Wife of Orlando mass shooter accused of knowing he was planning attack

Van Horn said he met Mateen once.

An FBI investigator works at the crime scene at Pulse club.

According to NY Post, law enforcement reportedly obtained footage of Salman accompanying Mateen while the two shopped for ammunition at an unnamed store.

SWAT officers had severed a water main while tearing down a wall to rescue hostages, officials said.

The items included a Dell computer, a smartphone, a digital camera and related media.

The letter illuminating Mateen’s state of mind in the final hours of his life was released as the long, sad procession of memorials and funerals for the victims began in Orlando and as the Federal Bureau of Investigation appealed for the public’s help in reconstructing the killer’s movements. FBI Director James Comey would not say Tuesday whether authorities have accessed the phone.

Mateen made derogatory comments about gays and expressed outrage over the sight of two men kissing, according to reports. He had been talking about it for months, if not years. “He just wanted to fit in and no one liked him”, he said.

“My partner said that he was very nice (and seemed) comfortable”.

However, Mateen’s father Seddique Mir Mateen denied reports his son was gay. “That’s not even thinking about the bodies on the ground”, he told CNN.

He said he wished he could have done something to prevent the tragedy. “It’s me. I am the shooter”. “I will wait till (law enforcement officials) tells me”, he said.

Mateen’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, has described him as mentally unstable and an abusive man who used to beat her.

“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”, she said.

“He would get mad out of nowhere”. “And I was thinking about the families of the victims – they have kids and they lost their loved ones”. “Pulse gave me confidence, made me realize I was normal and so much like everyone else”.

The FBI has acknowledged it first became aware of Omar Mateen in 2013.

The president also blasted Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric as risky and contrary to American values, challenged Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, and lashed out at his Republican foes who have criticized him for not using the term “radical Islam”.

“We’re still working through that”, Comey said.

Federal investigators are focused on Mateen’s and Salman’s activities in the days and weeks leading up to rampage.

“There are strong indications of radicalization by this killer and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations”, Comey said.

When he left their home Saturday, hours before the shooting attack, Mateen lied about where he was going, she told investigators. He also called an Orlando television news station during the attack and said he pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Mateen claimed he made the remarks in anger because co-workers were teasing him and discriminating against him as a Muslim, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation eventually closed the case, Comey said.

Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, indicated soon after the attack that his son had harboured strong anti-gay feelings and on Tuesday he said his son had never mentioned being homosexual.

The Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations quoted regular customers at the gay bar as saying they had seen Mateen there a number of times.

The father had an occasional television show on an Afghan satellite channel in which he regularly criticized Afghanistan’s government and Pakistan.