The shooter also posted on Facebook before and during his shooting spree, according to CNN, calling on the United States and Russian Federation to stop bombing the Islamic State, and warning that the terror group will attack on American soil.
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The New York Times reports Mateen declared his support for the Islamic State in phone conversations with police during the three-hour standoff.
“Sometimes he would be there for a few weeks at a time and maybe on the weekends, and then you wouldn’t see him for a little while, then you’d see him again, and that’s the way it kind of went”, James Van Horn, a customer at Pulse, told ABC News.
The body of Mateen, though, who was shot dead by Orlando police, was set apart from the rest in a separate building, said Chief Medical Director Joshua Stephany.
U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley repeatedly refused to say whether charges might be brought against the wife or anyone else.
The messages were detailed in a letter from the Senate Homeland Security Committee to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the company to produce information on Mateen’s online activity and to provide a briefing to the panel.
On Saturday night, hours before the rampage, Mateen visited Disney Springs, an outdoor restaurant, retail and entertainment complex at Walt Disney World, an official who was briefed on the case but insisted on anonymity to discuss the continuing investigation told The Associated Press.
Robert Abell, co-owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, says the shop declined the sale because Mateen’s request raised suspicions because it was for body armor typically used by law enforcement. The FBI said it is still gathering evidence at Pulse and analyzing cellphone location data to piece together Mateen’s activities leading up to the massacre.
In his letter to Zuckerberg, Johnson said Mateen apparently posted sometime during the attack that he was pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group’s leader, and “America and Russian Federation stop bombing the Islamic state”.
He also condemned “the filthy ways of the west”, and US airstrikes that kill “innocent women and children”. An official who was briefed on the case but insisted on anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation said authorities believe 30-year-old USA -born Noor Salman knew ahead of time about the attack. They also learned that Mateen frequently used Facebook to search for information on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement agencies.
She typed back and said she loved him.
Johnson’s staff uncovered evidence that links Mateen to five Facebook accounts active around the time of the shooting.
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An employee who answered the phone at the gun store Thursday afternoon declined to comment.
