Nearly three years after the deadly mass shooting by Omar Mateen at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 people dead, authorities have cleared the 13 police officers and sheriff’s deputies who used their firearms in the incident, according to NBC News.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala and Assistant State Attorney Deborah Barra held a press conference today revealing new details about the deadly event that was once the worst mass killing in U.S. history.
All shootings that involve officers in the Sunshine State require review by local prosecutors. Ayala’s investigation showed all round that were fired by police that night were justified.
At the press conference, Barra shared that investigators were able to figure out Mateen spent some of the nearly-three hours in hiding in a nightclub restroom researching the internet on ways to unjam an assault rifle.
He also Googled how to spell “allegiance.”
Barra reports that the police and sheriff’s deputies fired 172 rounds at Mateen, hitting him seven times, after breaking through a wall and using a flash-bang grenade to confuse Mateen.
As the law enforcement officers approached his body, however, they noticed wires on him. In that Mateen had previously told police he had explosives, one officer fired one last shot at Mateen’s boday.
"When the officer walks up and, knowing that he had previously talked about bombs being present and he saw wires and whatnot, it only takes that for something terrible to happen," said Barra at today's press conference. "And so the officer made sure that did not happen."
The deadly shooting was the worst in American history until the October 1, 2017, attack in Las Vegas when Stephen Paddock killed 58 music festival attendees from a window at the Mandalay Bay Resort.
