The wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen, knew her husband was “going to do something bad” in the hours before he carried out his deadly attack, investigators have revealed.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman, was aware that her husband was planning something “bad” just hours before he opened fire at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, killing 49 people and injuring at least 68 others.
“I knew on Saturday when Omar left the house about 5 p.m. that this was the time that he was going to do something bad. I knew this because of the way he left and took the gun and backpack with ammunition,” Salman reportedly said in a statement.
“I knew later, when I could not get ahold of him that my fears had come true and he did what he said he was going to do,” she reportedly continued. “I was in denial and I could not believe that the father of my child was going to hurt other people.”
She also allegedly revealed to investigators that Mateen had become obsessed with violence in the Middle East and was watching numerous Islamic State (ISIS) recruitment videos and that the couple even drove around the Pulse nightclub a week before the massacre took place.
“How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?” Mateen said, according to Salman’s statement, while she claimed she “knew he was talking about himself doing the attack on the Pulse.”
Salman will face trial in March for providing material support to a terrorist group and obstruction of justice. Defence lawyers for Salman are currently trying to exclude her statements to the FBI as evidence in the trial on grounds that they were coerced by authorities.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.