United States of America: ISIS claims responsibility for Orlando nightclub attack that left 50 dead
A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded Florida gay nightclub early Sunday before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. The attack left at least 50 people dead, making it the worst mass shooting in American history.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for the shooting, CBS News reports. The terror group’s news organization, Aamaq Agency, said the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter.”
CBS2’s Lou Young was in Orlando Sunday night. He said the area where the shooting happened — just southwest of downtown Orlando — was a wide avenue lined with strip malls, restaurants and stores. It would be a familiar scene to anybody who lives on Long Island or in New Jersey as part of our American topography.
But now, it is the scene of a new American tragedy.
The patrons of the Pulse nightclub first thought the gunshot sounds were part of a show. Then they saw people fall as the sounds kept coming, and blood was everywhere.