Orlando Shooter's Wife Maybe Knew All His Murderous Plans, So That's Just Great

What did she know and when?

Remember how we have been telling you from the beginning that this godawful Orlando mass shooting seems to have a lot of moving parts? How just about the only "easy" thing to say about it is that the murderer Omar Mateen specifically targeted the LGBT community? On top of that, he may have been recently radicalized; he very likely was a severely repressed closet case; and oh yeah, that thing about how it was so easy for him to get a goddamned AR-15 (even though he had been investigated by the FBI in the past) that Florida might as well give them away as Happy Meal toys.

Well, here is another piece to add to this already very complex mosaic. Mateen's current wife, Noor Zahi Salman, may very well have known about her husband's plans to commit mass murder:

The Orlando gunman's wife has told federal agents she tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the attack, NBC News has learned.

Omar Mateen's current wife, Noor, told the FBI she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the case said. She told the FBI that she once drove him to the gay nightclub, Pulse, because he wanted to scope it out.

She may face criminal charges, and if she actually knew what was up, she goddamn well should.

[wonkbar]<a href="https: //wonkette.substack.com/p/sounds-like-orlando-gay-club-shooter-was-raging-closet-case-bet-you-didnt-see-that-coming"></a>[/wonkbar]But good lord, this brings up even more questions than it answers, doesn't it? If she tried to talk him out of committing mass murder with all the ammo he bought in her presence, why in the hell didn't she go to authorities?

And what did she know specifically ? Because CNN is reporting that, on top of her driving him to Pulse to "scope it out," the couple also visited Disney World in April, and Disney has told the FBI that it believes Mateen was casing the place. And that's not the last time he stopped by Disney:

Omar Mir Seddique Mateen's visits at Pulse and Disney Springs happened between June 1 and June 6, said the official, who has knowledge of the investigation. The number of visits to each venue was not specified.

The dates coincided with Gay Days 2016 celebrations taking place at Walt Disney World and other Orlando locations between May 31 and June 6.

He went during Gay Days. What a shock. He also reportedly showed up at Disney Springs on the Saturday before the attacks.

One of the giant red flags about Mateen as a human being is that he had a history of domestic violence. So maybe, perhaps, did his wife not report what she knew because she was afraid of him? According to the Washington Post , she may have already left him by the time he committed his crimes. But maybe not, according to the Daily Mail! Was she in the process of trying to get out?

[wonkbar]<a href="https: //wonkette.substack.com/p/are-the-orlando-gay-club-shootings-about-you-or-should-you-stfu-a-wonksplainer"></a>[/wonkbar]Was Mateen lying to his wife about his alleged unfamiliarity with Pulse? Was he trying to cover his closeted gay tracks by having her drive him to the place so he could "scope it out"? Because if we are to believe the multiple witnesses from Pulse, one of whom had talked to Mateen on a gay hookup app for over a year and only first encountered him in person on the night of the attacks , he knew exactly where he was going that night. But maybe he couldn't admit that to his wife, because his public face with her was that he was a straight man who intended to rid the world of queers?

Seriously, what the hell? Who is lying here? Is the wife lying? Are ALL THE GAYS who recognized Mateen as a regular patron of Pulse, and chatted him up on Grindr, mistaken in their recollections? ALL THE QUESTIONS.

Sadly, we doubt any of them will be fully answered any time soon.

[ NBC / CNN ]