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                       What We Know: The Orlando Shooting

   by VOA News

   - A man identified by police as 29-year-old Omar Mateen killed 50
   people early Sunday at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.  Another 53
   people were hospitalized, many of them in critical condition.

   - More than 300 people were at the club, called Pulse, celebrating
   Latin Night.  Minutes after the shooting began around 2 a.m., a post on
   the club's Facebook page said, "Everyone get out of Pulse and keep
   running."

   - Authorities say Mateen used a handgun and an AR-15 rifle during the
   attack that lasted about three hours.  He held 30 hostages who were
   rescued by police.  Mateen died around 5 a.m. in a shootout with SWAT
   officers.

   - Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer called Sunday "probably the most difficult
   day" in the city's history.

   - Mateen called the 911 emergency number and claimed allegiance with
   the Islamic State group.  Islamic State later said through its media
   arm that the attack was carried out by one of its fighters.  The exact
   level of their coordination, if any, is not yet clear.

   - The FBI questioned Mateen in 2013 and 2014, but investigators did not
   find evidence of illegal activity.  FBI agent Ronald Hopper said there
   were suggestions Mateen had leanings toward radical Islamic terrorism.

   - Orlando police have released the names of about half of the victims,
   only those whose families have been notified so far.  The dead range in
   age from 20 to 50 years old.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/what-we-know-the-orlando-shooting/3373454.html