They were calling dispatch, and they were relaying that to us,” he said. “People inside were calling, texting their friends. Police face questions about delayed response to Orlando shooting » They couldn’t hear the gunman or those trapped inside, Canty said, but dispatchers could. Some of the 44 SWAT team members replaced patrol officers stationed around the club in case the shooter emerged. “None of my officers are trained to deal with those type of explosives,” he said.īut he said they didn’t sit around waiting. “We had been discussing the breach from shortly after I got there just because we realized it was going to be difficult to get to the hostages from the interior,” he said.Īn Orange County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office bomb squad was on the way, and Canty asked the commander to prepare an explosive to break through the club’s walls. They considered smashing through a wall to reach the hostages. Mark Canty, SWAT commander for the Orlando Police DepartmentĪfter the gunman retreated to the rear bathrooms, where more than 20 patrons had crammed themselves into the stalls, Canty and other police began to position themselves outside the darkened building. We were actually trying to rescue people. I know people thought during that three-hour period we were just waiting. The officer wanted to stay on the scene, but fellow members of law enforcement forced him to get medical attention, Canty said. One officer was grazed by a bullet that struck his Kevlar helmet, and a photograph of the green helmet - with its scuffed surface and bullet hole - soon became a familiar image from the attack. “That’s kind of what drove him into the bathrooms, and that allowed the officers to come in and remove some people who were inside from the main part of the club,” he said. Some patrol officers responded to the call and traded gunfire with the shooter at the front of the club, Canty said. Mateen had a handgun and a Sig Sauer MCX assault-style rifle.
The guy is obviously armed with more advanced weaponry,” Canty said. “That officer is by himself and doesn’t know how many people are involved. It’s not clear why the off-duty officer didn’t pursue the gunman into the club, Canty said, but it’s not surprising. We were doing what we needed to do to save lives.”Īn off-duty police officer working as a security guard had traded gunfire with the shooter at the entrance to the club and called for backup. My guys were doing things from the beginning. “There was never a time we were sitting there twiddling our thumbs. “Officers were running inside and grabbing people and throwing them in pickup trucks” to be taken to hospitals, said Capt.
In an interview, the commander of the Orlando Police Department SWAT team described the challenges they faced and how they made key decisions that morning. Sunday, yet the ordeal didn’t end until three hours later.īut police insist that during those three hours, they were rescuing clubgoers and employees and trying to assess whether the gunman’s boasts - he claimed to have an explosive vest - were real. Omar Mateen launched his attack on the gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., around 2 a.m.
The question has been asked by many in the days following the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. The 52-year-old would later recall thinking, “What’s taking them so long?”
As the hours ground on and the death toll mounted, Orlando Torres wondered when the police would come to rescue him and others trapped by the gunman who had stormed the Pulse nightclub.