Mateen identified himself as "an Islamic soldier," according to the FBI, and threatened to detonate explosives, including a car bomb and a suicide vest - the kind "used in France," he said, referring to the terrorist attacks in Paris last November. He had a second conversation with them at 3:03 a.m. "My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State."Īt 2:48 a.m., the gunman - whose name was Omar Mir Seddique Mateen - spoke with crisis negotiators from the Orlando police. "I wanna let you know, I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings," the gunman told the operator during this 50-second call, according to a transcript released by the FBI. In Songs, Stories, Latino And LGBT Voices On How The Orlando Attack Feels Personal After the shooting, the Fort Pierce Police Department searched the home for explosives and evidence and took her in for questioning at an FBI field office in Florida.U.S. Salman was inside the couple's Fort Pierce home during the early morning of June 12 as the massacre unfolded. Law enforcement and evidence have confirmed Mateen was the sole shooter, though ISIS initially claimed responsibility for the attack. Previous coverage: Computers, phones seized as evidence against Pulse gunman's wife What was Salman's involvement in the Pulse nightclub shooting? Noor Salman, widow of Pulse shooter, goes to trial: What did she know? "Looking back now, I should have seen the red flags," Salman told VICE News. "He became increasingly violent and also afraid that I would leave him," Yusufiy wrote in Marie Claire. In a 2016 essay following the shooting, Mateen's first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said she experienced similar abuse. He even beat her during her pregnancy, she said. Salman told the publication she "was on eggshells every day" and alleges Mateen kicked, punched and raped her throughout their marriage - and verbally abused their son. The two married shortly after it was the second marriage for both. Salman told VICE News she and Mateen met on a website called Arab Lounge. What was Noor Salman's relationship with Omar Mateen? It hurts sometimes to think that people assume that I am this kind of monster."
"It’s time people know the truth," Salman told VICE, speaking to the media for the first time since her trial. "I hate how people assume I didn't care or that I supported him. A federal jury acquitted her of all charges later that year.
#Orlando nightclub gay bar shooting trial#
Her trial drew national attention and outrage, with complaints of Islamophobia and accusations that she was being charged for her husband's crime. She was arrested in January 2017 and faced the possibility of life in prison, if convicted. Seven months after the attack, Salman was widely accused of having prior knowledge of it and was charged with helping her husband plan the shooting. Mateen killed 49 people and injured dozens more in an early-morning shooting at a gay nightclub in south Florida in 2016.
#Orlando nightclub gay bar shooting series#
Noor Salman, the wife of Pulse shooter Omar Mateen, spoke with VICE News in a series of interviews that were published Wednesday. Months after the five-year anniversary of one of the nation's most deadly shootings, a widow at the center of it is speaking publicly.