Orlando shooting: Mateen’s wife knew of his plans, could be charged

People hold rainbow flags and letters which say “ORLANDO” during a march organised by the Greek LGBTQ community in Athens, to pay tribute for the victims of the Orlando shooting. (Photo: AFP)

The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub could face criminal charges after a federal grand jury was convened to study possible wrongdoing by her, a law enforcement source said.

Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman, knew of his plans for what became the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, said the law enforcement source, who has been briefed on the matter.

US Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which rece-ived a briefing on the investigation into Sund-ay’s massacre, told CNN it appeared Ms Salman had “some knowledge” of what was going on.

“She definitely is, I guess you would say, a person of interest right now and appears to be cooperating and can provide us with some important information,” Mr King said.

Ms Salman was with Mateen when he cased possible targets in the past two months, including the Walt Disney World Resort in April, a shopping complex called Disney Springs and the Pulse nightclub in early June.

Mateen, a New York-born US citizen of Afghan heritage, was shot dead by the police after a three-hour rampage through the Pulse nightclub. The attack was the deadliest on US soil since thehijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer opened a family assistance centre at a stadium on Wednesday to provide help to victims of the attack and their survivors. Autops-ies had been completed on all 49 dead, and that about 20 bodies had been released to funeral homes, he said.

Meanwhile, news that Mateen was an employee of G4S, the world’s largest global security firm, wiped almost $282.80 million off the company on Monday, but some financial analysts said they expect little long-term damage to the company.

The company said it had conducted two scre-enings of Mateen, once when he was hired in 2007 and again in 2013. Neither brought up anything of concern. As part of his screening for G4S, Mateen underwent a psychometric test, an ID verification test, and a criminal rec-ord check.