thanks to Brian Levin there in the Irvine.

And we are slowly learning the names of the victims of this attack as Orlando authorities and their families try to identify them.

Cory Connell's father tells CNN his son is one of the many wounded in this shooting. There is no word yet on his condition.

The city of Orlando named Stanley Almodovar as one of the 50 people who died in the massacre. The list also includes Edward Sotomayor, Jr., Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, Juan Ramon Guerrero and Eric Ivan Ortiz- Rivera. Peter O. Gonzalez Cruz, and Luis S. Vielma as well as Kimberly Morris.

And we have your reaction just ahead coming from the gunman's father. Why he says he is puzzled by his son's actions.

SESAY: Plus, after the Orlando tragedy, police arrested the man headed to the L.A. Pride parade. Why he may have threatened the gay pride event coming up.

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[01:21:32] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In there shot and my son is unaccounted for right now. So I don't know if he is still in the club, if he is dead, if he is shot in here. I just hope he is OK.

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SESAY: So much anguish. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. I'm Isha Sesay in Los Angeles.

VAUSE: Yes. It is just horrendous. I'm John Vause live in Orlando.

Police say more than 300 people were packed inside the Pulse nightclub when the gunshots rang out. 50 people were killed. Another 53 were wounded. Many families still desperately waiting to learn what has happened to their loved ones.

Authorities say the gunman 29-year-old Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS during the shooting. Mateen's parent says he had expressed outrage after seeing two men kiss in Miami. But they did not know of any connection he had to the terror group.

We're just now hearing from the gunman's father.

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SEDDIQUE MIR MATEEN, FATHER OF OMAR MATEEN: He came in yesterday to see me and his mom, and that was the last time that I saw him. I didn't see him anything different than what he used to be. So I'm really puzzled and I'm very saddened and I'm very upset what happened here because they are my family. All those deceased people, they are my family. And those people, they got injured, I pray for them that they get healthy soon.

In the United States, I give him the best education possible. He had his own house, his own life. So he was living separately. And we provide for him love and care, the best possible the way a father and a mother can provide. So once it happened, it really surprised me.

Radicalism, no, he doesn't have a beard even. When someone becomes radical, they grow a long beard and they wear clothes that -- you know, long clothes. And I don't think religion or Islam had nothing to do with this.

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VAUSE: Seddique Mateen, Omar Mateen's father, speaking out. We should note that Seddique Mateen moved his family here from Afghanistan but Omar Mateen was born in the United States.

I'll have much more from Orlando throughout this hour. In the meantime back to Isha in Los Angeles.

SESAY: Thanks, John.

Well, American Muslim leaders are speaking out on the Orlando shootings. The Council on American Islamic Relations held a press conference in Washington Sunday. It's the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. The council's national executive director called the attack appalling.

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NIHAD AWAD, NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAIR: This is a hate crime, plain and simple. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms. It violates our principles as Americans and as Muslims.

Let me be clear. We have no tolerance for extremism of any kind. We must not tolerate hateful rhetoric that incites violence against minorities. Religious freedom is the cornerstone of our beliefs as Muslims and as Americans.

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[01:25:06] SESAY: Well, CNN law enforcement contributor and retired FBI supervisory special agent Steve Moore is back with us now.

Steve, thank you for staying with us. I want to pick up on what the father said, Omar Mateen's father said saying that, you know, he didn't really believe someone was radicalized because he didn't have a beard. He wasn't wearing flowing robes. I mean, you have dealt with radical elements. I mean, what did you make of his statements?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: It's -- well, I believe him. I believe that that's what he believed. But at the same time, you look back and three years ago, two years ago, the FBI was investigating him because of radicalization and radical ideas that had caused so much concern with other people that they reported it to the FBI.

I don't think the average radical Islamist is going to tell their parents that that's where they're going, especially if they don't believe the parents are going to be sympathetic to that belief.

SESAY: I mean, you mentioned the FBI is speaking to Mateen some time ago. People are asking already, the question is out there, did the system fail here?

MOORE: They have a right to ask that question. But let me explain a little bit about how it works. You have the Joint Terrorism Task Force in most of these cities. You have one in L.A. I was the al Qaeda supervisor for the Joint Terrorism Task Force here. And every day when you come to work, they're going to be 10 to 20 leads, investigative instructions to the team involving people that we started to call just suspicious Arab neighbors. People were reporting them.

So much of our time, the majority of our investigative time was vetting these reports and finding out whether these people were truly somebody that was dangerous or somebody we should go forward with.

The team had a lot of people to look at who were very dangerous. And in the way you would triage something, we've discussed this a lot. When you triage the situation, you had to take your limited resources and put it towards the most damaging people, the most dangerous people. And you had to be quick to discontinue investigations on people that you couldn't determine were dangerous.

SESAY: So that may come out in the days ahead that -- you know, that they wanted to but they couldn't. I mean., what questions do you want answered on the part of the FBI in the days ahead?

MOORE: I would want to know what -- at some point they discontinued. It's a thing called discontinue the investigation. I would want to know how the person who made that decision made the decision. What facts did they base that on? And frankly, in the FBI, you just can't -- I only had 25 people to work al Qaeda in all of Los Angeles. I didn't have enough people to cover the imminent dangers that we had, much less the people we couldn't vet.

SESAY: Scary, scary stuff.

Steve Moore, we always appreciate the insight and the honesty. I know you stay with us.

MOORE: Thanks.

SESAY: I know you'll stay with us.

MOORE: I will.

SESAY: Thank you.

All right. We're going to go live to Orlando right after the break with more on who the shooter was, and how the city's gay community is responding to the attack.

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[01:32:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While the motive behind this mass shooting still remains unclear, let's be quite clear, our resolve to live openly, proudly, and genuinely remains completely undiminished.

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SESAY: You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of the worst terror attack in the United States since 9/11.

I'm Isha Sesay, in Los Angeles.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause, live in Orlando.

The FBI is investigating what ties, if any, the Orlando gunman had to ISIS. 50 people were killed, another 53 were wounded on this attack on a gay nightclub. A U.S. official says the gunman called 911 during the shooting to pledge allegiance to ISIS. Police ended the three- hour-long siege when they shot and killed 29-year-old Omar Mateen.

The FBI interviewed Mateen in 2013 and 2014, but ties to any terror groups were apparently inconclusive.

Back with us now Brian Levin, in Irvine, California. He is the director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Also joining us from Honolulu, Hawaii, CNN's senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes.

Brian, first to you.

What does the profile of the gunman tell you about it?

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: Well, what we've noticed is that there are a fair number of folks, the average age that we've been seeing has been about 26. And what's interesting is how fast people can radicalize. And my guess would be that he dined from a buffet of hate, which might have included materials from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and their "Inspire" magazine. And indeed is' or Daesh's magazine see magazine. But what we're seeing in the United States in many of these investigations in many of these cases are folks who are disenchanted, have some kind of answer or instability, and they're the ones that are scooped up by groups like ISIS, but not necessarily directly. They're not being orchestrated. They're being inspired. And what they're told is hit in your own communities, soft targets. Don't necessarily worry about hitting the big symbolic ones. Hit soft targets that you can hit, which will make a statement, and then claim credit after the fact for us. And that appears to be the case here. And it appears to be case in the tragedy that struck our community in San Bernardino.

And let me just say our hearts go out to all our friends in Florida and in the LGBTQ community.

VAUSE: OK, Tom Fuentes, there are a lot of similarities being drawn between this attack and the one at the Paris club, the Bataclan club that left 130 people dead. But that was multiple gunmen firing multiple rounds. This was one gunman with one automatic weapon, so it seems. Apart from his training as a security guard, do you suspect that maybe there is something else here, some more training that we're not aware of at this point?

[01:35:09] TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I don't know. I think it's a good question. But that will be something they'll try to look at. Were other people involved with him? Was there basically a small group of terrorists who were training? And others are going to do other attacks along the way at a later date. And that's kind of what happened with Farouk in San Bernardino. He was looking two years earlier to do an attack with a group out of Los Angeles, except the FBI arrested the whole group and he had to postpone his idea for several years until he did the attack in San Bernardino. So these are the connections that the FBI are going to be trying to look at. They're going to try and look at the e-mail traffic he had, his phone calls and text messages, see if he was using encrypted applications for communication, which is going to make it very difficult to crack those codes and find out who he was talking to, if there was anybody else involved.

Your guest had mentioned how quickly the radicalization process takes place. The FBI refers to that as the time it takes to go from "flash to bang." And they mean that someone just, all of a sudden, decides, that's it, I'm going to go forward and doing something. And that "flash to bang" used to be six month, 12 months with some people. And they're seeing that happen now in a matter of days, or just a few weeks with some individuals. And that's the concern here. We know this guy just bought these guns this week. So it could have been just that, that he wasn't talking about a terror attack, even as short as a week ago. He decided very recently to do this.

VAUSE: And, Brian, to you, when you look at the tactics which the police used in this instance, there was that three-hour delay between the gunfire beginning and the time when they stormed the club. Do you believe that possibly Mateen was trying to draw police officers into the club to increase the death toll? Because these guys don't negotiate to bring an end to this, a peaceful resolution, do they?

LEVIN: That's right. One of the things here that I think was significant is not only his armament, this AR-15 and a handgun, but the small and densely populated location that he chose. So if police were to have engaged him, particularly when early on when they were outmatched, there could have been a lot of casualties in the crossfire. We're going see as this investigation unfolds what exactly happened and what the timeline was with respect to people who were killed. It's just too early now to make some kind of a tactical conclusion. But I can assure you that one of the things that we generally see is that the killings in many of the case, 40 or 50 percent or more are done within the first four or five minutes before law enforcement arrives. So let's see what happens.

Also, one other quick thing. They did not know at the time whether or not there were others involved. So a very difficult, fluid, and split-second situation where people's lives depend on it, and at least if someone can be isolated and contained, and they're not killing someone at that time, it might have been valuable to freeze the action. We simply don't know. That's something we're going to be looking at in the days and weeks to come.

VAUSE: I'd like to get Tom Fuentes because --

FUENTES: If I could add to that.

VAUSE: Yeah, please.

FUENTES: I'd like to say, along those lines, there is a possibility that there was more than one shooter there, and that the others may have fired their weapons and run out a fire door, out the back door into an alleyway and escaped. So one of the very meticulous, gruesome tasks here is to try to recover every single bullet fired and remove it from the walls, wherever else, the ceiling, and unfortunately from each body, living and dead, and try to see if those bullets matched the two weapons carried by Mateen. And you had the possibility, unfortunately, that you could have friendly fire that may have taken a couple of victims when the police were firing back at them. So that's going to be part of the ballistics forensic work in this case, is to account for every bullet, and try to match every bullet to the weapon that fired it.

[01:39:33] VAUSE: At this point, we would like to stress this is not a criticism of the police here, who obviously risked their lives to end this siege. And no one knows exactly what the right call would have been at this particular time. We just have to trust they did what they thought was best.

Tom Fuentes, we appreciate you being with us, and Brian Levin in Irvine. Thanks to you both.

And we will take a short break. When we come back, in the wake of the Orlando terror attack, another attack may have been averted, this one at L.A.'s Gay Pride Parade. Details in just a moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: People were running everywhere, and, you know, gunshots were going off, and people were ducking. People were -- I hid behind a palm tree, actually, like a palm tree. And it was going off like one after another.

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SESAY: You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of the worst mass shooting in United States history. I'm Isha Sesay, in Los Angeles.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause, live in Orlando, where it's 1:45 on a Monday morning.

Dozens of people were trapped inside the Pulse nightclub for hours while police were in a standoff with the shooter. Witnesses described the chaotic scene. Some saying at first they thought the gunshots were part of the show. And now we're getting dramatic details about how some were actually able to survive. One person hiding in the bathroom covered herself with bodies. Some entertainers hid in a dressing room. They escaped by crawling out when police removed the air conditioning unit.

Let's go back now to Isha in Los Angeles.

SESAY: Thanks, John.

Well, as authorities investigate what happened in Orlando, another tragedy may have been averted right here in Los Angeles. Police say a man arrested on Sunday had assault weapons and explosive material, and that he was headed to a Gay Pride event.

Our Kyung Lah has more.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just hours after the Orlando mass murder began, as word spread about the shooting inside the Pulse nightclub, police near Los Angeles arrest 20-year-old James Howell with a frightening arsenal. Inside Howell's white Acura, police find three assault rifles, a rifle scope, high-capacity magazines and ammunition, a gas canister, a black vest with a security badge, and a five gallon bucket with chemicals capable of making a bomb. Police say he tells them where he is going.

[01:45:29] ERIC GARCETTI, LOS ANGELES MAYOR: He said he was coming to Pride, and was heavily armed and apprehended by Santa Monica police Department officials.

LAH: He was arrested just before dawn. A neighbor called the Santa Monica police reporting a suspected prowler. Police say Howell was sitting in his car with Indiana plates, his home state.

Howell has a criminal history in Indiana, arrested for intimidation with a weapon. Police also say his 17-year-old boyfriend, in a lover's quarrel, accused him of pointing an AR-style rifle at him last year, but that did not lead to an arrest, a perplexing profile which leads police to say this.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: We do not have any additional information related to what his intentions were.

LAH (on camera): Police were now looking at all this with new concern. Thousands gathering for the L.A. Pride Parade in the wake for the Orlando shooting and the arrest here, adding another layer of security. More officers. The city decided the parade would go on.

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LAH (voice-over): And it did. Orlando sprawled and hastily made signs carried by this LGBT community as a badge of solidarity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're stronger than the fear. We're stronger than all of the scary things that are going on in the world right now.

LAH: What could have been hovering over this community?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank god. Seriously, thank god for the police catching this guy. It's just sickening. It's crazy.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Santa Monica, California.

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SESAY: Joining us now is the mayor of West Hollywood, Lindsey Horvath.

Ms. Horvath, thank you so much for joining us.

LINDSEY HORVATH, MAYOR, WEST HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: Thank you.

We're going get to the situation in West Hollywood in just a second. We know, of course, a man was arrested with an arsenal of weapons. But first, I want to talk about what happened in Orlando, Florida. Where were you when you heard the news? What went through your mind?

HORVATH: I was actually in my hotel room this morning in Colorado Springs before I flew back this morning for the Pride festivities in West Hollywood. So I've been living with this information since 3:00 a.m., Colorado time. And it was absolutely devastating. I couldn't imagine a worse story to wake up to. It made me immediately think of home, my friends, my family, our community, those who I might know who might actually be in Orlando. So it was a very tragic and very difficult morning.

SESAY: That this community would be targeted at all is heartbreaking. But the timing of it, coming in the month of June, which is Pride month.

HORVATH: Absolutely. The whole idea that the LGBTQ community would be targets of violence during Pride month absolutely made me sick. The idea that, you know, Pride was actually born out of the stonewall riots, that violence that the LGBT community faced is exactly what brought them to move forward to march and to declare Pride. That's exactly what Pride's history is, and so today, once again, stood in solidarity with Orlando, the LGBT community throughout our country and throughout the world to say that we will not go back into the closet. We will stand proud. We will stand together as a community. And we continued to march towards equality. That's who we are as Americans. And that's what this community stands for.

SESAY: And to that point about the safety of the LGBTQ community, there are some who have said that they have not felt safe. They have not felt that there's been enough protection given to them. Will this tragic event in Orlando give right to a rethinking of security and policing of the LGBTQ community here in West Hollywood?

HORVATH: We always have to reassess our safety precautions in the event of any sort of tragedy like this. We always sort of reassess what our protocols are and how we continue to take care and protect our community. But what we do know is what happened in Orlando will not cause our community to become silent. We will continue to stand in solidarity with one another. There are isolated incidents of violence against our transgendered community, particularly transgendered communities of color. Violence has been perpetrated against the LGBT community time and time again. Yet, we will continue to rise, will continue to march towards equality. That's who we are as a community. And we will not back down.

[01:50:00] SESAY: Finally, to anyone that is out there watching this, at this point in time is feeling afraid and is feeling fearful, a member of the LGBTQ community, what do you want to say to them?

HORVATH: You're not alone. That you are part of a great community that is a strong community, that is a diverse community, that is a loving community, that you are accepted and loved exactly as you are, that you have a home in West Hollywood whoever you identify, and that you are always welcome with us and that we will always be there for you.

SESAY: Ms. Horvath, thank you for coming in.

HORVATH: Thank you.

SESAY: It's a difficult time, but we appreciate it.

HORVATH: Thank you.

The message echoed by many.

Time for a quick break now. France suffered an eerily similar attack to the Orlando shootings last November. We'll show you how Paris is paying tribute to the victims in Orlando.

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[01:55:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Just came into 1:55 on Monday morning in Orlando. And the shooting here has drawn comparisons to the attacks in France last November where gunmen opened fire in the crowded Bataclan Theater in Paris, killing 89 people. Now Parisians are mourning the victims in Orlando, knowing full well the pain that comes with these attacks. Members of the gay and lesbian community set up a vigil downtown on Sunday to express solidarity.

And in response to the Orlando shootings, the Vatican released a strong statement on behalf of Pope Francis, saying, quote, "The terrible massacre that has taken place in Orlando with its dreadfully high number of innocent victims has caused in Pope Francis and in all of us the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation. We all hope that ways may be found as soon as possible to effectively identify and confront the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity."

You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage. I'm John Vause.

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