Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June, repeatedly told a police hostage negotiator that he was a soldier of ISIS and that the United States had to stop its bombing in Syria and Iraq, according to a police transcript released Friday.
The FBI previously released a transcript of Mateen’s 911 call which deleted any reference to ISIS because the agency said it did not want to give a platform to terror group.
Police released the more comprehensive transcript of the conversation between Mateen and the negotiator. It begins with Mateen telling the negotiator he was “speaking to the person who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.”
Here are some of the telling points of the conversation, as written in the police transcript:
Mateen repeatedly highlighted US actions in Syria and Iraq as motivating his attack.
“You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people. What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I’m saying?”
Mateen called himself an “Islamic soldier” and referenced one of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings as part of his inspiration.
Mateen: My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon … so now it’s my turn, okay?
The negotiator asks Mateen for his name.
Mateen: My name is Islamic soldier, okay?
Negotiator: Okay. What can I call you?
Mateen: Call me Mujahideen, call me the Soldier of the God.
Mateen said the mass killing at Pulse was triggered by an airstrike a few weeks earlier that killed Abu Wahib, a key ISIS figure known as the “military emir of Anbar.” The Pentagon announced May 9 that a coalition airstrike had killed Abu Wahib in Iraq.
Mateen: They should have not bombed and killed Abu (Wahib).
Negotiator: I understand.
Mateen: Do your f***ing homework and figure out who Abu (Wahib) is, okay?
Mateen repeatedly tried to brush off the negotiator, who kept calling him to maintain communication in an attempt to end the standoff.
Mateen: You’re annoying me with these phone calls and I don’t really appreciate it.
Negotiator: Well, I understand that, but the fact that you appreciate it or not doesn’t matter at this point. We need to talk and we need to stay… in constant contact.
Mateen: No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
Negotiator: Tell me what is going on now, Omar?
Mateen: What is going on is that the air strikes need to stop.
Negotiator: Yes.
Mateen: They need to stop.
Negotiator: The air strikes need to stop.
Mateen: They need to stop killing people.
Negotiator: I’ve heard that and I want you to come outside and tell us that yourself so the message rings true from you without me passing along your message. I’m doing that, but I need you to come outside with no weapons. Omar?
The transcript notes that Omar then hung up at 3:25 a.m. The last sound noted on the transcript was the ringing of the telephone.
At approximately 5 a.m. the SWAT team breached the nightclub wall, and about 15 minutes later breached the wall to the bathroom where Mateen was barricaded.
Mateen emerged shooting and the team killed him, police said.
