Orlando shooting victims: student, theme park employee, and pharmacy technician among those murdered by 'Isis' gunman

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Hatty Collier13 June 2016

These are the first pictures of the victims murdered at a gay nightclub in Orlando in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

Many of the 50 victims killed by security guard Omar Mateen, 29, have been named as doctors fear the death toll of massacred revellers will rise.

Security guard and body builder Mateen telephoned police and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before he opened fire on the crowds with an assault rifle and handgun, according to reports.

The caliphate has since claimed responsibility for the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Florida described by President Barack Obama as an "act of hate".

Victim: Edward Sotomayor Jr
Facebook

Meanwhile it emerged that the New York-born killer, who worked for security giant G4S, had come under the gaze of counter-terror investigators several times in recent years.

The victims

Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34, travel agency brand manager

Stanley Almodovar III, 23, pharmarcy technician

Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20, Starbucks barista

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old, telemarketer

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36, merchandising manager

Kimberly Morris, 37, Pulse bouncer

Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22

Luis S. Vielma, 22, theme park worker at Universal Studios

Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30, accountant

Darryl Roman Burt II, 29

Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32

Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21

Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25

Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35

Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50

Amanda Alvear, 25

Martin Benitez Torres, 33 

Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 

Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 

Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 

Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 

Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 

Oscar Aracena-Montero, 26 

Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 

Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 

Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 

Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 

Cory James Connell, 21 

Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 

Luis Daniel Conde, 39 

Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 

Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 

Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 

Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 

Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25

The identities of the 50 people who were gunned down in the attack have begun to emerge, including at least one gay employee at the nightclub.

More than 300 people were inside at the time of the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning, which ended when Swat officers shot Mateen dead in a gun-fight after a three-hour stand-off.

Victim: Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20

Officials said 39 people died in the venue and 11 at hospitals in the city where 53 people remain, most in a critical condition.

Orlando Mayor, Buddy Dyer, described the scene saying there was "blood everywhere".

Victim: Luis Vielma
Facebook

The majority of the patients were taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Centre. Trauma surgeon Dr Mike Cheatham warned: "I think we will see the death toll rise."

Edward Sotomayor Jr, 34, Stanley Almodovar III, 23, Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20, and Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, were among the first victims to be named.

Peter O Gonzalez-Cruz, 22, and Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera 36, and Luis S Vielma, 22, were later added to the grim list along with Kimberly Morris, a 37-year-old who reportedly worked as a bouncer at the club.

Victim: Juan Ramon Guerrero

Friend Lo Anthony wrote on Facebook that she "always had a smile on her face" and was "loved and adored by all".

Mr Obama earlier called the killings at the LGBT club as an "act of terror" and an "act of hate", describing Mateen as being "filled with hatred".

Peter O Gonzalez-Cruz, 22
Facebook

The massacre has raised the debate about how easy it is for someone to access guns to shoot others with as it emerged that Mateen had legally purchased two firearms within the last week.

"We have to decide if that is the type of country we want to be. To actively to do nothing is a decision as well," the president said.

Mateen was known to the FBI after making inflammatory comments to co-workers about extremism in 2013. He was questioned twice and investigated again in 2014 over potential links to an American suicide bomber, but the probe was dropped after he was deemed to be low-risk and he was not under surveillance.

The 911 calls involving the shooter from Port St Lucie, Florida that featured conversations about the Islamic State before the massacre have been handed to investigators.

Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera
Facebook/Reuters

Mateen is believed to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during the call.

The Islamic State's Amaq news agency is understood to have issued a statement saying the massacre was "carried out by an IS fighter".

However US officials said it was possible that he was self-radicalised but not "under the command and control of ISIS."

An ex-wife described Mateen, reportedly a regular at an Islamic centre in the city, as a violent body builder who had a history of abusing steroids.

Meanwhile his father, Seddique Mir Mateen, told NBC news that his son had recently been angered after seeing two men kissing while out with his young son and denied the killings had a religious motive.

Pulse nightclub shooting

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On Sunday evening vigils were held in Orlando and a group of around 100 people gathered in Paris in a show of solidarity.

David Cameron earlier said he was "horrified" by the shooting, while Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani said "targeting civilians is not justifiable under any circumstances whatsoever".

French president Francois Hollande said he "expresses the full support of France and the French with America's authorities and its people in this difficult time".

And Buckingham Palace said a personal message had been sent to President Obama, saying the Queen and Prince Philip were "shocked by the events in Orlando”.

Mr Obama ordered flags at the White House and federal buildings to be flown at half-mast as a mark of respect for the victims. The Empire State Building in New York was left in darkness as a mark of sympathy on Sunday evening.

In the wake of the slaughter, a heavily-armed Indiana man was arrested on his way to a southern California gay pride parade.

Police stopped James Wesley Howell, 20, and discovered an arsenal of weapons in his vehicle including three assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and ammunition, and a five-gallon bucket with chemicals that could be used to make an explosive device.

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