UK Edition
Orlando shooter's wife 'knew he was planning attack', reports say
The wife of Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016, allegedly knew he was preparing for the deadly attack, according to reports of a handwritten statement she gave to the FBI.
Hours after the shooting, Noor Salman is said to have told agents that she knew her husband's plans and that he was going to target the Orlando club when he left their home.
"My fears had come true and he did what he said he was going to do. I was in denial and I could not believe that the father of my child was going to hurt other people," she wrote.
"He said if he did jihad everybody would know who he is."
The mother of one added that during the two-years before the attack, Mateen would look at jihad websites almost every day and watch beheading videos. He was angry and frustrated about treatment of Muslims in the Middle East and talked about retaliating against Americans.
However, it appeared the 12 page statement, which was released among a batch of papers relating to the case at the end of December and obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, was made without a lawyer present and before she was read her legal rights. Her lawyers have been fighting against the use of it in court.
Prosecutors have said she was not under arrest and that all of her statements were voluntary.
Ms Salman was arrested last year charged with providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence and pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. At that time she said Mateen abused her and that she was unaware of his plans.
But in the earlier statement she wrote that Mateen bought a rifle about four days before the attack. She saw it in the trunk of his car and asked him about it. He told her not to say "anything to anybody," covered it up then said it was for his security guard job.
Days ahead of the attack, Mateen, who died in the attack, bought ammunition and went to the shooting range "a lot," Ms Salman wrote. He also spent a large amount of money and made Ms Salman a beneficiary on his bank accounts, telling her it was "in case something happened," she wrote.
In the statement, she described driving slowly by several destinations, including Disney World and Pulse nightclub, before the shooting. He asked Ms Salman when driving by Pulse, "How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?" the statement said.
Two days before the shooting, Ms Salman saw Mateen looking at the website for the club. When she saw what he was doing, he said, "this is my target," the statement reads.
Ms Salman told FBI agents, "I knew that the time to attack the club was close."
The night before the attack, he left the house and looked "pumped up," she wrote in the statement, adding he told her, "This is the one day."
He had a handgun in a holster around his waist and put on a backpack that had ammunition inside, she wrote, adding she knew "this was the time that he was going to do something bad."
"I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,"