Cop: first responders surrounded bathroom where Mateen holed up, but told to wait

C op says first responders surrounded bathroom where Mateen was holed up, but told to wait

Belle Isle, Fla. Police Officer Brandon Cornwell, 25, told The Washington Post that he and the officers entered Pulse Orlando as bullets flew and clubgoers screamed. He said his group aimed their rifles and waited about “15 or 20 minutes” because they were told not to engage the bathroom area. Cornwell said he never even saw Mateen.

Federal authorities said Monday that police “engaged the shooter” inside the club at about 2:08 a.m. Cornwall’s account to The Post offers a first glimpse into the efforts to take down Mateen, who murdered 49 people before being killed by officers in a hail of gunfire.

Apparently they were told to wait for SWAT, and were then ordered out of the club when SWAT arrived.

However, the officer’s account raises questions as to why the first officers who engaged Mateen weren’t told to pursue Mateen in the bathroom or whether SWAT team members or other officers entered the club once the first group retreated.

Ya think???

The FBI has said that the SWAT team didn’t go into the building until 5 a.m., three hours after the attack started.

Cornwall didn’t further discuss what happened inside the club, citing the ongoing investigation, but he explained that he didn’t second-guess the decision to hold position outside the bathroom.

Details are still sadly lacking, and it raises more questions than answers. Perhaps they did not pursue because of ongoing hostage negotiations. I don't know. But I can't help but think about the many people suffering and even dying... wondering how many additional people were shot in that time... and generally find this delay very disturbing.
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2:02am - Sunday, June 12 - Suspect Omar Mateen tries to enter Pulse nightclub armed with assault rifle and and handgun and is spotted by a security guard. The two exchange fire outside the club - but Mateen manages to enter the nightclub, holding 320 people, while still firing. First 911 call received by Orlando Police Department.
2:04am - First police officers, including Brandon Cornwell, arrive at the scene.
2:08am - FBI says officers entered the club and 'engaged' the shooter.
2:09am - Pulse nightclub posts a message to their Facebook desperately telling those inside 'Everyone get out of pulse and keep running'.
2:35am - Mateen calls 911 and pledges allegiance to ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
4:21am - Police rip out an air conditioning unit, creating a hole through which some people escape.
4:29am - Rescued victims tell police the shooter said he was going to put four vests with bombs on hostages within 15 minutes.
5.02am - Three hours after the first shooting began, a SWAT team use armored vehicle and explosives to breach the bathroom wall. SWAT officers manage to free 30 hostages who dashed to safety.
5:15am - The shooter is shot at and is confirmed as being 'down'.

Source: Cops were ordered NOT to pursue Orlando gunman during massacre: Officer says he was told to wait while victims lay dead and dying and Mateen fled to club bathroom

More: ‘I grabbed my assault rifle and ran’: An officer’s account of the critical early minutes in Orlando

Bunch of boys taking orders from higher up pansies if you ask me. You do not play the hostage game with an active shooter. Just go in and take the damn guy out. Im sorry but it would be much better if this read 20 civillians and 1 cop killed because of a heroic action. Instead it seems he was allowed to shoot fish in a barrel because officer safety.

What are they serving for? And what swat team takes 3 hours to assemble?

Yet they will barge into a trap house full of many criminals and guns all willy nilly no Fs given.

We have total morons as leaders in every facet of government in this country.

Total morons who went to the right colleges or got into the right social networks but do not have the right skills to perform their duties.

It has to end.

I am getting the feeling that the status of the victims too injured to move on their own is off little import to the police in these situations.

Had to give it time to let the body count rack up, there's an agenda to persue ya know!

a reply to: caterpillage

Total incompetency.

We have educated morons running everything.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: caterpillage

Total incompetency.

We have educated morons running everything.

Yes, at the least. Pure evil at the possible worst.

a reply to: lightedhype

How you get three hours to assemble SWAT from "15-20 minutes SWAT arrived and took our places" is some incredible math skills.

Conspiracy, I tell you!

originally posted by: lightedhype
You do not play the hostage game with an active shooter. Just go in and take the damn guy out. Im sorry but it would be much better if this read 20 civillians and 1 cop killed because of a heroic action. Instead it seems he was allowed to shoot fish in a barrel because officer safety.

What are they serving for? And what swat team takes 3 hours to assemble?

Right??? This is why they have a job -- and a paycheck.

Yet they will barge into a trap house full of many criminals and guns all willy nilly no Fs given.

Exactly. It's damned impossible to reconcile why cops can throw a flash grenade in a baby's crib in a no knock warrant but can't take down an active shooter trapped in a bathroom -- even with all the best tactical gear the taxpayer can provide.

But I give those street cops much credit for being ready, willing and able to do exactly that IF they had been allowed. I don't know what to say about SWAT...

originally posted by: onequestion
We have total morons as leaders in every facet of government in this country.

Total morons who went to the right colleges or got into the right social networks but do not have the right skills to perform their duties.

Nor the will and (dare I say it?) the testicular fortitude.

It has to end.

Yes. This isn't working and the people deserve a helluvalot better.

originally posted by: starviego
I am getting the feeling that the status of the victims too injured to move on their own is off little import to the police in these situations.

Me too. And it's leaving me with a very queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The first and primary purpose of any/all laws is for the protection of the people... therefore the first and primary objective of any/all LEOs is the protection of the people.

At least that's how it's supposed to work. And the problem is that it too often doesn't.

a reply to: Shamrock6

What do you think was the reason for the delay? And was it reasonable? I'd really like to hear your thoughts...

My only thought is that they held back because of ongoing hostage negotiations, but that's just a guess. I haven't seen anything specific about those negotiations.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: lightedhype

How you get three hours to assemble SWAT from "15-20 minutes SWAT arrived and took our places" is some incredible math skills.

Conspiracy, I tell you!

I dunno, but from the timing shown higher up on the thread shooting started and 911 call at 2:02, SWAT blew the wall at 5:02, so looks like 3 hours to get their collective sh#t together.

Cheers - Dave

Reminds me of 9/11 when Norad was told to stand down, as to allow the events to unfold unscathed.


iTruthSeeker

originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
SWAT .... 3 hours to get their collective sh#t together.

SWAT: "Sit, Wait, And Think"

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The tactical response is eerily similar to that of the infamous Columbine High School Massacre of 1999. In that too the cops engaged the shooters very quickly, they followed them into the school, and then they were ordered out, for still unexplained reasons, and told to wait for SWAT.

But they promised that from then all police would be trained to engage an active shooter immediately. So I guess those lessons were lost down in Orlando.

a reply to: starviego

The tactical response is eerily similar to that of the infamous Columbine High School Massacre of 1999. In that too the cops engaged the shooters very quickly, they followed them into the school, and then they were ordered out, for still unexplained reasons, and told to wait for SWAT.

But they promised that from then all police would be trained to engage an active shooter immediately. So I guess those lessons were lost down in Orlando.

I thought I remembered it that way too... but that sure hasn't been happening, so I thought I had misremembered.

What happened???

a reply to: Boadicea

So "within minutes" they had they guy cornered, were told to stand down, then after waiting for "15 to 20 minutes" were told to leave...

What in the actual...

OP, may want to cut and paste the articles into the thread or take screen shots before the information is "updated" due to "corrections".

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: caterpillage

Total incompetency.

We have educated morons running everything.

While I generally have pretty high standards, where is your law enforcement training and experience that lets you make an informed judgment on if the cops acted appropriately here? Idiots running the world are one thing, but when people with an average understanding of things, start making demands on those running things, then you get the blind leading the blind.

Witnesses have said that there was a gun battle between police and Mateen at the south side of the building. But Cornwell said he couldn’t even see Mateen in the dimly lit club.

Here we go again.
One of the oddest thing about this whole story: so far we have not a single eye-witness who saw and identified the shooter.

I am thinking about starting to collect every single thing people discovered in that Orlando case, and wright it up.
Because now there is more unbelievable stuff that makes people become "tinfoil hat", than one brain could save.

I really want to do that, in german, because the news we get here about that case is laughable. Just last night i saw a discussion on tax financed propaganda TV channel ARD or ZDF. There a woman said that she was shocked because people got killed just because of their sexuality(seems they forgot that it was "clearly", without any doubt, the "IS" and it´s terrorism, and not an anti-gay attack, for the first days...), and all the others looked down and said yes, that´s soooo sad.

Not a single word that Matten obvisiously was gay by himself, no one is raising any questions. Here it was: Another US mass shooting... sure "IS" terrorism(what else could it be...?)...guns need to be banned in the USA...story finished!