Mass casualties in Florida nightclub shooting

Jermaine Towns and Brandon Shuford wait down the street from a shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando
(Image credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)

Police say approximately 50 people were killed and another 53 wounded after a gunman armed with multiple weapons opened fire in Orlando's Pulse nightclub around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. The shooter was killed by police at about 5 a.m. after creating a hostage situation inside the club.

"It's just shocking," said Christopher Hansen, who was at Pulse when the attack began. He recalls hearing gunshots, "just one after another after another," lasting perhaps as long as an entire song. "I just dropped down," Hansen said. "I just said please, please, please, I want to make it out. And when I did, I saw people shot. I saw blood."

The FBI is involved in the investigation of the attack, which police believe was planned well in advance. This incident follows Friday's fatal shooting of The Voice singer Christina Grimmie, which also took place in Florida.

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This post has been updated throughout.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.