‘A bigot to almost every class of person’ “I hope people can truly understand that this is one insane person that did such a tragic thing.” And it doesn’t surprise me that he was leading two totally different lives and was in such deep conflict within himself,” she told CNN’s Don Lemon. “It doesn’t surprise me that he might be gay. The gunman’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said she does not know what kind of lifestyle he led. He emphasized his belief that his son, who was married with a child, was straight.
“I don’t know if he was, if that was his way of his life, but I don’t believe so,” Seddique Mateen told reporters at his home in Port St. The gunman’s father said Tuesday he doesn’t believe his son was gay.Īfter reports emerged that his son previously visited Pulse nightclub several times before he gunned down dozens early Sunday, Seddique Mateen said he saw nothing that implied his son was gay. No men have publicly come forward claiming to have had sexual contact with him. Those claims “certainly change the perspective,” the source said. A former colleague said he constantly made homophobic, sexist and racist remarks.įBI agents are interviewing people who claim they met the gunman on gay dating apps, a law enforcement official told CNN’s Pamela Brown. Mateen often made inflammatory remarks and expressed outrage at the sight of two men kissing, law enforcement officials said. Investigators do not know whether he visited the chat rooms for personal reasons or for surveillance purposes ahead of the attack, nor whether he visited the club for pleasure or for planning. Of those wounded, 28 are still hospitalized, including at least four people in critical condition.ĭays after the attack, sources revealed he not only visited gay chat rooms, he also frequented the same nightclub he would eventually terrorize. Mateen stormed the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, massacring 49 people and wounding more than 50 others in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. ORLANDO, Florida - Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mir Seddique Mateen visited online gay chat rooms despite his aversion toward people leading that type of lifestyle, two law enforcement officials said. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
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