ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – The murky picture of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen grew more complex Tuesday with word that the FBI is investigating whether he had been a regular at the gay dance club he attacked and had been leading a secret life as a gay man.
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Officers have questioned his wife Noor Salman amid claims she knew of his plans and are investigating whether he was secretly leading a gay life.
“He still had that weird vibe to him”, LaSalla said, but she did not feel threatened as Mateen told her had a wife and talked about his son’s soccer league.
Republican Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because Obama has allowed the growth of the Islamic State group on his watch.
“If someone seriously thinks we don’t know who we’re fighting, if there’s anyone out there who thinks we’re confused about who our enemies are”, Obama said, “that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists we’ve taken off the battlefield”.
Investigators were pouring through volumes of data related to Mateen and there was nothing in it to suggest there was any other target, he said.
Dina McHugh recalled Mateen taunting her about being a lesbian when they were in middle school, before she was even aware of her own sexual orientation. Salman, according to the source, said she did not and texted him: “Where are you?” Senator King said Ms. Salman appeared to be cooperating with investigators, after earlier reports indicated that she had initially shown reluctance.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents spent an hour Friday at the mosque, Orlando gunman Omar Mateen attended, questioning officials about Mateen’s relationship with other members of the Islamic center and the community.
A USA attorney plans to bring evidence before a federal grand jury to determine whether charges will be filed, two law enforcement officials said.
Authorities have interviewed her twice and given her a polygraph test, CBS News reported.
But the store had no name, purchase record or surveillance video to help authorities investigate, the officials said.
Mateen responded: “Do you see what’s happening?”
“It’s just weird that he snapped like that”, LaSalla said.
The ISIS-inspired gunman who massacred 49 people in a gay Florida nightclub placed a chilling call amid the mayhem to an overnight TV producer and stunningly proclaimed: “I’m the shooter”.
Although some men told stories of Mateen contacting them on social media platforms used by gay men, gay dating app Jack’d said it has been unable to confirm so far that Mateen had a profile on the service.
It was after the mass killings that store employees recognized Mateen, 29, as the man who visited their store about six weeks earlier, Abell said. During his rampage, Mateen systematically made his way through the packed club shooting people who were already down, apparently to ensure they were dead, said Angel Colon, a wounded survivor.
The FBI also stated that Mateen had been under investigation for about ten months as he expressed support for Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah in 2013.
Cedeno said he wasn’t interested in Mateen, but his friend was.
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Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, denied his son was gay and said that if he had been in the nightclub before, he may have been “scouting the place”.
