ORLANDO, FL (WHDH) — According to CNN, the man who shot and killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub exchanged text messages with his wife during the rampage, law enforcement officials said.
Around 4 a.m., holed up in a bathroom about two hours after he started the attack, Omar Mateen texted his wife, Noor Salman, asking if she’s seen the news, the official briefed on the investigation said.
CNN sources said at one point Salman texted that she loved him.
The FBI said it is still gathering evidence at the Pulse and poring through volumes of leads and tips about Mateen and those who knew him, and it urged anyone with any information about the killer to contact the bureau.
“We need your help in developing the most complete picture of what he did and why he did it,” FBI agent Ron Hopper said.
[Dozens remain hospitalized after Orlando nightclub shooting]
An official who was briefed on the case but insisted on anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation said authorities believe that 30-year-old U.S.-born Salman knew ahead of time about Sunday’s attack, but they are reluctant to charge her on that basis alone.
Investigators have spoken extensively with her and are working to establish whether she recently accompanied Mateen to the gay dance club, said a second official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The FBI has also recovered Mateen’s phone and will use location data to verify whether he previously visited the club, the official said.
At a news conference Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley repeatedly refused to say whether any charges might be brought against anyone. He said authorities are talking to hundreds of people and investigating everyone associated with Mateen, including family, friends and business associates.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said Mateen drove around the Orlando area Saturday evening, going from one place to another, before he opened fire at the gay nightspot about 2 a.m. Sunday. The attack ended with the 29-year-old American-born Muslim being killed by a SWAT team.
Orlando is nearly a two-hour drive from Mateen’s home in Fort Pierce, Florida.
“What I know concretely is that he was driving around that evening and visited several locations,” Dyer said.
When asked exactly where Mateen visited, and whether the locations included theme parks as reported in news accounts, the mayor said: “I think it’s been pretty accurately depicted on the news.” He gave no further details.
[GOP scrambles to distance itself from Trump on Orlando]
In Fort Pierce, Florida, where Salman and Mateen lived, Salman made a brief visit to their first-floor apartment late Monday, escorted by police and her brother-in-law. Her father-in-law said she came to retrieve clothing. She did not speak with reporters.
She has otherwise been in seclusion.
Three people identifying themselves as FBI agents visited Salman’s childhood home in Rodeo, California, on Tuesday and spoke with her mother, said Jessie Rojas, a next-door neighbor. Rodeo is in the dry hills near the oil refineries 25 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Salman and Mateen married in 2011 and have a 3-year-old son. Marriage documents on file in the Contra Costa County Recorder’s office list Salman’s parents’ birthplace as Palestine. Their naturalization papers allowing them to stay in the country were approved in 1984.
[A night of terror at club Pulse: 1 young woman’s story]
In other developments:
— A newly unearthed clip from a film documentary about the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shows Mateen — then working as a security guard at a cleanup site in Florida — talking cynically about people who make money off disasters.
— The clip from 2012’s “The Big Fix” shows Mateen telling a woman who pulls up to his guard booth that everyone is “hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain so they’ll have the jobs.”
— Security firm G4S confirmed Wednesday that the guard in the clip is Mateen and said he was stationed in Pensacola, Florida, for several months in 2010 to assist with the cleanup.
— Florida documents obtained by The Associated Press under open-records laws show that Mateen passed a psychological evaluation in 2007 as part of his application to be a security guard. The records say he took a written psychological test or was evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)