Mateen, 29, was a US citizen, born in NY of Afghan immigrant parents and worked as a security guard.
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President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the gunman “was an angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalized”.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said Wednesday that shooter Omar Mateen falsely told negotiators that he was strapping explosive onto four hostages, and club-goers trapped inside thought he had explosive vests, based on texts they sent and remarks to 911 dispatchers. A 2-year-old Nebraska boy was attacked by an alligator and killed at Walt Disney World on Tuesday, and 22-year-old Christina Grimmie, a one-time contestant on NBC’s “The Voice”, was shot dead days earlier while signing autographs after a show by a man who then killed himself.
According to recent reports, Ms Salman was with Mateen when he bought ammunition and a holster shortly before the attack at Pulse nightclub.
A federal law enforcement official familiar with the ballistics analysis said investigators are in the midst of an enormous task of gathering and identifying shell casings left by the gunman and at least 11 officers who engaged Mateen at one time or another during a gun battle that ultimately ended in Mateen’s death. He also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, his ex-wife said he was mentally ill and his father suggested that gays had angered him.
Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State in a 911 call prior to carrying out the attack, but US officials haven’t found any indication he was connected to the terror group or that he was acting on its behalf.
Noor Salman’s mother “didn’t like him very much”. Her father-in-law said she came to retrieve clothing. “She was crying, weeping”.
President Obama will travel to the scene of the attack in Orlando on Thursday. Obama replied that using that label would not accomplish anything. “It is not a strategy”.
A United States journalist has described the chilling moment he received an alleged phone call from the Orlando gunman who declared: “I did it for ISIS”.
In addition to pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Comey noted, Mateen referred to a link to its rival, al-Qaeda – an American’s suicide bombing in Syria.
The new details indicate that the attack on Pulse nightclub may not have been random, and that Mateen was actually well-acquainted with the club where he opened fire on Sunday morning, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others.
At a news conference at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Carter described praying to die as she lay on a nightclub bathroom floor covered in water and blood. Looking at the gunman’s feet under the stall as he paces.
The guilt of being alive is heavy.
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.
Some psychologists raised the possibility that Mateen was sexually conflicted and that those feelings might have contributed to his lashing out against gays.
Officials said Salman is cooperating with investigators.
The owner of the Pulse nightclub, speaking through a representative, denied reports that Mateen had been a regular patron.
“Untrue and totally ridiculous”, spokeswoman Sara Brady said in an email when asked about the claim.
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She’s “no longer here”, Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique, told reporters outside of his Fort Pierce, Florida, home on Wednesday. “What I know concretely is that he was driving around that evening and visited several locations”, Dyer said.
