good evening from orlando, florida, where this community is still reeling from the worst mass shooting in u.s. history. a devastating attack on a gay nightclub right behind me here that left 53 people wounded and 50 dead, including the gunman. tonight i have exclusive new reporting to bring you on that gunman s past which raised new questions about his motivations. two of the guys got information. now there s new reporting tonight from the palm beach post that a former police academy classmate says he believes at the time that mateen was gay. joining me now on the phone, palm beach post staff writer lawrence mower, what did you learn in your reporting? well, i contacted this former classmate to discuss basically their time at the police acad y academy. during the course of my interview with him, he said that he and other classmates would kind of hang out after class and, including omar mateen. and he said that, you know, this group of friends, including the teen, would
show but first an exclusive new reporting to bring you on the attacker and his past which raises new questions about his motivations. earlier today the orlando sentinel reported the customers of pulse night club said they d seen the gunman omar mateen at the club a dozen times before the shooting. mateen s ex wife was asked about that report in an interview this evening. when we had gotten married he confesed to me about his past that was recent at that time and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the night life and there was a lot of pictures of him so, you know, i feel like it s a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn t want everybody to know about. do you think he was gay? i don t know. he never personally or, you know, phsyically made any indication while we were together of that. but he did feel very strongly about homosexuality. performer lisa lane, a regular at the pulse s latin night told the advocate that she recognized matin f
[ gunfire ] sadly, amanda alvear did not survive. she was one of the 49 people shot and killed by the terrorist gunman omar mateen. this is the scene outside the club today. the orlando police chief says authorities, they tried to negotiate with the gunman after he barricaded himself in a bathroom along with hostages. when negotiations didn t work, the chief made the decision to go in. we used our armored vehicle, the bearcat armored vehicle, to punch a hole in that wall. and we were able to rescue dozens and dozens of people that came out of that hole. the suspect came out of that hole himself, armed with a handgun and a long gun, engaged in a gun battle with officers where he was ultimately killed. weeks before the massacre, the shooter tried to buy military grade body armor from a local store but the store didn t sell it. that s according to a u.s. official briefed on the investigation. also, the fbi says the gunman made three phone calls during the massacre. inside
history, and the fbi is looking for ties to the islamic state. governor rick scott of florida is very clear on what kind of act he thinks it is. this is clearly an act of terrorism. it s sickening. it should make every american angry. peter ducey is live at the scene in orlando with the latest. peter? reporter: and the latest just in the last two minutes. i spoke to a state representative who has been in touch with some of the officials who have been inside pulse nightclub today, and this is hard to hear. but as all of these as many of the 50 dead clubgoers still lay there and notification of next of kin is in process, their cell phones are still ringing at this hour. so the shooting happened 12 hours ago. the investigation has begun, but as they take these bodies out of the nightclub, their cell phones are still ringing, and it s a lot of parents and brothers and sisters and friends trying and calling to get in touch with their loved ones. but obviously trying in vei