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Nancy Grace
Deadliest Shooting in U.S. History; Orlando Shooter Praises Evil ISIS; Shooter`s Father Apologizes for Son. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 13, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) it sounded like it was a song.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four shots -- pow, pow, pow, pow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boom, boom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A man armed with an assault rifle and a Glock pistol shooting patrons in two areas of the club.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A consistent semi-automatic shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police arrived, calling out, If you`re alive, raise your hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not 20 but 50 casualties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us.
Breaking now, terror attack on U.S. soil, over 100 dead and injured in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history as the shooter pledges allegiance to
evil ISIS, calling 911 three times, that we know of, during the attack, pledging allegiance, swearing loyalty to ISIS and spelling his own name.
Joining me right now, CNN correspondent joining me there in Orlando, Jessica Schneider. Jessica, thank you for being with us. I want to first
start at the beginning. Tell me how the attack unfolded, starting from him going into Pulse nightclub.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Nancy, Saturday night -- it was the big night here at Pulse nightclub, 350 people packed into
that club. It was Latin night, which is the most popular night at the club, but at 2:00 o`clock in the morning, that gunman stormed in.
From what we understand, the first person he encountered was an off-duty police officer who was doing security at the club that night. Once the
gunman got in, that`s when the terror was unleashed. He started taking hostages. He started firing into that huge crowd there.
And then we know a few things. We know that he made three separate 911 calls. The first time, he hung up. The second time, he pledged allegiance
to ISIS, also talked about his admiration for the Boston Marathon bombers. The third time, that`s when the dispatcher actually called him back and he
talked again.
Now, that was about 2:20 in the morning. And over the course of two-and-a- half more hours, he had hostages, and police were deciding what to do. They set off some diversionary explosive devices, trying to distract him.
And then they decided that they had to move in. They used a heavily armored vehicle and actually took down part of a wall. They said it made a
hole of about two feet above the ground, about two feet wide.
And that`s when they started getting those hostages out, literally those hostages climbing out of that hole. They say the gunman also came out of
the hole. And when he did, he had his handgun and also that rifle with him and he started shooting. That`s when police fired back, shooting and
killing that gunman, Nancy.
GRACE: Jessica Schneider joining us there at that scene. That`s exactly how the shooter dies, crawling through a hole in the toilet that police had
made to try and save the victims. At that time, he opened fire on police, according to reports, and he was gunned down. We are talking about a 29-
year-old radicalized American born and raised in New York.
I want you to listen to Snapchat sound from there inside Pulse nightclub.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m at the club.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And you can hear the end of that, the beginning of gunshots.
Joining me right now, the brother of the victim, Amanda Alvear, a beautiful person killed in Pulse nightclub. Joining me is Brian Alvear. Brian,
thank you for being with us.
BRIAN ALVEAR, BROTHER OF VICTIM: Thank you for having me.
GRACE: I want to especially thank you for joining us because I know you found it very difficult to leave your mother. And so we have arranged for
you to be with us from home. Tell me, first of all, how is your mother?
ALVEAR: I mean, she`s as well as can be expected. This is her second child lost. I`m the oldest of three. Our younger brother was lost to
cancer at 11, and then, of course, she lost Amanda two days ago.
GRACE: Brian, how did your mom learn that Amanda was even in the nightclub?
[20:05:06]ALVEAR: She and her friends were going there. They frequented some of the LGBT bars in Orlando, Pulse mainly because they were very
Latin-friendly. We knew that she was there.
And then she woke up and you know, turned on the news as she was doing her breakfast, like she normally does, and Amanda wasn`t home, which was unlike
her to not message that she wasn`t coming back home because she lived with us.
GRACE: I`m just imagining your mom realizing Amanda wasn`t there, and then hearing the news and putting two and two together that that was where
Amanda had been.
Mike Galanos joining me right there, near Pulse nightclub. Mike, wasn`t it -- every week, Pulse has a different theme show. And they put on a big
show for everybody that`s there, dancing and partying and having a good time all through the weekend. The week is over. And this time, it was a
Latin theme and the place was packed, packed, Mike Galanos, of innocent -- packed with innocent people.
MIKE GALANOS, HLN NEWS ANCHOR: That`s all I`ve heard, Nancy, is just what a wonderful time people have, as you mentioned, week after week. Friday
night is hip-hop night. Then Saturday night every week is Latin night. And Jessica talked about it. Everyone was having an incredible time. It`s
2:00 in the morning. It`s time to start winding down.
In one account after another, Nancy, it`s people hear this thumping, and they think it`s part of the music. The next thing they know, it is not
part of the music. And the next thing they know, it is not part of the music. Terror is raining down on these innocent people.
And one person told me, next thing you know, someone who`s right next to him falls to the ground, and then another person. Then you realize people
are being shot next to you. This person falls to the ground, then it`s time to act and try and get out of there and save their own life.
That`s the way it went down. It is unthinkable for such a special group of people about a football field away from me right here, Nancy.
GRACE: Joining me also, in addition to Brian Alvear, who`s the brother of victim Amanda Alvear, is Chris Hansen, who survived. Chris, thank you for
being with us.
Chris -- let me know, Liz, when you get Chris`s satellite back up.
You know, Brian, when I hear Mike Galanos describe what happened, and you and your mom have to imagine Amanda there in that scene, when your mom put
two and two together and realized Amanda was there, what happened?
ALVEAR: I mean, she broke down. Like, she`s already -- like I said, she`s already lost one. And we don`t have to imagine because, unfortunately --
or fortunately, depending now how you look at it, Amanda -- she`d lost, like, 200 pounds. She was very happy about the way she looked. So she was
taking -- she was always taking pictures, Snapchatting, Instagramming. And she just happened to be Snapchatting at the exact moment.
So I don`t have to imagine what it was like because you can see it. You can see her turn her head, and she knows it`s not the music, and then drop
her phone and run for her life.
GRACE: Oh! Oh! People were hiding everywhere, trying to save their own lives. And you heard Jessica say at the beginning that when the cops
finally managed to get in there, they said, If you`re alive, raise your hand.
Joining me right now, Peter Brookes, national security expert with the Heritage Foundation, former deputy assistant defense secretary. Peter,
what I don`t understand is that this guy, Mateen, had been on the FBI watch list! He is a U.S. citizen.
How, how did he become radicalized? Why did he pick this community to attack? And how had he been on a watch list and still gets to buy guns,
including a semi assault weapon?
PETER BROOKES, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, Nancy, we`re all trying to figure that out. And this is something that Congress is going to be
digging into...
GRACE: Oh!
BROOKES: ... to try to find this out. There`s so many ways that somebody can become radicalized today. It can happen in person. It can happen on
line, which is one of the ways that the Islamic State is doing it. We`ve seen so many...
GRACE: Wa-wait! Put Peter Brookes up. Peter...
BROOKES: Yes?
GRACE: Peter Brookes, everybody. He knows what he`s talking about, national security expert with the Heritage Foundation and the former deputy
assistant defense secretary.
Peter, I know what you`re saying is accurate. I`m not arguing with that. But yet in my mind, I don`t understand how you can look on line and you
throw everything that you know, how you were raised, out the window and you`re radicalized? Not only are you radicalized that you believe this,
but you act on it by reading it on line?
[20:10:02]I mean, in my mind, you`ve got to take everything you see on line with a box of salt. But you can actually become radicalized to the point
where you act on it? It doesn`t make sense to me, Peter.
BROOKES: Well, it doesn`t make sense to normal people, but it happens. And we saw this with Ft. Hood, Nancy, that the captain (sic), Hasan, did
the same thing. He was radicalized by an American cleric, Anwar al Awlaki. And that was done through YouTube, through his sermons and other things.
So this is not uncommon, unfortunately. In this day and age, people don`t have to travel to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS, to be trained by ISIS.
There`s things on line that can teach you to build a bomb in your mother`s kitchen. I mean, al Qaeda has put things out like this.
We`re living in very dangerous times. And because we have two large oceans between us and our -- and Europe and Asia -- it doesn`t matter. They can
reach out and try to influence, radicalize and recruit people to take action, and we`ve seen this.
GRACE: Well, let me ask this. Isn`t it true, Ray Caputo, reporter with WDBO -- isn`t it true that there had been a previous time on his job where
he had talked about Hezbollah, he had talked about al Qaeda, and that was reported?
Now, how does he have time -- a guy with a job, with a wife, a second wife, with a child. How does he have time to become radicalized Islam and attack
a nightclub, a U.S. nightclub, and this is a U.S. citizen?
RAY CAPUTO, WDBO (via telephone): Well, I`ll tell you, Nancy. From what I`ve learned about Mateen, he was a very angry guy and he was fueled by
anger. I mean, he not only hated gays, he hated blacks, he hated Jews, he hated women. And when you`re consumed by that rage every day -- he
obviously -- this was his -- his MO. This is what he wanted to do.
We heard from someone that actually worked with him, and the guy said he wasn`t surprised. He said he talked about doing this sort of thing. We
also heard from a classmate, unconfirmed, that said on 9/11, he didn`t seem all too upset like all the other kids. I mean, this is something that`s
been in the making for a long time.
And I`m just as astonished as you, Nancy, that people couldn`t put two and two together, you know, in this day and age of terrorism, say this guy was
a threat.
GRACE: I`m just -- I`m just beside myself with the grief and the pain inflicted on innocent people, this community, these people, their families,
who had done nothing wrong.
Matt Zarrell, we`ve gone over and over and over it, you and I, how this could happen. He`s on the FBI watch list, Matt! Why could he get a gun?
How could he get access to that type of weapon, and even he`s out shopping for full body armor? How can you be on a federal watch list, a terror
watch list, and you can go out and get an assault weapon?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, when the FBI was investigating him in 2013, he was on the terror watch list. But when the
FBI concluded their investigation, they took him off the list.
So when he went to go get a gun, he had a concealed carry permit, which means he did not have to go through a three-day waiting period. He didn`t
have to go through a big background check. They just handed the gun over to him because he was not on the watch list when he went to get the gun.
GRACE: Oh! Oh! Oh! Just to hear that, Matt, just to hear that, that that is why he was able to armor up, trying to get body armor, trying to
get assault weapons, getting them and then opening fire, over 100 dead or injured because of this guy right there!
Now, I want you to hear the text from a victim inside the club. "Mommy, I love you. In the club, they`re shooting. Trapped in the bathroom. Call
them, Mommy. Call them now. Tell them I`m in the bathroom. He`s coming. I`m going to die."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:18:22]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was an angry person, violent in nature, and a bigot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That what he did was acts of terrorist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was bipolar, and he would get mad out of nowhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I would catch him, I would arrested him myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The worst mass shooting on U.S. soil, by an American, a home-grown terrorist praising ISIS. Tonight, 100 -- over 100 dead or injured because
of the shooting at Pulse nightclub.
And joining me right now, Chris Hansen, who survived the deadly attack. Chris, thank you for being with us.
CHRIS HANSEN, SURVIVOR: Thank you for having me.
GRACE: This all started around 2:02 AM, as Pulse was beginning to close. Where were you, Chris, when this happened?
HANSEN: At the time -- I don`t recall them about to close because I was able to order a drink, and I had asked if it was last call. And it wasn`t
last call at the time. And so I got my drink.
And I was standing along the wall by the -- there`s a VIP lounge where you`re able to stand kind of -- it`s not -- it`s an open area. And my back
was up against the wall kind of there between a table and before the bathrooms. So I know where those bathrooms are that the gentlemen that
were in the bathrooms were.
And hearing the shootings and hearing everything, it was just -- it was very, very chaotic and very terrifying.
GRACE: What did you think, Chris, when you first heard bullets ring out? What did you think that was?
[20:20:04]HANSEN: I thought it was the music. It was rhythmic. It went right with the tone. It was Latin night. I don`t understand Spanish or
understand it. I just know that when I arrived, hearing that it was one of the best bars in Orlando to go to for LGBT and those around that want to
have a good time, that -- it was unbelievable until I turned around and you see bodies dropping.
GRACE: When did you realize that was not the music, it was a gun?
HANSEN: When I turned around and heard screaming and bodies were dropping, and those that were next to me in the VIP, they were dropping down. And
the person next to me got shot. And that`s when -- when he got shot, I fell.
And when I fell down, I knew that if the bottles were breaking along by the bar, that -- I had to fall down. Otherwise, I could have been the one that
was possibly shot because I had to crawl out. I was crawling out on my stomach and...
GRACE: You`re telling me, Chris, that the person right beside you was shot.
HANSEN: Yes.
GRACE: So you...
HANSEN: The bullets were just going everywhere. It was, like -- it was -- I -- there couldn`t have been just one shooter. I just don`t believe it.
To be honest, it`s impossible. It`s impossible because of the fact that they were just, Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, sounding like firecrackers,
Bobcats, in a mailbox. They were just going off. And it was just a constant, constant fire. And there was no control. There was no
(INAUDIBLE) Everybody was running everywhere. There was blood splattering and...
GRACE: You know what? Following up on what Chris is saying, Liz, play the sound of what he`s talking about.
(VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Chris, it`s exactly like...
HANSEN: Yes.
GRACE: When I think about every one of those shots making contact with somebody in that nightclub, somebody`s son, somebody`s daughter, it`s just
hard for me to take in. When you hear that, is that what you thought...
HANSEN: Yes, it`s horrifying. It was horrifying, like, not knowing if you were going to make it out or if anybody was going to make it out because at
that point, it was like, when I was crawling and I noticed the bathroom, it was, like, Should I go into the bathroom? And when I thought about, No, I
can`t go because there was no exit because I remember going in and seeing that there was no way out of the bathroom. And I wasn`t going be trapped,
so I had to continue out towards the back gate.
It was like a scary movie. You don`t run upstairs when you know there`s somebody in the house because you`re not going to jump from a second story
window. And so I knew I had to continue going out the back. And I knew the patio was back there. So I was just crawling and crawling on the floor
on my stomach and my arms until I had reached the cement.
And when I realized I was outside, I had gotten up and I was crouching down, zig-zagging so that I can try to avoid getting shot. My dad taught
me that when we were young, if there was ever a situation, to always dodge and always to zig-zag because it`s hard to get a moving target.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:27:52]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Between 10 and 20.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots do you think there were?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, like, more than 20 or 30.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please come and get us. Please come and get us now. They`re shooting. They`re shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody that was outside was running, was running.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: With me, a survivor of the deadliest mass shooting on U.S. soil. And it was conducted and executed by a home-grown terrorist born and raised
in New York.
With me, Chris Hansen there in Orlando, who survived. Chris, I`m trying to imagine what you`re describing as people are being shot and they`re falling
down around you in a darkened club, people screaming, gunshots ringing out. How did you get out?
HANSEN: I had to crawl. I just knew that when -- with the bottles breaking at the bar and hearing the screaming and people falling that if
the gunman or the shooter was able to go one direction, I would fall. And the person next to me, for him to get shot, I knew that`s when I had to go.
It`s kind of like when you play dead with a bear. And you just -- you got to fall down. And I was crawling out by my stomach and my arms until I got
all the way to the patio.
GRACE: What did you see?
HANSEN: I did think...
GRACE: What were you crawling past? What did you see? Was it just mass chaos?
HANSEN: It was total chaos. There was blood splattering everywhere. There was -- you could hear glass breaking, people screaming, just boom,
boom, boom, just constant shooting. And it was just horrible.
And there was no way it sounded like it came from one person because there was just so many. It sounded like Bobcats thrown into a mailbox, then you
just light them up and it just goes nonstop. And I didn`t know what to think at the time except for to get out. And as I passed the bathrooms, I
thought to myself, Should I go in there and hide and wait? And I was, like, no, no, no, just continue on forward. And I was stepped on, and by
the time I got out, I had reached outside...
GRACE: You know, Chris, I can only imagine how overjoyed your family was when they find out you are one that survived.
[20:30:02] Nick Valencia joining me right now, CNN correspondent. Nick, we understand that some people survive by actually hiding under dead bodies.
Nick is joining us there at the hospital. Nick, what can you tell us?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nancy, I`ve been speaking to survivors of this unspeakable tragedy, and you`re exactly right. We`ve been hearing
chilling stories like that of survivors hiding under dead bodies, people having to crawl out, jumping fences.
I spoke earlier to a man named Jason Gonzalez who showed up at the nightclub with a group of friends, two of those friends did not make it out
alive.
For so many people here who are showing up to this medical center, it took overnight for them to figure out what happened to their loved ones. It was
an excruciatingly painstaking process for so many. Others found out the fate of their loved ones this morning around 8:00 a.m., Eastern.
People are still actively going through surgery at this hour. A lot of people, dozens, in fact, remain hospitalized. This has really shaken this
community, and I think just now people are really starting to realize what they went through.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We kept hearing the shots go off, nonstop. It was shot after shot after shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw some carnage that they would never ever see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were being shot. Blood everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One woman survived by hiding under the bodies of people who have been shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just one after another after another.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: `Mommy, I love you. They`re shooting. Hurry. He`s in the bathroom.` Not long after that, the messages stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also with us, Brynn Gingras. Gin, thank you so much, Brynn Gingras for being with us. The toll is now over 100 dead or injured, correct?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That`s absolutely right, Nancy. I mean, really just focusing on the ones that have passed away. Police, at this
point, have officially identified all but one and they`ve released the names of almost all of the victims.
They`re still trying to notify the next of kin, but Nancy, I got to tell you at this point, I have notes and notes of all these people who are
killed in this horrific attack, and that`s what`s just so -- just horrific. Really. It`s that there are just so many names, so many stories, so many
tributes that we`ve been seeing all across social media and also, of course, in Orlando.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements, Atlanta; Robert Schalk, New York. OK, Robert Schalk, starting at the get-go, I was getting flooded with
texts of `I can`t find my daughter.` `My friend can`t find her son.` `We can`t get answers.`
Question to you, Schalk, whoever sold this guy the guns had no idea, had no idea that he had been on the FBI terrorist list. Do they bear any
responsibility?
ROBERT SCHALK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t think so, Nancy. The problem that you run into is that the gun companies rely on the background checkers to
provide them with information to say yes or no. They did everything they were supposed to do as far as we know at this point. So do the proper
background check and if there`s no red flags, they can issue the permit and issue the handgun. The issue with this guy is he had a -- he was a prior
security guard, a potentially prior corrections officer, so the background check was less.
GRACE: You know that`s funny. Kirby Clements, how many times did you and I prosecute people, we look on their book-in sheet, job security? Remember?
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh, it happens all the time.
GRACE: All the time. How can they be in security and they`re a thug?
CLEMENTS: I have no idea how that happens. Although with this particular case, it seems like all of this came together, you know, rather suddenly.
He just recently started acquiring those guns, so it just may have been one of those scenarios there`s nothing that could have been done via background
checks.
GRACE: Oh, this was well, well planned out, because Mike Galanos, isn`t it true that this guy, Mateen, also contacted or tried to friend somebody at
another nightclub?
MIKE GALANOS, HLN NEWS ANCHOR: Nancy, exactly that. In the sense of things just add up when you talk about this gunman -- hate to even use his name,
but you go back to when he was on the FBI`s radar, 2013.
He said he had ties to terrorists. That`s investigated and found out inconclusive. Then he says he has ties to someone who was a suicide bomber,
followed up, inconclusive again.
Did the puzzle pieces not fit in the right way where things could have been found out?
GRACE: So, bottom line, Joe Scott Morgan, Certified Death Investigator, Professor of Forensics at Jacksonville State University. Joe Scott, he`s a
terrorist wannabe and now he is a terrorist.
JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR: Yeah. And hell has followed in his pathway here. It`s very, very sad that they couldn`t have
thrown the brakes on this guy sooner. I don`t know where the breakdown has come along and why he wasn`t on somebody`s radar under closer watch than he
was. This is ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You know, I`m interested in the gun, Joe Scott Morgan. Joe, look at this. Sergeant Haddon Stein, the team leader with the Somerset County SWAT
team.
Sergeant, thank you for being with us. Tell me about he weapons. And I know that you can get weapons under our constitution. I`m OK with that. But I
mean, really, who needs an assault weapon? Who needs an assault rifle that fires like a machine gun?
SERGEANT HADDON STEIN, SOMERSET COUNTY SWAT TEAM LEADER: All right. Well, technically, Nancy, assault weapons are capable of full automatic fire and
that`s a totally different weapon what the shooter was using was a semi- automatic weapon.
GRACE: Yes.
[20:40:00] STEIN: One round for each pull of the trigger. This is an M4 rifle that we use on the team. It`s somewhat modified for law enforcement
use, but otherwise it`s very similar to what the shooter was using.
And it can fire quickly, it does hold a lot of rounds. Usually the standard type of magazine is a 30-round magazine, so that`s a lot of bullets in a
short amount of time. Unfortunately ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Well, let me understand something, Sergeant Stein, with the weapon you`re holding up ...
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: Right.
GRACE: ... similar to that, the killer ...
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: Right.
GRACE: You pull the trigger and how many bullets come out per pull?
STEIN: One.
GRACE: And explain to me -- we`ve heard the sound. How could so many bullets come out so rapidly?
STEIN: You just keep pulling the trigger. I mean, the gun fires very quickly and just pull, pull, pull, pull and the gun is going to fire very
rapidly.
GRACE: I mean, hold that thing up in front of your head ...
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: Sure.
GRACE: ... hold it up higher for me. I mean, really, who goes into a gun shop and buys that?
STEIN: A lot of people. A lot of ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Why?
STEIN: A lot of honest Americans. Hunting, self-protection, protection of property.
People need to keep in mind that the gun is just a tool. If this person was so determined to kill innocent people, if he didn`t have access to a
firearm, he would have built himself a bomb or a suicide vest or come up with some other way.
You know, unfortunately, guns are used because there is access to them, but again it`s a tool. It`s also used by law enforcement to end these kind of
threats. So I think we need to keep that in mind.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You know, I want to follow up on what he`s saying to Matt Zarrell. Matt, I just -- when I see that video right there, I imagine my son or
daughter being dragged out of a public place like that.
The parents, the families, the loved ones having no idea that their children, their grown children, are now dead because of this terrorist
wannabe.
Matt, isn`t it true that he also was trying to friend -- I think it was the manager at another nightclub? I was just wondering if he was planning a
terrorist-type multiple attack.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes. So the owner of another large gay club in the area told "The New York Times" that someone resembling Mateen
requested to add him as a friend this week on Facebook.
He said, he looked at the person`s picture, noticed that a lot of his friends had Arabic writing on their pages. So he figured the request must
have been sent in error and he deleted it.
But after the attack, the owner thought and looked up the name of the man and thought it looked familiar. And when he searched for the name on
Google, he realized it was in fact the same person who had contacted him.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 2:00 a.m. that gunman burst in.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the shooting started, the Pulse tweeted out a warning to its patrons to get out of the club, to run and keep running.
MIR SEDDIQUE MATEEN, OMAR MATEEN`S FATHER: I apologize for what my son did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The worst mass shooting on U.S. soil, claiming allegiance to ISIS, and what is so ironic is that the shooter is a homegrown U.S. citizen
hailing from New York. Joining me right now, the Orlando Commissioner, Patty Sheehan, joining us there in Orlando. Thank you so much for being
with us.
PATTY SHEEHAN, ORLANDO COMMISSIONER; LGBT ACTIVIST: Nancy, thank you for, everyone, for bringing this to everyone`s attention.
GRACE: I just can`t imagine the families that get that call in the night, 3:00 a.m., they realize their son, their daughter has been in that
nightclub. Tell me Orlando`s response to this horrible thing.
SHEEHAN: Well, actually, Nancy, it took a while for us to respond to even know who was injured and things.
I mean, first of all, the gunman had gone in the club and was coming out and then he exchanged fire with police and it became a hostage situation.
So that`s why it took so long to actually get to the victims. It was a horrible, horrible situation.
And then we had a big -- huge crime scene. They were bringing people out. Actually, some of the other, you know, people in the club were bringing
people outside. Some of them died behind the buildings here. It was just a horrific scene.
But there were so many heroic young people trying to get their friends out. And law enforcement, but it actually took us until yesterday night to even
get everybody out. It was just -- it was a horrible, horrible crime scene.
GRACE: I can`t imagine the crime scene. Going in there lawmen, lawwomen breaking down in tears as they go into the scene. Innocent people just
gunned down, gunned down for no reason.
You know, to neuropsychologist Sanam Hafeez, joining us. I don`t understand. I mean, at one point this guy, the killer, is praising al-Qaeda
and Hezbollah which is totally inconsistent and not consistent with supporting the Islamic state.
I don`t understand why target the LGBT community. What part of radical Islam hates that community so badly?
DR. SANAM HAFEEZ, NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST: You know, Nancy, as tragic as this is, I feel like, you know, this terrorist, this homegrown terrorists, are just
killers who are seeking glory and a group to belong to, and this LGBT community attack is a hate crime, a horrible hate crime.
And I don`t think that Islam, like any other religion, I don`t think it hates or denounces it any more than any other religion. I mean, not that I
know of, but I feel like this is a very hateful man here ...
(CROSSTALK)
[20:50:00] GRACE: I am saying ...
(CROSSTALK)
HAFEEZ: ... with a deep-seated anger ...
GRACE: ... radicalized.
HAFEEZ: Yeah.
GRACE: Radicalized.
HAFEEZ: I feel like someone ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You know, radicalized, any religion radicalized goes sideways, as far as I can tell. I`m just a lawyer. You`re the shrink. But to target
these people, these young people with their whole life in front of them. I don`t understand the connection.
HAFEEZ: I feel like this guy had so much deep-seated anger and rage in him and I think it was going to be one group on another, and this became --
this group that he targeted -- you know, one part of him when I saw this, thought could he be a closeted gay man, you know, who had all this anger?
Because it seemed so specific and deliberate and do meaningless.
You know, and I feel like, and I`ve said this before, I do a lot of work in profiling these -- especially these new proceed of terrorists. I feel hike
there is this grandiosity, this bipolar, narcissistic side to these terrorists that we haven`t seen before. This is ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: We are going back to the scene. Standing by, Patty Sheehan, Orlando Commissioner and activist.
Patty, again, thank you for being with us. When you first heard what had happened. It was hard for me to even believe it and then to find out that
the terrorist is an American?
SHEEHAN: Yeah. Nancy, it`s just incredible. And I was -- you know, the first thing I did was try to get people. People want to do something
meaningful. They want to have a vigil and I said no, no. We need these police resources at the scene. There are still victims. We`re getting
people out of the building. We needed to cheer this crime scene. There is a huge police presence still on the street. Orange Avenue is actually the
main drag in our city. It is one of the main streets in our city, it has been closed off for two full days and we need to keep these police
resources here.
But people who wanted to do something meaningful, people had been wanting to help. You know, there has been $1.3 million raised from the gay
community center. There`s been a tremendous amount of support. The blood bank, there were 1,500 people in line to help at the blood bank.
I mean, there`s just -- we have reacted to this hatred with love. My community is a community that loves. I`ve been an activist for 30 years. We
have fought the HIV and AIDS crisis. We`ve lost so many people in our community and now we lost these promising young people. And I have to tell
you, this is not going to conquer my community. It will not.
GRACE: Joining me is special guest Patty Sheehan. I want you to hear the shooter`s father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATEEN: I condemn what he did. I wish I did know what he was doing. If I did catch him, I would have arrested him myself. The only thing I say that
those people, they love their loved one, they are my family, and I apologize for what my son did. And I am as sad and as mad as you guys are.
You are my family. Those people, they are all injured. I hope from that that they have a speedy recovery. And I apologize what my son did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEEHAN: This is heartbreaking that the largest mass shooting in America happened in a gay club.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw somebody got shot and his blood all over.
REA CAREY, NATIONAL LGBTQ TASK FORCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Our resolve to live openly, proudly and genuinely remains completely undiminished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The deadliest shooting on U.S. soil. To Matt Zarrell, on the story. Matt, who is the shooter? How did an American decide to side with evil ISIS
and gun down 100 people plus?
ZARRELL: Well, authorities believe that he did, as we mentioned, become radicalized, possibly over the internet.
They are also looking into the FBI who said that he had contacts with a number of people that they were looking into as part of their
investigations in 2013, 2014, including a suicide bomber who went to Syria.
They attended the same mosque. But the FBI concluded that there was no connection and closed the investigation.
GRACE: Tonight we are stopping and remembering, praying for and honoring the victims who lost their lives in this horrible and senseless tragedy.
Please join us in our prayers for them and their families. Good night, friend.
END
