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Within hours of the shooting, the racist right responded with attacks on the LGBT community and immigrants.
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It was a place of solidarity and empowerment, where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights." The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub. "The shooter targeted a night club where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. "This was an act of terror and an act of hate," President Obama said in remarks delivered on Sunday. The shooting turned quickly into a hostage situation until police, using an armed vehicle, assaulted the club and killed Mateen.
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Police say Mateen entered Pulse nightclub around 2 a.m., exchanged fire with an off-duty police officer working security at the club, then began shooting wildly into the crowd. law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen who worked as a security guard and had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before the attack. More information will be included as it becomes available.Ī gunman carrying an assault rifle and a handgun stormed an Orlando, Fla., crowded bar early on Sunday and killed at least 50 people in what has become the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. Editors' Note: This post has been updated.