Tag: Omar Mateen

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Pulse Shooter’s Wife: I Knew He Was Going To Attack Nightclub

Just hours after the deadly shooting massacre at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman was questioned by the FBI. According to reports, Salman hand-wrote a 12-page statement providing specific details of the attack.

Salman’s statement was quietly released in a batch of records from the case at the end of December 2017.

Via USA Today:

The 12-page statement, quietly released by federal authorities at the end of December in a batch of records in the case, was taken hours after the June 12, 2016 shooting. The attack left 49 dead and dozens of others injured.

Noor Salman was questioned for hours, without a lawyer, after authorities learned her husband was the gunman behind the attack.

She was arrested last year on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence but has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said Mateen abused her and claims she did not know of his plot.

But her defense conflicts with the signed statement she gave to the FBI, which details her knowledge of Mateen’s planning and his path to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.

She told agents multiple times she knew his plans and that he was going to attack the Orlando club when he left their home.

On June 12, 2016, Salman’s husband killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He was eventually shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.

Salman faces charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice.

In her written statement, Salman told investigators:

• Mateen bought a rifle just days before the attack. When she saw it in his car trunk he told her not to say “anything to anybody.”

• Driving by heavily populated areas like Disney World and Pulse Nightclub, he told her, “How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?”

• Two days before the massacre Salman noticed Mateen looking at the Pulse Nightclub’s website. When she asked what he was doing, he replied, “This is my target.”

• The night before the shooting Mateen was “pumped up” wearing a handgun in a holster and a backpack full of ammunition. “I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,” she wrote.

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Wife Of Pulse Nightclub Shooter Arrested In Connection With Deadly Orlando Massacre

The wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen, has been arrested in connection with the June 2016 massacre in Orlando.

According to the New York Times, Noor Salman was taken into custody by FBI at her home outside San Francisco.

Authorities have been considering charges against Salman since the deadly shootout on June 12th that left 49 dead and 53 wounded. She has reportedly been charged with obstruction of justice.

Salman could appear in federal court in San Francisco as soon as Tuesday

The shooting was the deadliest act against the LGBT community in US history, and the deadliest terror attack in the US since September 11, 2001.

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FBI: No Evidence Found That Orlando Shooter Was Gay

In the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting, several people have come forward saying they had had contact with the shooter, Omar Mateen, on gay dating apps.

The FBI says they’ve found nothing to substantiate the claims.

From the L.A. Times:

The FBI has found no evidence so far to support claims by those who say Mateen had gay lovers or communicated on gay dating apps, several law enforcement officials said.

In seeking to verify the reports, federal agents have culled Mateen’s electronic devices, including a laptop computer and cellphone, as well as electronic communications of those who made the claims, law enforcement officials said.

So far, they have found no photographs, no text messages, no smartphone apps, no gay pornography and no cell-tower location data to suggest that Mateen — who was twice married to women and had a young son — conducted a secret gay life, the officials said.

The LA Times does go on to say that it’s possible Mateen had another phone or electronic device onwhich he might have used gay dating apps.

Additionally, while Mateen proclaimed allegiance to ISIS during the massacre, the FBI says it has found no direct link between Mateen and the Islamic State.

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Orlando Shooter’s Father: “If I Did Know I Would Have Stopped Him”

Saddique Mateen

The father of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen has given the public mixed signals about his son over the past 24 hours.

On one hand, Seddique Mateen told reporters that he believed his son had been set off by seeing two men kiss a few months ago.

He then reversed course saying, “I don’t know what caused him to shoot last night.”

“He was well behaved. His appearance was perfect,” he said. “I didn’t see any sign of worrying or being upset or nervous.”

But in a Facebook video posted yesterday, the elder Mateen expressed his own sense of homophobia saying his son shouldn’t have killed gay people because, “God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality. This is not for the servants.”

He did express regret for his son’s deadly actions saying, “I am deeply saddened and announce this to the people of America.”

“I wish I did know. If I did know I would have stopped him.”

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Orlando Shooter Called 911, Pledged Allegiance To Leader Of ISIS

MSNBC is reporting that Omar Mateen, the gunman who opened fire at a gay nightclub in Florida, had called 911 moments before to pledge allegiance to the leader of ISIS.

Mateen appeared to be a follower of ISIS propaganda and referenced the Tsarnaev brothers, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, at the scene, sources said.

But as investigators try to determine the radicalization that apparently motivated Mateen to attack the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, his family believes he was pushed over the edge by pure hate against the LGBT community.

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Orlando: Mass Shooting At Gay Nightclub Leaves 50 Dead, 53 Hospitalized

Omar Mateen

A man identified as Omar Marteen went on a deadly shooting spree at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, last night killing 50 and leaving 53 more hospitalized.

The shooting incident began at 2AM with approximately 320 people in the club.

It is officially the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States.

Mateen — who was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun, according to Orlando’s police chief — entered Pulse club around 2 a.m. Sunday morning and began shooting. After most of the 320 people there escaped, Mateen took hostages from a group that was hiding in a bathroom. Shortly before 6 a.m., a SWAT unit breached the club and engaged Mateen in what’s being called a protracted gun battle. Mateen was killed.

The police classified the attack as a “terror incident. The police and the federal authorities said they were pursuing several angles in the terrorism investigation, both overseas and in the United States.

The shooting was clearly a hate crime meant to target LGBT people, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

NBC News reports:

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that Mateen was born in New York in 1986 and was listed as living at a residence in Port St. Lucie, about 125 miles south of Orlando. The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials said.

Mir Seddique, Mateen’s father told NBC News, “this has nothing to do with religion.” Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting.

“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country,” Seddique said.

According to CNN, the terrorist called 911 about the attack, pledged allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston bombers, according to a U.S. official.

Equality Florida, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization is collecting contributions via a GoFundMe page to support the victims of the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. Please contribute and share this page.

We are reeling from the tragic news that a gunman opened fire on the 2am capacity crowd at Pulse leaving 20 people dead and 42 injured according to preliminary reports. We are heartbroken and angry that senseless violence has once again destroyed lives in our state and in our country.

Gay clubs hold a significant place in LGBTQ history. They were often the only safe gathering place and this horrific act strikes directly at our sense of safety. June commemorates our community standing up to anti-LGBTQ violence at the Stonewall Inn, the nightclub that has become the first LGBTQ site recognized as a national monument.

​We have received a steady stream of emails and messages from those seeking to help or to make sense of the senseless. We make no assumptions on motive. We will await the details in tears of sadness and anger. We stand in solidarity and keep our thoughts on all whose lives have been lost or altered forever in this tragedy.

President Barack Obama will address the nation about the terror attack in Orlando at 1:30pmET from the White House briefing room.