The FBI said Wednesday that the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando on Sunday was both a hate crime and a terror attack.
“This was an act of violence, born out of hate, that inflicted terror on an entire community,” FBI Agent Ron Hopper told reporters in Florida when asked how the shooting is being investigated. “So I would call it a hate crime, I would call it terrorism — it’s both.”
Speaking Sunday after the shooting, President Obama described the massacre as “an act of terror or hate.” Obama will travel to Orlando Thursday.
Hopper urged anyone with information about the shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, to contact the FBI directly. Mateen died in a shootout with police, after an attack that left 49 dead and 53 others injured.
The FBI added that there was no evidence to suggest Mateen planned to target any other nightclub than Pulse, a gay nightclub. There is also no credible or specific threat of another imminent attack against Orlando or the U.S., Hopper said.
Authorities are still searching for a motive behind the shooting.
According to a report, Mateen called a friend to say goodbye during the attack. He also allegedly made calls to 911 and a producer at a CNN affiliate in Orlando to identify himself as the shooter and pledge allegiance to the Islamic State.
There are also reports that Mateen was possibly gay, as he used gay dating apps and visited gay chat rooms. He also allegedly visited Pulse prior to the attack, though those visits could have been to simply scout the nightclub.
A former coworker said Mateen constantly made homophobic, sexist and racist remarks.
Investigators are also looking into Noor Salman, the shooter’s second and current wife. Salman told the FBI that she knew of Mateen’s plans to carry out an attack and tried to talk him out of it, but declined to tell law enforcement. Though it’s not clear what she knew, Salman did reportedly travel to Pulse and Disney Springs with him earlier this year, something the FBI allegedly knew about prior to the attack.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Salman could face criminal charges.
“I’m not going to speculate with respect to any charges that might be brought,” A. Lee Bentley III, the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, said Wednesday. “We’re not sure what charges will be brought, or if charges will be brought.”
Mateen was also investigated twice by the FBI for possible connections to terrorism, but those investigations were inconclusive.
