Orlando Shooter's Wife to FBI: I Tried to Talk Him Out of It

Noor Mateen faces charges
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 14, 2016 1:13 PM CDT
Orlando Shooter's Wife to FBI: I Tried to Talk Him Out of It
Port St. Lucie police, along with the FBI, investigate a residence related to the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, on Sunday.   (South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Whispers of another person being charged in the Orlando nightclub attack have been circulating, and that person may have been someone very close to him: his own wife. NBC News reports that the FBI is considering charges against Noor Mateen, the second wife of gunman Omar Mateen, because she may have known about the attack beforehand. She reportedly told federal agents that she tried to dissuade her husband from carrying out the ambush at Pulse nightclub. Noor Mateen—also IDed as Noor Zahi Salman by the New York Daily News—told the FBI she drove her husband to Pulse on at least one previous occasion so he could check it out, reports ABC News.

Noor also told agents she was with him when he loaded up on ammo and a gun holster, officials familiar with the case say. CNN adds info that suggests Omar Mateen may have had an alternative target on his radar: Disney security officials have told the FBI they believe the Mateens visited Disney World in April, per a law enforcement official—though it's not clear if Noor knew of her husband's attack plans at that time—and that Omar Mateen made additional trips to the Disney Springs entertainment and shopping complex in early June in possible surveillance operations. Mateen also had a 3-year-old son and had been married one other time, a reportedly abusive marriage that ended in divorce. (More Pulse Orlando shooting stories.)

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