Investigators are scrutinizing the wife of Omar Mateen to
determine how much she may have known about his plans for Sunday's
shooting massacre in Orlando, Fla., officials said.
One official briefed on the probe said Noor Salman had
accompanied her husband on at least one occasion as he scouted the
Pulse nightclub, the site of the attack. She also joined him on one
or more of his visits to the Florida gun store where he bought
weapons and ammunition, the official said.
Officials have been talking to Ms. Salman. If they determine she
knew he planned an act of violence and didn't tell authorities, she
could be charged with a crime, officials said, though they
cautioned they haven't reached any conclusions.
Ms. Salman couldn't be reached for comment, and it wasn't clear
whether she has a lawyer.
Mateen opened fire at Pulse, a gay nightclub in downtown
Orlando, Sunday starting around 2 a.m. Authorities say he made a
911 call declaring his allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic
State before he was shot and killed hours later. ( See this
interactive graphic on how the shootings unfolded.) Forty-nine
people were killed and another 53 injured in the attack.
Mateen had cased Walt Disney World, some 15 miles from the
nightclub, while he was searching for targets, two officials
briefed on the investigation said. At least some of that scouting
took place just days before Sunday's attack, the officials said. It
wasn't clear which Disney World property Mateen observed.
James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
said Monday that Mateen was likely radicalized online, at least in
part, although officials haven't uncovered any links between Mateen
and foreign terror groups, a person familiar with the probe
said.
Ms. Salman, 30 years old, was born in California and grew up in
the small Bay Area suburb of Rodeo in a house where her mother
still lives, neighbors said.
"Noor was nice. Nobody had anything against her," said Rajinder
Chahal, a 59-year-old mortgage broker who lives across the
street.
The eldest of four daughters, Noor was sheltered growing up,
according to Mr. Chahal's wife. Her mother wouldn't allow boys over
at the house, and she drove her daughters to and from school, she
said. The family is "very religious," she said.
Ms. Salman's first marriage ended in 2009. She later met Mateen
online, and the pair were married on Sept. 29, 2011, in a Muslim
ceremony in Hercules, Calif., by an imam from Berkeley, according
to the marriage certificate. The wedding was witnessed by the
bride's parents, whose place of birth is listed as Palestine on the
certificate.
The Chahals said they were invited to the wedding. They didn't
attend the ceremony but went to a celebration afterward at the
family home, where they saw Mateen but didn't speak with him.
The marriage occurred three months after Mateen's divorce to his
first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, was final, according to the marriage
license.
After Ms. Salman got married, she was rarely seen in the Bay
Area neighborhood, as Mateen wouldn't let her visit her family, Mr.
Chahal said her mother told him. She returned only for her father's
funeral, a trip that was paid for by an uncle, Mr. Chahal said.
St. Lucie County, Fla., court papers show her listed with Mateen
on an August 2013 mortgage for the Fort Pierce, Fla., condo where
the couple lived.
The Salmans occasionally attended prayers at the Islamic Society
of West Contra Costa County, according to the imam, Hamza
Mehter.
Other congregants told Mr. Mehter they remember seeing the
parents from time to time, but that the family wasn't deeply
involved in the community, he said. He didn't recognize their
daughter.
When they learned of Mateen's involvement in the Orlando
shooting, the Chahals went to visit Ms. Salman's mother. She was
crying and said she hadn't been able to speak with her daughter,
they said.
Tuesday morning, a woman declined to comment from behind the
door of Ms. Salman's family home.
Investigators are also trying to determine if the gunman did, as
some witnesses have claimed, use a gay dating app or had prior
relationships with gay men that might have been part of his
motivation for carrying out the massacre at the nightclub. Agents
are continuing to examine witnesses' phones and talk to the app
companies to see if Mateen used one or more of them, officials
said.
On Tuesday, DeAngelo Scott, an Orlando man who regularly attends
Pulse nightclub and manages a cellphone store near the club, said
he was on the gay social-media app Grindr about a week before the
shooting and scrolled past a picture of the man he now believes was
Mateen. A Grindr spokesman declined to say whether Mateen had a
profile on its app. "We will continue to cooperate with the
authorities and do not comment on ongoing investigations," the
spokesman said.
Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, has rejected speculation that
his son was gay. Regarding reports that the shooter had attended
the Pulse nightclub before the event, his father said that might
have been to case it.
Josh Mitchell and Tripp Mickle contributed to this article.
Write to Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com and Zusha
Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2016 07:45 ET (11:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024