The Orlando killer and his wife exchanged text messages while he was inside a bathroom at the nightclub Pulse, after he’d already killed some of the 49 clubgoers he ultimately shot to death, a law enforcement source said Thursday.
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The chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sen.
Lawmakers are trying to determine if there are ways for intelligence and law enforcement communities to monitor social media platforms like Facebook “so that we can prevent these tragedies”, Johnson told CNN on Thursday.
Police cars and emergency vehicles surround the Pulse Orlando nightclub, the scene of a fatal shooting, in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. He didn’t answer, the official said.
The senator said that Mateen had used five Facebook profiles.
Johnson clarified that Facebook isn’t a target of any inquiry, but asked for the information, and for Facebook officials to attend a briefing with committee staff, no later than June 29.
“My staff has also learned that Mateen apparently used Facebook to conduct frequent local law enforcement and FBI searches, including searching for specific law enforcement offices”, Johnson said asking full support of Zuckerberg in its investigations.
“I ask that you please provide all Facebook data on Mr. Mateen’s activities on his account and any affiliated Facebook accounts, including but not limited to activity logs, Facebook timeline information, Facebook messages, photos and posts”, wrote Johnson. U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley repeatedly refused on Wednesday to say whether charges might be brought against her or anyone else.
Omar Mateen texted his wife Noor Salman asking if she’d seen the news.
She responded: “I love you”, the report said. She’s given conflicting interviews to investigators throughout the week as to how much she knew about her husband’s desire to carry out a jihadist attack. In a final post, Mateen apparently wrote, “In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa”.
In a 911 call he made during the four-hour long siege at the gay nightclub early Sunday, Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS.
President Barack Obama arrived yesterday in Orlando to visit survivors and relations of victims. “Now taste the Islamic state vengeance”.
His posts and searches are among the details surfacing in the days since Mateen unleashed a fusillade of bullets on revelers at the gay-oriented club. He said the store contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation but had no information by which to identify the customer; only after the killings did an employee recognize Mateen, who used an assault rifle and a handgun in the attack.
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Since adolescence, The Times discovered, Mateen has been arrested, suspended and fired from school and jobs multiple times for crimes and misdemeanors ranging from assault to domestic violence to making threats.
