Orlando shooter was regular at Pulse gay club; former classmate says Omar Mateen was homosexual
Omar Mateen lived a double life.
The homophobic maniac who murdered 49 people inside Orlando’s gay-friendly nightclub Pulse Sunday morning had been hanging out there for three years — and chatted with men via online dating services like Grindr, said multiple witnesses who claimed to have firsthand knowledge of Mateen’s habits.
Mateen’s family said his bloody rampage was sparked by anti-gay hatred.
But his ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, when asked on CNN Monday if he was gay, sat in silence for a few seconds before answering, “I don’t know.”
She said Mateen — who she married in 2009 but left months later, claiming he beat her — confessed to her that he liked to go nightclubbing.
Investigators work the scene following a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, U.S. June 12, 2016.
(CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS)
“When we had gotten married, he confessed to me about his past -- that was recent at that time -- and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife," Yusufiy said. "So, I feel like it's a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn't want everybody to know about."
As rumors circulated that Mateen had been hiding a double life, his father Seddique Mateen insisted Monday his son was not gay.
"It's not true. Why, if he is gay, would he do this?" said the elder Mateen.
"If it was true I would say yes, if it's not true I say it's not true,” he added.
Callen said that he and his husband, Ty Smith had seen Pulse Night Club shooter, Omar Mateen at the Club off and on over the past three years.
(EDGAR SANDOVAL / NEW YORK DAILY )
A former classmate of Omar Mateen’s 2006 police academy class, however, said he believed Mateen was gay.
Speaking to WFTV9 in Orlando, the classmate, who asked not to be named, said he was gay in 2006 but had not yet come out about his sexuality.
Mateen had asked him out, the classmate said.
“We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer,” the former classmate said.
“He just wanted to fit in and no one liked him,” he said. “He was always socially awkward,” the classmate told WFTV9.
Mateen, who had married again, this time to Noor Salman who bore him a son, also visited Pulse several times over the past three years, according to club patrons.
One couple, who work together as drag-dancing performers, said they’d seen Mateen as many as a dozen times at Pulse.
Ty Smith and Chris Callen also said they’d seen him escorted drunk from the club more than once.
Chris Callen, 34, goes by the stage name of Kristina McLaughlin.
(EDGAR SANDOVAL / NEW YORK DAILY )
“I’ve seen him a couple of times at Pulse, a couple of other people that I’ve spoken with, including an-ex security guard, have actually witnessed this guy at Pulse many times before,” said Callen, who performs as Kristina McLauglin.
“One friend was a security guard there two years ago and she remembers him,” Callen told the Daily News.
He estimates Mateen began showing up about three years ago. Everybody was blown away to realize he was the man responsible for the slaughter.
“It’s shocking to everyone because we saw him there before,” said Callen.
This undated image provided by the Orlando Police Department shows Omar Mateen.
(AP)
He said one night Mateen got angry about a religious joke and pulled a knife on a friend. But it was nothing the friend couldn’t handle, Callen said.
The performer recalled his first words with Mateen three years ago.
“He was a nice guy,” he said of the shooter. “He was at the bar. He was actually talking with another guy. I turned around. I was in drag. I said hello. He seemed comfortable,” Callen said.
“As I was onstage he was standing next to somebody, having a conversation, having a good time close to the stage. Later on that night ... he was out there dancing with another guy. It could be he just went crazy. Maybe he got radicalized and hated who he was,” Callen said.
Chris Callen and Ty Smith also said they’d seen him escorted drunk from Pulse more than once.
(COURTESY OF CHRIS CALLEN)
Callen and his husband said they were headed to Pulse that night after celebrating Smith’s 40th birthday.
But Smith was too tired to make it, so they went home.
“We could have been there. So far, I know 12 people (who) didn’t make it,” said Callen.
The couple said they didn’t buy the story spun by Mateen’s father. Seddique Mateen told NBC News immediately after the attack that his son had been motivated by rage after seeing two men kissing recently in Miami.
Saddique Mir Mateen, father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen.
(JOE CAVARETTA/AP)
Mateen, who spent part of his early life in Queens and Westbury, L.I., had seen plenty of public displays of affection between gay couples before his Sunday blood bath.
“That’s bullcrap, right there. No offense. That’s straight-up crap. He’s been around us,” Smith told the Canadian Press earlier Monday.
“Some of those people did a little more than (kiss) outside the bar. ... He was partying with the people who supposedly drove him to do this?" Smith said.
Another report claimed Mateen was known to contact men on gay online apps. At least one man came forward Monday to say Mateen had contacted him on Grindr, according to MSNBC.
The man also said he knew friends who’d been contacted by Mateen on Jack’d and Adam4Adam, other online gay dating services.
Callen and Smith said Mateen liked to let loose at Pulse in a way he could not around his religious family at home.
“(He’d get) really, really drunk. ... He couldn’t drink when he was at home — around his wife, or family. His father was really strict. ... He used to bitch about it,” Smith told Canadian Press.
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