A federal grand jury has been convened and could charge Noor Salman, the wife of Omar Mateen, as early as Wednesday, Reuters reported.
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Several media outlets have reported, citing law enforcement officials on condition of anonymity, that Mateen and his wife, 30-year-old Noor, previously drove to the Pulse nightclub at least once.
An official says the FBI is investigating reports that the Orlando massacre shooter had been a regular at the gay nightclub he attacked and had used gay dating apps.
The shooter is apparently Omar Saddiqui Mateen, an American-born man of Afghan descent, who was from Port St. Lucie, Florida but was in Orlando to commit the crime.
Mateen’s ex-wife, Sifora Yusufiy, has said he alluded to a secret private life before they were married – a marriage arranged online in 2008, which lasted two years. The Orlando Sentinel quoted one patron who said that Mateen would “go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent”.
In 2006, Mateen attempted to join the police, and a colleague in his academy class said he believed Mateen was gay.
Investigators working to determine whether anyone had advance knowledge of the attack have spoken extensively with Salman and are working to establish whether she and Mateen were recently at or inside the club, the official said.
“I just hope that people, without making rash judgments on one another, can truly understand that this is one insane person that did such a tragic thing”, she said. “They use the name of religion for their personal gain”, he said. He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation left the home secured at 5am on Monday.
The emerging portrait of Mateen also grew more complex on Tuesday.
“He appears to have been an angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalised”, President Barack Obama told reporters after a meeting of the White House National Security Council.
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The FBI is still looking into these insights and is still trying to determine the shooter’s motive.
