A man (right) prays at a growing memorial in front of the Dr Phillips Center for the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando on Monday. (Photo: AFP)
A man (right) prays at a growing memorial in front of the Dr Phillips Center for the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando on Monday. (Photo: AFP)
Twenty-nine-year-old Omar Mateen, who gunned down 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, himself might have been gay but chose to hide his true identity out of anger and shame, his former wife has said as authorities looked into reports that he had visited the Florida club several times and also used a gay dating app.
Sitora Yusufiy said she had met Mateen online in 2008 and the two got married in 2009. He “might have been gay but chose to hide his true identity out of anger and shame”, she said.
On Tuesday, US law enforcement officials are investigating repor-ts that Mateen may have been gay himself, but not openly so, with one of them describing the massacre as a possible “self-hate crime”.
A New York Times report had said the FBI was looking at reports that Mateen had used a gay dating app.
Patrons of Pulse, the club where he killed 49 people in the worst shooting case in modern US history, were quoted as saying that he had visited the club several times.
Ms Yusufiy said that her ex-husband had told her that he frequented nightclubs before their marriage, but that he did not tell her they were gay clubs.
CBS News said in a report that club-goers have told investigators that Mateen had been at Pulse previously.
The Orlando Sentinel and other news organisations also quoted regular customers at the gay bar as saying they had seen Mateen there a number of times. “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,” said Ty Smith, a patron at the bar. Mr Smith said he saw Mateen inside the club at least a dozen times.
Meanwhile, the FBI said on Monday that Mateen had expressed sympathy for a variety of Islamist extremists, including groups in the Middle East that are sworn enemies.
“We’re highly confident this killer was radicalised at least in some part through the Internet,” FBI director James Comey said.
