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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2016
Last of the 49 bodies removed from Orlando nightclub
Worst mass
shooting in
U.S. history
By JASON DEAREN
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — The
last of the bodies were removed
from an Orlando gay nightclub
overnight as investigators dug
into the background of the gun-
man, who called 911 to profess
allegiance to the Islamic State
during the attack that left 49 vic-
tims dead.
“We will not be deined by
the act of a cowardly hater,”
Mayor Buddy Dyer vowed on
Monday, a day after the dead-
liest mass shooting in modern
U.S. history.
The killer, who died in a gun
battle with a SWAT team early
Sunday, was identiied as Omar
Mateen, a 29-year-old Ameri-
can-born Muslim who worked
as a security guard in Flor-
ida. FBI oficials said they had
investigated him in 2013 and
2014 on suspicion of terrorist
sympathies but could not make
a case against him.
President Barack Obama
said there is no clear evidence
that Mateen was directed to
conduct his attack or part of a
larger plot. The president said it
appears the shooter was inspired
by extremist information dis-
seminated over the internet.
Wielding an AR-15 semi-au-
tomatic rile and a handgun,
Mateen opened ire at the
crowded Pulse Orlando club in
such close quarters that the bul-
lets could hardly miss. He was
gunned down after police used
explosives and a small armored
vehicle to punch a hole in a wall
and allow dozens of club-goers
to escape, police said.
“I’ve always felt so safe
here for my family, kids. And
now, I don’t know,” said Mar-
lon Massey, who lives across
the street from the club, in the
city known to tourists around the
globe as the home of Walt Disney
World and other theme parks.
Obama called the shooting
an “act of terror” and an “act of
hate” against a place of “solidar-
Submitted Photo
The Lower Columbia Q Center held a vigil Sunday evening at the Garden of Surging Waves in downtown Astoria in
honor of the victims in the Orlando shooting.
ity and empowerment” for gays.
Law enforcement authorities
said Mateen made his 911 call
from the club. Authorities have
not said whether he was directed
by the Islamic State or sim-
ply acted in sympathy with the
extremist group in a so-called
lone wolf attack — some-
thing counterterrorism experts
have been saying for years is
extremely dificult to detect and
thwart.
The picture became murkier,
though, when Mateen’s Afghan
immigrant father suggested
another motive: anti-gay hatred.
The father said his son got angry
a few months ago when he saw
two men kissing in Miami. And
Mateen’s ex-wife attributed the
violence to mental illness, say-
ing he was bipolar.
The Islamic State’s radio
called Mateen “one of the sol-
diers of the caliphate in Amer-
ica.” Al-Bayan Radio, a media
outlet for the extremist group,
hailed the attack, saying that it
targeted a gathering of Christians
and gays and that it was the worst
attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
It was unclear, though,
whether the group planned or
knew of the attack beforehand.
Mateen’s father, Seddique
Mir Mateen, told reporters Mon-
day that the massacre was “the
act of a terrorist,” and added: “I
apologize for what my son did. I
am as sad and mad as you guys
are.”
He wouldn’t go into details
about any religious or political
views his son held, saying he
didn’t know. Asked whether he
missed his son, he said: “I don’t
miss anything about him. What
he did was against humanity.”
Thirty-nine of the dead were
killed at the club, and the others
died at hospitals, the mayor said.
By Monday morning, families
of 24 of the victims had been
notiied, Dyer said.
Workers removed the bodies
Housing: ‘When it comes to
affordable housing, nothing is easy’
Continued from Page 1A
Norstedt said, adding that the
company pays about $15 an
hour.
Small businesses and the
Haystack Rock Awareness Pro-
gram have also struggled with
employee retention.
Councilors and staff recently
prioritized workforce housing
while creating the city’s strate-
gic plan, to be adopted in July.
City Planner Mark Barnes said
the task force is an import-
ant part in meeting some hous-
ing goals, such as providing 25
affordable housing units for var-
ious sizes and consistent with
city architectural guidelines by
2018, then adding 25 more units
by 2020.
The goals also involve
increasing long-term rentals and
temporarily banning vacation
rental programs.
In May, the task force saw
conceptual designs of what
affordable housing units could
look like at the RV Park on Has-
kell Lane and the downtown
Spruce Street parking lot. The
ideas will eventually be intro-
duced at a City Council meeting.
Potential new
sites, ideas
The city is considering
the Tolovana Park site of the
now-shuttered children’s center
for a third possible workforce
housing location, Barnes said.
The building became city
property after the children’s cen-
ter closed in April. A concept
design showed about nine units
with parking.
The 6 acres behind Sea
Ranch Resort could be another
potential affordable housing
location, task force member Ken
McQuhae said.
Incentivizing
affordable
housing development for prop-
erty owners of vacant lots
throughout town is another
option, Barnes said.
Former city planner Rainmar
Bartl and former mayor Mike
Morgan suggested “park model
homes” — factory-built homes
under 400 square feet — as an
alternative concept for affordable
housing at the city’s RV Park.
The homes, which include
architectural details, could
meet the needs of individual
or two-person households and
would be affordable for hospi-
tality industry employees, Bartl
said.
“It’s scalable. You can start
with a set number and see how
that works,” Bartl said, adding
that the homes would be about
$90 per square foot and would
“pay for themselves.”
Silvis said park model homes
could be a “potential tool in the
toolbox.”
“City Council is looking for
an array of possible solutions
from the task force,” Barnes
said.
Community response
Residents responded with both
ideas and opposition to the con-
cept designs introduced in May.
Plans for affordable hous-
ing will eat up downtown park-
ing, and homes should be placed
outside the tsunami zone, res-
ident Douglas Wood told the
Cannon Beach City Council
Tuesday.
“We would be able to
recover as a community more
effectively if we had a group
of homes and residences up out
of the inundation zone on sta-
ble high ground,” Wood said.
“I see an opportunity to encour-
age workforce housing in a less
expensive, lower market-value
area ... resulting in no change in
character for the town.”
A task force meeting
Wednesday did not allow for
public comment, unlike previ-
ous meetings. The group agreed
to permit public comment at the
next meeting in August.
“I don’t want to stile pub-
lic comment,” task force mem-
ber Brandon Ogilvie said, “but I
hope people understand this is a
work session and we are tasked
with coming up with a solution.”
“There was lots of lively
public comment over the last
few meetings,” Silvis said. “All
of that is good information to
gather.”
Resident Ed Johnson said he
objected to the denial of pub-
lic comment at the task force
meeting and he disagreed with
the affordable housing concept
being introduced “without pub-
lic input.”
“I think if you’re going to be
on a committee, you have the
obligation to ind out what the
impact might be on those people
who live adjacent to a new pro-
posed project,” Johnson said. “It
seems like, if you want to build
the city, you get the people on
your side before you start out.”
Johnson did not oppose
affordable housing at other sites
that would be “less impacting.”
Resident Phil Massebeau
said he objected to new afford-
able housing units in general.
“We are property owners.
We’ve lived here all our lives,”
he said. “Why do we have to
build affordable housing? These
businesses get their employees
how they get their employees.
It’s not up to us to build housing
for them.”
Johnson presented the task
force with a signed list of almost
30 people, collected by Masse-
beau, who object to the RV Park
affordable housing idea. The
petition from “people of Can-
non Beach, Elk Land Drive,
Haskell Lane and neighboring
areas to the RV Park” cited rev-
enue generated by the RV Park,
tree removal and an inlux of
people changing the neighbor-
hood as reasons for opposing
the concept.
More housing in the already
populated neighborhood “would
create more stress on infrastruc-
ture, water, sewer and a high
increase of trafic, not to men-
tion it would destroy the aesthet-
ics of this neighborhood,” the
petition stated.
If units were built on the RV
Park, the city could lose revenue
from the RV spaces.
“When it comes to afford-
able housing, nothing is easy,”
Bartl said during his presenta-
tion. “People have to make hard
choices. If you’re committed
to something, you have to give
something else up.”
four at a time on stretchers and
loaded them into white vans.
The action was repeated over
and over. The covered bodies
were taken to the county medi-
cal examiner’s ofice. All were
there by 11 p.m., Dyer said.
At least 53 people were hos-
pitalized, most in critical condi-
tion, and a surgeon at Orlando
Regional Medical Center said
the death toll was likely to climb.
On Monday morning, ofi-
cials emphasized that there was
no immediate threat to the public.
The shooting started about 2
a.m., with more than 300 people
inside the Pulse, where it was
Latin night.
“He had an automatic rile,
so nobody stood a chance,”
said Jackie Smith, who saw two
friends next to her get shot. “I
just tried to get out of there.”
Jon Alamo had been danc-
ing for hours when he wandered
into the club’s main room just in
time to see the gunman. “You
ever seen how Marine guys hold
big weapons, shooting from
left to right? That’s how he was
shooting at people,” he said.
“My irst thought was, ‘Oh,
my God, I’m going to die,’”
Alamo said. “I was praying
to God that I would live to see
another day.”
Pulse patron Eddie Jus-
tice texted his mother, Mina:
“Mommy I love you. In club
they shooting.” About 30 min-
utes later, hiding in a bathroom,
he texted her: “He’s coming.
I’m gonna die.”
Justice’s name would even-
tually be added to the list of the
dead.
On the same day as the
Orlando attack, an Indiana
man armed with three assault
riles and chemicals used to
make explosives was arrested
in Southern California and told
police he was headed to a West
Hollywood gay pride parade,
authorities said.
The previous deadliest mass
shooting in modern U.S. history
was the 2007 attack at Virginia
Tech, where a student killed 32
people and took his own life.
Mateen was not unknown
to law enforcement: In 2013,
he made inlammatory com-
ments to co-workers and was
interviewed twice, according to
FBI agent Ronald Hopper, who
called the interviews inconclu-
sive. In 2014, Hopper said, ofi-
cials found that Mateen had ties
to an American suicide bomber,
but the agent described the con-
tact as minimal, saying it did not
constitute a threat at the time.
Mateen bought at least two
guns legally within the last week
or so, according to Trevor Veli-
nor of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.
Mateen exchanged gunire
with 14 police oficers at the
club and took hostages at one
point. In addition to the assault
rile, he had a handgun. Police
Chief John Mina said oficers
held back for some time because
Mateen indicated he had a bomb
vest.
About 5 a.m., authorities
sent in a SWAT team to rescue
the remaining club-goers, Mina
said.
Vigils were held across the
nation Sunday to honor the vic-
tims. In Astoria, people gathered
at the Garden of Surging Waves
for a candlelight vigil orga-
nized by the Lower Columbia
Q Center.
In Salem, Gov. Kate Brown
ordered all lags at Oregon
public institutions to be lown
at half-staff until sunset on
Thursday.
“Tragically, what we are
waking up to in the United
States today is that the grow-
ing number of mass shootings
in the U.S. increases the num-
ber of Americans with a per-
sonal connection to a Roseburg,
a Charleston, a Columbine, and
now, an Orlando,” Brown said
in a statement.
Associated Press writers
Eric Tucker in Washington, Ter-
rance Harris, Mike Schneider
and Tamara Lush in Orlando
and photographer Alan Diaz in
Fort Pierce, Florida, contrib-
uted to this report.
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