ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Sunday that the FBI will release a partial transcript of the conversations between the gunman within the Pulse gay nightclub and Orlando police negotiators.
Meanwhile, Orlando residents paused throughout the day — at a bar in the morning hours, at church services and at a candlelight vigil in the heart of downtown — to remember the victims of the worse mass shooting in modern U.S. history, exactly a week later.
“We are hurting. We are exhausted, confused, and there is so much grief,” said Larry Watchorn, a ministerial intern, during a sermon at Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando, whose congregants are predominantly gay. “We come to have our tears wiped away and our strength renewed.”
Lynch said in interviews Sunday on several news shows that the FBI would release a partial, printed transcript of the conversations between gunman Omar Mateen from within the Pulse nightclub and Orlando police negotiators. Armed with a semi-automatic weapon, Mateen went on a bloody rampage at the club June 12 that left 49 people dead and 53 others seriously hurt. Mateen died in a after police stormed the venue.
Lynch told ABC’s “This Week” that the top goal while intensifying pressure on ISIL — the extremist group thought to have inspired Mateen — is to build a complete profile of him to help prevent another massacre like Orlando.
“As you can see from this investigation, we are going back and learning everything we can about this killer, about his contacts, people who may have known him or seen him. And we’re trying to build that profile so that we can move forward,” Lynch said.
Lynch will travel to Orlando on Tuesday to meet with investigators.
Investigators are still interviewing witnesses, and looking to learn more about Mateen and others who knew him well, including members of his mosque.
A lawyer for the Council of American-Islamic Relations said that the FBI interviewed a man who worshipped at the same mosque as Mateen. Omar Saleh said he sat in on the Friday interview at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, the same mosque that Mateen attended near his home.
Speaking to CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Lynch said that a key goal of the investigation was to determine why Mateen targeted the gay community. The victims were predominantly gay and Hispanic since it was “Latin night” at Pulse.
At the Parliament House, a gay club and resort near downtown Orlando, the music stopped as patrons paused for a moment of silence at 2 a.m., the time Mateen started shooting at Pulse just a few miles away.
