Orlando: Omar Mateen allegedly gunned down 50 people at Orlando's gay nightclub in the early hours of Sunday in the deadliest shooting incident in modern US history.
Mateen carried an assault rifle and a pistol into the packed Pulse club about 2 a.m. and went on a rampage killing 50 people and wounding at least 53.
Mateen called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers, a CNN report quoted a U.S. official as saying. He was subsequently gunned down by the SWAT team.
FBI officials say the 29-year-old appeared to "have leanings towards" radical Islamist ideology. He had twice been questioned by FBI agents in recent years.
The 29-year-old with roots from Afghanistan was a body builder and a security guard, a religious man who attended the local mosque and who at one point expressed interest in becoming a police officer, though he never pursued it.
Mateen was the son of an Afghan immigrant who had a talk show in the United States, the nature of which was not entirely clear: A former Afghan official said the programme was pro-Taliban and a former colleague said it was enthusiastically pro-American.
He was physically abusive and had mental issues: Ex wife
Omar Mateen’s former wife says he was physically abusive towards her, had mental health issues and was “obviously disturbed, deeply, and traumatised”.
“In the beginning, he was a normal being that cared about family, loved to joke, loved to have fun,” Yusifiy said of Mateen, whom she had met online.
“A few months after we were married I saw his instability, I saw his bipolar, and he would get mad out of nowhere, and that’s when I started worrying about my safety.
“Then after a few months, he started abusing me physically, very often, and not allowing me to speak to my family, and keeping me hostage from them,” she said.
Mateen's father says Homophobia may be the cause of shooting
Seddique Mir Mateen, Mateen's father, told NBC News that "this has nothing to do with religion" in spite of reports that his son had declared his allegiance to ISIS.
The father said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thought that might be related to the shooting.
"We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren't aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock, like the whole country," Seddique Mir Mateen said.
Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of the alleged shooter, is a life insurance salesperson who started a group in 2010 called Durand Jirga, Inc., according to Qasim Tarin, a businessman from California who was a Durand Jirga board member. The name refers to the Durand line, the long disputed border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tarin said Seddique had a television show named “Durand Jirga Show” on which they discussed issues facing Afghanistan.
Mateen was not very social: Imam Rahman
Mateen attended evening prayer services at the city’s Islamic Center three to four times a week, most recently with his young son, said Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman. Although he was not very social, he also showed no signs of violence, Rahman said. He said he last saw Mateen on Friday.
“When he finished prayer he would just leave,” Rahman told The Associated Press. “He would not socialise with anybody. He would be quiet. He would be very peaceful.”
They say Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a call to 911 on the morning of the shooting.
Rahman doesn’t think the attack was political or due to anti-American sentiment, though. He said it was more likely the result of psychological issues Mateen may have had.
“My personal opinion is that this has nothing to do with ISIS,” he said.
Authorities immediately began investigating whether the assault was an act of terrorism. A law enforcement official said the gunman made a 911 call from the nightclub professing allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The law enforcement official is familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Quizzed by FBI but was not considered a threat
The FBI first looked into Mateen in 2013 because of a statement he had made about radical Islamic propaganda. The shooter in 2013 made inflammatory comments to co-workers, and Mateen was interviewed twice, FBI agent Ronald Hopper said. He called those interviews inconclusive. In 2014, Hopper said, officials found that Mateen had ties to an American suicide bomber. He described the contact as minimal, saying it did not constitute a threat at the time.
Mateen purchased at least two firearms legally within the last week or so, according to Trevor Velinor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Rahman said he knew Mateen and his family since the shooter was a young boy. Playful as a child, he became more serious as an adult, Rahman said. He spoke both English and Farsi, and at one point wanted to become a police officer but never pursued it, the Imam said. He was also into body building. He was not, as far as the Imam could see, someone who would ever commit such a gruesome act of mass violence.
The shooting “was totally unexpected,” Rahman said.
