Cops were ordered NOT to pursue Orlando gunman during massacre: Officer says he was told to wait while victims lay dead and dying and Mateen fled to club bathroom
By Chris Summers For Mailonline
Published: 03:36 EST, 22 June 2016
http://dailym.ai/28NFfTJ

[snip]

A police officer who was one of the first to arrive at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando has claimed he was made to wait while Omar Mateen wandered around the club gunning people down.

The FBI said this week that police first responders 'engaged the shooter' inside the club at 2.08am but Officer Brandon Cornwell said he had been told to wait for a SWAT team to arrive.

It is known that Mateen, who was heavily armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun and was feared to be carrying explosives, had an exchange of fire with a security guard when he first arrived at the LGBT club, which was holding its regular Latino night.

...HERE'S THE KICKER

'Once SWAT got there, they told us to retreat, that they'd take over because we were not really in tactical gear - we were just in our police uniforms.'

Cornwell said he never fired a shot or saw Mateen, who was eventually killed by the SWAT team after he walked out into the parking lot through the hole in the wall created by a BearCat armored vehicle.

His account is the first from a police officer who was inside the club but he said he could not go into too much detail because of the ongoing investigation.