FBI let mass killer Omar Mateen go three times as he was ‘not considered a threat’
Investigations were closed due to lack of evidence to warrant further probes — despite link to US suicide bomber in Syria
MASS killer Omar Mateen was freed three times by the FBI because he was not considered a threat.
It left him able to plan his gun rampage yesterday which left 50 people dead and 53 injured at a gay nightclub.
In 2013, security guard Mateen was probed after colleagues said he had been making inflammatory remarks, alleging terrorist ties.
FBI agents interviewed him twice and kept him under surveillance.
But they were unable to verify any ties and inquiries were halted.
In 2014, he was investigated again because of a link to Florida-born Moner Abu-Salha, 22, who became the first American to carry out a suicide bombing in Syria.
An FBI spokesman admitted that Mateen was interviewed three times in total but the investigation was closed on each occasion because he was not considered a threat.
He added: “Contact (with Abu Salha) was minimal and did not constitute a threat.”
RELATED STORIES
Mateen had not been under FBI investigation or surveillance when he carried out the attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Security services were last night investigating whether Mateen — who was born in New York to Afghan immigrant parents — had links with terror groups.
Despite Mateen phoning 911 to declare his allegiance to IS before the killings, his father claimed it was extreme homophobia, not Islamism, that motivated his son.
Seddique Mateen, 59, said: “This has nothing to do with religion”
He claimed his son recently became angry when he saw a gay couple kissing while out with his three-year-old son.
He said: “We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music.
“He saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry.
“They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that’.
“And then we were in the men’s bathroom and men were kissing each other.”
Addressing his son’s atrocity, he added: “We are saying we are apologising for the whole incident.
“We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country.”
Mateen’s ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy claims he would regularly beat her during their brief marriage and that he was mentally unstable.
The pair met online eight years ago and she moved from New Jersey to Florida.
They married there in 2009 and lived in a two-bedroom flat owned by his parents.
She said he “seemed like a normal human being” at first and was not religious.
“He was a very private person,” she said, but he soon became abusive.
She added: “He was not a stable person. He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”
When her parents found out a few months later they flew down to Florida to get her and she fled leaving all her belongings behind.
She said: “They literally saved my life.”
The couple divorced in 2011.
She never saw him again despite him making attempts to get in touch with her.
She said she felt lucky to be alive after hearing about the Orlando massacre. She said: “I am still processing. I’m definitely lucky.”
Mateen had no previous convictions. He legally owned a small-calibre handgun and had a licence to carry a concealed weapon.
He worked at a juvenile detention centre, for which he needed to be vetted and hold a licence.
In a series of MySpace photos, he is seen pouting in selfies and wearing NYPD shirts.
He lived in Port St Lucie, a city on Florida’s east coast with a population of 164,000. It is about a two-hour drive from Orlando.
He attended Martin County High School before going on to Indian River State College in nearby Fort Pierce where he graduated with a degree in criminal justice.
His sister Mariam, 25, runs her own beauty salon.
Locals said they saw no indication that Mateen was interested in radical Islam and none of his family have strong religious views.
But FBI agent Ron Hopper said yesterday he believed the killer may have been influenced by extremist propaganda.
He said: “We have suspicions that the individual may have leanings toward that ideology.”
US Congressman Adam Schiff said the fact the mass shooting had taken place during Ramadan — the Muslim holy festival — and that IS leaders in Raqqa had been urging attacks during this period indicated an IS-inspired attack.
He added: “Whether this attack was also IS-directed, remains to be determined.
“I’m confident that we will know much more in the coming hours and days.”
Last month, IS issued an audio message calling for a wave of “lone wolf attacks” during Ramadan — which began on June 5 in the US and ends there on July 5.
Suspect No2 is held
A SECOND suspect was arrested yesterday on his way to a gay pride event in Los Angeles armed with guns and explosives.
The unnamed man was taken into custody after police in Santa Monica answered a call about a suspected prowler and found the man and his stash of weapons in his car with Indiana number plates.
At least one of the firearms was an assault weapon and he also had tannerite — an active ingredient for a pipe bomb — law enforcement sources claimed.
Santa Monica police spokesman Saul Rodriguez said: “Police were not aware of what the suspect’s intentions were at this point.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.