"I don't want to say sure-sure, but it's familiar," she said.Īlbert Segev, a manager at the Ambassador Hotel, said FBI agents visited the hotel and sought records. She thought she saw his face on the news.
Melanie Mercado, who works at the hotel, said she thought she encountered someone who might have been Mateen. He said the two saw each other for about two months. In the interview with Univision, a man named Miguel claimed he had a relationship with Mateen while living at the Ambassador Hotel in Orlando. Neither West nor Cedeno said they saved any of these conversations on their phones.Ī spokesman for Jack'd has said the company has no records of Omar Mateen having an account, although it is possible that he used the app anonymously. On the day of the massacre, West drove to a police station in the Orlando suburb of Apopka to report that he recognized Mateen from the dating app. "He is not the first and not going to be the last closet case to be on those apps," West said of Mateen. West said it is common for users of such apps to create and delete multiple profiles on multiple mobile devices, making histories hard to track. Kevin West, 38, of Orlando, also maintains that he had numerous conversations with Mateen on a dating app for men. I would never lie about anything like this." There's no reason to make this kind of thing up.
"One of my good friends knew him from Adam4Adam app. "I know Omar was definitely on Grindr," said Cord Cedeno, 23, of Orlando. Still, some maintain they had contact with Mateen on two gay dating apps, Grindr and Jack'd, and stand by their original claims. Comey has said Mateen was radicalized and previously been the target of a terrorism investigation. In a 911 call, Mateen pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State and did not make any homophobic comments. They also added he did not make gay slurs during the shooting spree inside the club, based on witnesses. Officials said there is nothing to suggest that he attempted to cover up his tracks by deleting files. The FBI, however, has been unable to verify that Mateen used gay dating apps and instead has found evidence that Mateen was cheating on his wife with other women. His current wife did not think he was gay, according to a person familiar with the case. One man told the Spanish-language television network Univision that he had slept with Mateen.Įven Mateen's first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, raised the possibility that Mateen was gay but conceded it was a suspicion and nothing more. The assessment is based on interviews and an examination of his computer and other electronic media.Īfter the attack, speculation surfaced that Mateen was gay as people came forward to say they had seen him at the club previously and had contact with him on gay dating apps. Officials said there is no evidence thus far that Mateen, 29, was gay or that his attack was motivated by homophobia. "This was clearly an act of terror and an act of hate."Ī month later, though, a complete picture of what motivated Mateen remains murky and may never be known since he was killed in a shootout with police and did not leave a manifesto. "People often act out of more than one motivation," Attorney General Loretta E. The shooting rattled the gay community, which felt singled out by Mateen. attorney general described it as both a hate crime and an act of Islamic terrorism. Soon after the shooting in the early morning of June 12, top U.S officials such as the FBI director and U.S. "While there can be no denying the significant impact on the gay community, the investigation hasn't revealed that he targeted Pulse because it was a gay club," a U.S. The FBI has found no evidence so far that Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and wounded more than 53 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, chose the popular establishment because of its gay clientele, U.S law enforcement officials said.