Terrorism in OrlandoWhat we know about Omar Mateen

Published 13 June 2016

Omar Mateen, 29, was born in New York to Afghan parents. Since September 2007 he had worked as a security guard for G4 Security in Florida. The large security contractor provides security personnel to guard building, among them federal buildings. He underwent background checks in both 2007 and 2013. In March, British born Islamic preacher Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar gave a speech outside Orlando in which he called for the death of all homosexuals. “Death is the sentence. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence,” he said.

What we know about the man behind America’s worst-ever mass shooting:

  • Omar Mateen, 29, was born in New York to Afghan parents.
  • Since September 2007 he had worked as a security guard for G4 Security in Florida. The large security contractor provides security personnel to guard building, among them federal buildings. He underwent background checks in both 2007 and 2013.
  • He had a licence for concealed carry — in Florida, you do not require a permit to carry a weapon, but you do to conceal it.
  • He lived in the Port St. Lucie area.
  • He was married to Sitora Yusifiy in New Jersey. The pair had met online around eight years ago, and she moved to Florida to marry him. They were married for only four months.
  • She told the Washington Post that “He was not a stable person.” She described him as a violent man who beat her regularly. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”
  • Yusifiy said Mateen was bipolar and also had a history with steroids.
  • She said that he cut her off from her family, and that members of her family, who came to their home to rescue her from the situation, had to use considerable force literally to pull her out of his arms, because he would not let go of her. She added that she has had no contact with him for seven or eight years.
  • The Daily Beast reports that he was known to the police, having become “a person of interest” in 2013 and again in 2014. A senior law enforcement source told the Beast that the FBI at one point opened an investigation into Mateen, but that the case was subsequently closed when the investigation produced nothing that appeared to warrant further investigation.
  • In March, British born Islamic preacher Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar gave a speech outside Orlando in which he called for the death of all homosexuals. “Death is the sentence. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence,” he said.