It’s been over three months since Omar Mateen entered Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida and opened fire, killing 49.
Before and during the shooting Mateen made several calls to 911, sharing his motive and asking whether or not his massacre was on the news. Recently, the transcripts from those calls have been released to the public, giving us a closer look at Mateen’s motivation for this horrendous attack.
In the transcripts, Mateen said that this attack was “his turn,” citing Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Bombers as his “homeboy.”
“My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon,” Mateen said. “My homeboy (unidentified name) did his thing, OK, so now it’s my turn, OK?”
Mateen repeatedly made references to U.S. military activity, telling the negotiator who later spoke with Mateen that he wanted the U.S. to stop bombing Syria.
“You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people.”
“You need to stop the U.S. airstrikes. They need to stop the U.S. airstrikes, OK?”
Mateen explains that his actions were triggered by the U.S. killing of an Islamic state leader, Abu Waheeb.
“They should have not bombed and killed Abu (Waheeb).”
“Just let it be known it’s going to be done in the name of the Islamic State, even though it’s not (expletive) airstrikes, it’s (expletive) strikes here, OK?”
“You see, now you feel, now you feel how it is, now you feel how it is.”
Though there are still many questions we wish we could ask Mateen about his actions, these transcripts make it clear his motivations and his connections with the Islamic state.
You can read more about the release of this important information at Raw Story.
