Mateen asked his wife, Noor Salman, in a text message whether she had seen the news, about two hours after he started the shooting, the official said on Friday.
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Omar Mateen, 29, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, has been identified as the gunman who opened fire at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in what is now the worst mass shooting in US history. However, investigators have reportedly obtained surveillance footage of Salman buying ammunition with Mateen, according to CBS News.
CNN was reporting Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation also has interviewed a friend of Mateen who apparently also was called before the final shootout that ended in Mateen’s death.
Matthew Gentili, a producer at News 13 in Orlando, was working the phones and receiving phone calls from people in the area asking about what had happened at Pulse Orlando, where 49 people – including the shooter – were massacred.
After she said “no” he responded with ” love you babe”.
Mateen and Salman met online and got married on September 29, 2011, according to their marriage license, ABC News reports.
Officials have also discovered that Mateen was posting on Facebook before and during the shooting, criticizing the American government.
In Facebook posts allegedly made prior and during the shooting but later taken down, Mateen threatened future attacks in the United States by the Islamic State (ISIL, also known as Daesh) terrorist group, banned in the USA and a range of other countries. “I am the shooter”, the person on the line said.
“I will never forget the words he said to me”, Gentili, pictured below, said. “He said ‘no” and hung up the phone”.
An employee who answered the phone at the gun store Thursday afternoon declined to comment. “He did it for ISIS, and he started speaking Arabic”, Gentili claimed.
Several regulars at the gay nightclub said the gunman visited frequently over the past few years. I asked him: “Is there anything else you want to say?’ ” Gentili said.
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“I’m not a psychiatrist, but the struggle with his humanity, his sexuality, combined with the potential for putting the onus on an organization that’s asking people to do this – asking extremists to do these kinds of things – is an interesting dynamic”, he said.
