The first law-enforcement source told The Daily Beast there is no immediate indication that Mateen had any direct connection to ISIS.
(A similar pledge was made online by the San Bernardino terrorists before they shot and killed 14 people last year.) Two law-enforcement officials told The Daily Beast that immediately before starting his rampage, Mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State. “Long live Afghanistan,” a posting on Seddique Mateen’s Facebook page declares. Lucie, Florida address where both the father and Omar Mateen appear to reside.Īn online posting by the father insists that what is now the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan should be returned to Afghanistan. The non-profit was formed in 2010 and is registered at the Port St. Mir Seddique Mateen appears to reside in Florida, but is said to be presently running for office in Afghanistan.įlorida incorporation papers indicate that a Seddique Mateen heads a non-profit organization, The Durand Jirga, Inc. He’s a supporter of the Afghan Taliban, according to The Washington Post. We are in shock like the whole country.”The attack, he said, “has nothing to do with religion.”But the father may not be the most credible of sources. “We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that the sight of two men in Miami kissing angered his son.“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident,” the father added. Mateen’s parents are from Afghanistan but he was not very religious, she said, adding that he “seemed like a normal human being.” He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.” “He was not a stable person,” the ex-wife said.
That woman told The Washington Post that he repeatedly abused her during their marriage, which lasted from April 2009 to July 2011. Late Friday a man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot Christina Grimmie, a rising singing star and a former contestant on "The Voice", while she was signing autographs after a concert in the Florida city.The senior law-enforcement source told The Daily Beast that Mateen was born in New York and was married for a time to a woman from New Jersey. It was the second deadly shooting at an Orlando night spot in as many nights. Bomb sniffing dogs were also on the scene, CNN reported. Video posted online showed a large number of police and emergency vehicles outside the nightclub. They described the scene as a "fluid situation". Police said they had carried out a "controlled explosion" at the club hours after the shooting broke out, but did not say why that was done. "I saw two guys and it was constant, like 'pow, pow, pow,'." "There were so many (shots), at least 40," he said. Javer Antonetti, 53, told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper that he was near the back of the dance club when he heard the gunfire. and that he heard about 40 shots being fired. One man who said he was inside the club posted that the shooting broke out around 2 a.m. Several patrons had posted on social media that a gunman was holed up inside and holding hostages. A news conference was scheduled for 7 a.m. Police have not confirmed if there were any other people killed or the specific number of injuries. The dance club urged patrons to "get out" and "keep running" in a post on its Facebook page. Officers said in a Twitter message that there were "multiple injuries" at the Pulse nightclub and local media reported that between seven and 20 people had been shot. Gunfire erupted at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida early on Sunday, causing mass casualties and leaving one suspected gunman dead inside, police said.