Orlando shooter Omar Mateen exchanged text messages with his wife at the height of the Pulse nightclub rampage, trying to draw her attention to the news of the carnage, according to media reports.
Advertisement
“America and Russian Federation stop bombing the Islamic state.I pledge my alliance to [Islamic State leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi.may Allah accept me”, Mateen wrote on Facebook, according to Vice News.
Since the attack, Mateen has been dubbed an “Islamic terrorist” by politicians, senior officials and commentators in the US following reports he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
In one statement, Salman said that Mateen told her he had interests in carrying out a jihadist attack, but she denied knowing of any specific plans.
Salman is cooperating with investigators and has volunteered to take a polygraph test, the source close to her said.
Mateen killed 49 people and injured dozens of others before he was killed by police. “I asked him: ‘Is there anything else you want to say?'”
He pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack, one of the deadliest shootings in USA history.
“I did it for ISIS”, the caller said, according to Gentili, “I did it for the Islamic State”.
The reason for Omar Mateen’s dismissal in 2007 from the Florida Department of Corrections remains a mystery – even to agency officials, who said Thursday they could not find an explanation for why he was sacked midway through his training.
The gunman called 911 and a television station and posted to Facebook during the siege.
Mateen wrote that he had background in law enforcement working as a correctional officer trainee and security officer in 2006 and 2007.
During those six months, Mateen was disciplined for sleeping in class and sleeping on the firearms range, according to corrections records obtained by CBS News.
A key topic for investigators is how much Mateen’s Palestinian-American wife may have known about the plot.
Advertisement
Mateen said he had some sort of criminal record sealed or expunged, but no explanation was provided as to what the record was. They could charge her as an accessory to some 49 counts of murder and 53 counts of attempted murder, a federal law enforcement source told Fox News. She may have gone along with him when he cased out Pulse nightclub and other locations – including Disney World resort and a shopping complex called Disney Springs – as potential targets, reported CNN.
