Shifting portraits emerge of Orlando shooter as authorities dig into possible terror ties

ORLANDO – The last bodies were removed Monday from a blood-splattered Orlando nightclub as investigators from Florida to Kabul expanded the hunt for clues into the lone gunman who professed allegiance to the Islamic State while he waged the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

What is already known has left a host of questions, including the scope of FBI probes during at least two past investigations into the shooter, 29-year-old security guard Omar Mateen, for alleged terrorist sympathies.

And the level of possible ties between Mateen and the Islamic State remains unclear.

The militant group's al-Bayan Radio described him Monday as "one of the soldiers" of its self-described caliphate, but offered no further details on possible contacts before the attack, said the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by extremist factions.

Officials in Afghanistan – the homeland of Mateen's parents – also opened probes into any possible connections between Mateen and militant groups.

Yet Mateen's father insisted his son had no Islamist terror ties and showed no warning signs the day before the shootings that claimed at least 49 lives.

A. Lee Bentley III, the U.S. attorney whose district covers Orlando, described the investigation as "still in the early stages," and said other people were being investigated but it was unclear whether others could be charged.

[Photos: More than 100 killed or wounded in Orlando nightclub shooting]

"We've been collecting a great amount of electronic and physical evidence," Bentley told reported in Orlando early Monday. Another federal investigator said a third weapon was found in a vehicle.

The slaughter, however, resonates far beyond the FBI files and the police tape encircling the Pulse nightclub, a popular gay gathering spot where at least 49 people were dead and 53 injured after three horrific hours early Sunday – ending only when SWAT teams shot and killed Mateen.

Earlier reports had placed the death toll at 50, but authorities clarified Monday that the tally included Mateen.

Orlando now joins the mournful list of terror-link bloodshed – Brussels in March, Paris last year, the Boston Marathon in 2013, London in 2005, and other sites – and is certain to strike deep into the American debates over gun rights, and how far authorities can go to track potential terror threats.

It also again sharpens focus on the possible role of Islamist recruitment and influence on social media, and the huge challenges for security forces anywhere to confront lone attackers or tightly organized cells.

In an instant, meanwhile, the U.S. presidential race was transformed.

The presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump, planned Monday to address the shooting at a speech in New Hampshire. Trump has already proposed harsh measures to confront terror fears, such as barring foreign Muslims from entering the country. The Orlando shooter was born in New York to parents from Afghanistan.

His expected Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, urged for greater gun control in a Twitter message Sunday and reached out to gays and lesbians, a possibly important bloc in the election.

"To the LGBT community: please know that you have millions of allies across our country. I am one of them," she said.

As details emerged about the victims – a pharmacy worker, a brand manager for a gay-oriented travel agency – so did more chilling accounts of the scene inside the club: pulsing music, gunfire, people falling lifeless to the dance floor or bleeding from gaping wounds from Mateen's AR-15-tyle assault rifle, a variant of the U.S. military's M16.

Mateen had legally purchased the two guns – which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said was a AR-15-type and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol – within "the last few days," according to Trevor Velinor of the ATF.

Chris Hansen, who had just moved to Florida a couple of months earlier, thought the popping sound was part of the music. "It went with the beat almost," he said.

"I turned the music off and basically everyone was just running out," the club's DJ, Ray Rivera, told the Orlando Sentinel. "It was just complete chaos."

From a bathroom, Eddie Justine sent his mother a series of text messages beginning at 2:06 a.m. Three minutes later, he typed: "He's coming." And then: I'm gonna die." Justine was confirmed as a victim of the attack by Orlando authorities early Monday.

"We're dealing with something we never imagined and is unimaginable," said Orlando Democratic Mayor Buddy Dyer, who declared a state of emergency in the city.

After his initial assault on the dance club, Mateen called 911 and pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, according to federal law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the FBI investigation is unfolding. During the call, Mateen made reference to the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, officials said.

"As Americans, we are united in grief, in outrage, and in resolve to defend our people," President Barack Obama said during a brief speech at the White House, where he said the FBI is investigating the Orlando massacre as an act of terrorism. Until Sunday, the 2007 rampage at Virginia Tech – in which 32 people died – was the country's worst mass shooting.

From around the world, condolences and pledges of support poured in. Vigils and memorials were held from New Zealand to Europe. The Eiffel Tower will be lit in rainbow colors Monday evening.

"Paris stands with Orlando," wrote Mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose city has been hit twice by waves of Islamist terror attacks in the past 18 months. In November – in a scene not unlike the Orlando rampage – suspected Islamic State-linked gunmen opened fired during a packed concert.

In Afghanistan, the country's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said the Orlando attack "tells us that terrorism knows no religion, boundary and geography. Terrorism must be eliminated."

The Islamic State has repeatedly executed gay people and released videos showing their gruesome executions. FBI Special Agent Ron Hopper said the bureau was still working to determine whether sexual orientation was a motive in the Orlando attack. He said investigators had found no indication that Mateen had outside help in planning the attack, nor any sign of other suspects or further threats to the public.

Much was also still to be learned about Mateen's background, although details about his previous contacts with law enforcement officials began to emerge. Much like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing, Mateen had been on the FBI's radar.

Hopper, who runs the FBI's Orlando office, told reporters that Mateen had twice been investigated by the bureau and was cleared both times.

In 2013, Hopper said agents twice interviewed Mateen after he made "inflammatory comments to co-workers alleging possible ties to terrorists." The FBI closed the investigation after it was unable to verify the details of his comments, Hopper said.

The following year, FBI agents examined possible ties connecting Mateen to Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. Like Mateen, Abusalha lived in Fort Pierce, Fla.

"We determined that contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time," Hopper said.

Meanwhile, Sitora Yusifiy, Mateen's ex-wife, said in an interview Sunday that he beat her repeatedly during their brief marriage and that Mateen, who was a Muslim, was not very religious and gave no indication that he was devoted to radical Islam.

"He was not a stable person," she said. "He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished or something like that."

Mateen's father, however, called his son "very dignified." In a video posted to Facebook shortly after midnight, Seddique Mateen, who lives in Florida, called the shooting "tragic" but said his son was "a good son and an educated son."

He said his son shouldn't have carried out the massacre because "God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality."

"I don't know what caused him to shoot last night," said the father, who has hosted a U.S. -based television show on Afghan affairs and describes himself as an important figure in his homeland.

"No radicalism, no." the father told The Washington Post late Sunday from his home in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "He doesn't have a beard even . . . I don't think religion or Islam had anything to do with this."

Since 2007, Mateen had been an employee at G4S, a British-based security firm whose global contracts have included U.S. federal buildings, said John Kenning, the chief executive officer for North America. Mateen's precise role at the company was not immediately clear, but Kenning said it was cooperating with the FBI investigation.

At the White House, Obama met with FBI Director James B. Comey and then briefly addressed the nation, saying the entire country stands "with the people of Orlando, who have endured a terrible attack on their city."

The president said it was too early to know "the precise motivations of the killer," but that the FBI would investigate possible links between the gunman and terrorist groups.

Echoing comments he has made after other mass shootings, Obama said the bloodshed served to highlight how easily people can obtain guns in the United States. He also signed a proclamation honoring the victims and ordering that American flags be flown at half-staff until sunset Thursday.

Sunday's rampage followed another shooting in Orlando: The fatal slaying Friday night of a pop singer who was killed while signing autographs after a performance at an Orlando concert venue.

Christina Grimmie, a 22-year-old singer who was a finalist on NBC's "The Voice," died hours after she was shot by a gunman who then shot himself, police said.

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Murphy and Markon reported from Washington. Adam Goldman and Mark Berman in Washington and Katie Zezima and Amanda Elder in Orlando contributed to this report. Also contributing were Peter Holley, Souad Mekhennet, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Greg Miller, Joby Warrick, Tim Craig, Sarah Larimer, Julie Tate, Missy Ryan, Ellen Nakashima and Thomas Gibbons-Neff.