<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of NBC News at:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/orlando-nightclub-shooting-emergency-services-respond-reports-gunman-n590446">http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/orlando-nightclub-shooting-emergency-services-respond-reports-gunman-n590446</a></div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div class="el__leafmedia el__leafmedia--sourced-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.1154798054em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; font-family: ProximaNovaBold, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; font-size: 3.2473210255em; line-height: 1.0393182483; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Orlando Nightclub Shooting: Mass Casualties After Gunman Opens Fire in Gay Club</h1><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Approximately 20 people are dead and scores wounded after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, police said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Officials said a hostage situation developed after the gunman stormed the Pulse Nightclub about 2 a.m Sunday. The assailant was shot dead about three hours later when a SWAT team entered the club, police said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We are looking at probably in the range of 20 [dead], but we don't want to give you an exact figure," Orlando Police Chief John Mina said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Police said a uniformed officer working extra duty engaged in a gun fight with the shooter after he opened fire at the entrance to the club. Mina said the incident then developed into a hostage situation. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"A little after 5 a.m. this morning we made the decision to go in on a rescue," Mina said, adding that an officer was injured after being shot in the head. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It appears his helmet saved his life," he said. "So he has an injury to his eye, but it looks like the bullet did hit his helmet." </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said the incident "could definitely be classified as domestic terrorism." </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Revelers described scenes of horror inside the club. One witness told MSNBC that they had to crawl over bodies to escape. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A post to the club's Facebook page at around 2 a.m. warned "everyone get out of Pulse and keep running." Witness video from outside showed dozens of first responders at the scene, and several victims on the ground. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It was tragic," club-goer Christopher Hansen told MSNBC. "I wasn't sure if it was the music, because ... it went with the beat almost until you heard just too many shots. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It was just like — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang bang — and that's when you just know chaos is just, it was in turmoil," he added.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mina Justice was outside the club trying to contact her 30-year-old son Eddie, who texted her when the shooting happened and asked her to call police. He told her he ran into a bathroom with other club patrons to hide. He then texted her: "He's coming." </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The next text said: 'He has us, and he's in here with us,'" she told the Associated Press. "That was the last conversation." </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Witness Anthony Torres posted to Facebook that he and his friends made it out of the club "just barely as we started to hear fire being shot." </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They are just pulling people out in stretchers loading them up," he said, referring to first responders. "Omg please god let everyone make it. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"People are screaming that people are dead," Torres wrote in another post. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The shooting at the nightclub comes during a series of national celebrations that mark LGBT pride month. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"As soon as we have any information we will update everyone," the club later posted to Facebook. "Please keep everyone in your prayers as we work through this tragic event. Thank you for your thoughts and love."</span></p></div></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" </span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>