At approximately 2:00 a.m. on June 12 , 2016 , Mateen entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando , Florida , and began shooting . At 2:22 a.m. , he made a 9-1-1 call in which he pledged allegiance to ISIL ; referenced Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , the Boston Marathon bombers ; and mentioned Moner Mohammad Abu Salha , an acquaintance of his who died in a suicide bombing in Syria for the Al-Nusra Front in 2014 . According to FBI officials , Mateen made two other 9-1-1 calls during the shooting . He also called News 13 of Orlando and identified himself as the nightclub shooter ; '' The Washington Post '' reported that " he had carried out the Pulse attack for the Islamic State . " Mateen took hostages after police arrived and engaged in a gunfight with him . At approximately 5:00 a.m. , police shot and killed Mateen , ending the shooting . A total of 49 people were left dead along with Mateen and 53 others were injured . Mateen was reported to have fired at least 110 rounds during the entire event . The attack was the deadliest known incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history and the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in the United States until it was surpassed by the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas
Boston Marathon bombers
Boston Marathon bombing
Omar Mateen