The Orlando gunman’s wife claimed that she tried to talk him out of carrying out the shooting at Pulse nightclub on Sunday, June 12, according to a new report.
NBC News reported that Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Mateen, told the FBI that she was with him when he purchased ammunition and a weapon holster. She also allegedly told the FBI that she once drove Omar to the venue prior to the tragedy because “he wanted to scope it out.”
According to the outlet, authorities are “considering filing criminal charges” against Noor after she failed to alert them prior to the attack, but a decision has not yet been made. Officials told NBC News that she is cooperating with investigators.
As previously reported, a 29-year-old Omar opened fire at the Orlando gay nightclub early Sunday morning, leaving 49 dead and 53 injured. Omar was later killed during a shoot-out with police. Prior to the attack, he reportedly called 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIS.
The shooting at Pulse nightclub is now the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Omar was the father of a 3-year-old boy with Noor, his second wife. He was previously married to Sitora Yusufiy for four months in 2009.
Yusufiy and her current fiancé, Marco Dias, recently made claims about the gunman’s sexuality during two new interviews on Monday, June 13. Speaking to a Brazilian TV station, Dias stated that Yusufiy believed her ex-husband had “homosexual tendencies.” She later spoke to CNN and said, “When we had gotten married, he confessed to me about his past and that was recent at that time and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife and there was a lot of pictures of him. I feel like it’s a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn’t want everybody to know about.”
Omar was reportedly on the FBI’s radar since 2013 when he made “inflammatory” comments to his coworkers. In 2014, he was investigated again for his relationship with an American suicide bomber. The investigations were later closed after it was determined that he didn’t appear to be a threat.
