Orlando nightclub gunman 'was gay and visited Pulse regularly,' say ex-wife

Killer: Omar Mateen
Laura Proto14 June 2016

The gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida was gay himself, according to his ex-wife and former classmates.

But the 29-year-old’s ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, and others who survived the massacre have said Mateen had visited the nightclub on several occasions.

Ms Yusufiy told a Brazilian TV station Mateen had “gay tendencies” and said his own father had called him gay in front of her.

A regular Pulse goer also claimed Mateen had been messaging him sporadically on a gay dating app for about a year.

Kevin West told the Orlando Sentinel he saw the gunman outside the club about an hour before he began shooting and said he instantly recognised him.

Another clubber, Ty Smith, said he had seen Mateen at the club “at least a dozen” times.

Orlando shooting victims

1/49

He said: “Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent.”

The Palm Beach Post also reported a former classmate of Mateen’s said the gunman asked him out on a date almost 10 years ago and they used to go to gay clubs together.

He said he thought Mateen was gay but had not come out.

He added: “He just wanted to fit in and no one liked him. He was always socially awkward.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in