Fifty people are dead and dozens more are injured after a gunman shot up a gay club in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning. The casualty count makes the shooting the deadliest gun massacre by a single gunman in U.S. history, surpassing the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007 that killed 32 people.
In what FBI investigators are calling an act of terrorism, a gunman took people hostage inside the nightclub Pulse around 2 a.m. after getting into a shootout with police.
Video of shots being fired outside of Pulse night club in #Orlando pic.twitter.com/tyWXneIR5i
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) June 12, 2016
“I heard 20, 40, 50 shots,” one clubgoer told the Washington Post. “The music stopped.”
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said more officers rushed the club around 5 a.m. and killed the gunman, who police said had at least one assault rifle and a handgun on him, as well as a possible explosive device. Witnesses say clubgoers started fleeing and carrying injured people out of the building.
Besides those who were killed, fifty-three people were injured.
PHOTOS: This is the scene at the #Pulse nightclub mass shooting. You can see nightclub behind the dozens of vehicles pic.twitter.com/PccAwwjlCE
— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) June 12, 2016
A nearby shooting Friday night killed 22-year-old singer Christina Grimmie at The Plaza Live in Orlando. Police say the two shootings were not related.
This is a breaking news post that will be updated with more information.