Terror in OrlandoOrlando shooter may have struggled with his sexual orientation
U.S. law enforcement is looking into a new angle to the Orlando massacre: Mateen’s sexual orientation. The former wife and acquaintances of Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed forty-nine people in an Orlando club, have said he may have struggled with his sexual orientation. Mateeen had been a regular at the Pulse, and tried to pick up men on gay chats and gay dating apps. “We are working to understand what role anti-gay bigotry may have played in motivating this attack,” FBI director James Comey said, adding: “But we are highly confident that this killer was radicalized and at least in some part through the Internet.”
U.S. law enforcement is looking into a new angle to the Orlando massacre: Mateen’s sexual orientation.
The former wife and acquaintances of Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed forty-nine people in an Orlando club, have said he may have struggled with his sexual orientation.
His former wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told her fiancé that Mateen had “gay tendencies.” In an interview with SBT Brazil television, Marcio Dias said she recalled Mateen’s father accusing him of being homosexual several times in front of her before they divorced in 2011.
The Palm Beach Post reports that aman who was Mateen’s class at the Indian River Community College police academy in 2006 said he showed romantic interest.
The man, who did not want to be named, told thePalm Beach Post: “We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer.”
He believed Mateen was gay but was not open about his preference, describing him as “socially awkward.”
Another man said Mateen had messaged him for a year on the gay chat and dating app Jack’d but that they never met up.
Kevin West told theLos Angeles Times he was dropping off a friend at Pulse at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning when he recognized him crossing the road. “He walked directly past me. I said, ‘Hey,’ and he turned and said, ‘Hey,’” and nodded his head, West said. “I could tell by the eyes.”
Several regulars at the club told the Orlando Sentinel Mateen had visited the club before and told drinkers he had a child, as well as talking about his father.
“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” Ty Smith said.
Another frequent patron at Pulse, Jim Van Horn, described Mateen as a “regular.”
“He was trying to pick up people. Men,” he told the AP, saying the man had once told him about his ex-wife.
The FBI said it was investigating whether Mateen had visited venues to scout them out for a possible attack.
“We are working to understand what role anti-gay bigotry may have played in motivating this attack,” director James Comey said.
“But we are highly confident that this killer was radicalized and at least in some part through the Internet.”
Comey added that Mateen had made statements in support of several militant Islamist movements – some of them fighting each other — which ”adds a little bit to the confusion about his motives.”
