BEIRUT – People close to the gunman behind the attack on a gay nightclub in Florida on Sunday that left 50 dead, paint a picture of a violent and prejudiced young man.
The suspect, Omar Mateen, 29, is a Muslim American of Afghan descent and law enforcers were investigating whether he had ties to or was inspired by Islamist extremism, after a source linked to the Islamic State group claimed the attack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said he apparently made a 911 call just before the massacre to claim allegiance to Islamic State.
But relatives interviewed by US media said Mateen, who worked as a security officer and had a wife and young son, was not especially religious.
They did, however, describe a man who had anti-gay views, mental health problems and was physically abusive to his ex-wife.
Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, said his son had recently been offended to see two gay men expressing affection on a Miami street.
“We were in downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music,” the shocked father told NBC News in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
“And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry,” Seddique said.
The father is a minor celebrity in Afghan political circles, hosting an occasional television show in which he expressed hardline views.
In the “Durand Jirga Show,” available on YouTube, he rails against the Pakistani government and announced a quixotic bid to seek the Afghan presidency.
“We are in shock like the whole country,” Seddique added. “This had nothing to do with religion.”
‘Mentally ill’
Mateen’s ex-wife said he was violent and mentally unstable – but not a religious extremist.
“A few months after we were married I saw his instability, and I saw that he was bipolar and he would get mad out of nowhere,” Sitora Yusufiy told reporters outside her home in Boulder, Colorado.
“After a few months he started abusing me physically... not allowing me to speak to my family, keeping me hostage from them.”
Yusufiy, who met Mateen online and married him in 2009, said he was a practicing Muslim but showed no signs of radicalization.
“There was no sign of any of this at all,” she said.
She noted that Mateen was “mentally unstable and mentally ill” and had a history of steroid use.
Steroids can cause mental problems including paranoia and delusional thoughts.
When they split, “my family literally rescued me... they had to pull me out of his arms and find an emergency flight.”
The pair were divorced in 2011, according to a court document seen by AFP, and Yusufiy said she has not had contact with Mateen in years.
Regular at mosque
The imam of the mosque where Mateen worshipped said he came to evening prayers three or four times a week, bringing his son who is about four or five years old.
“He would pray and his son would play,” said Syed Shafeeq Rahman of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, who has known Mateen since 2003 when he became the imam.
Mateen did not socialize, leaving when services ended.
He didn’t talk but would smile and shake hands, Rahman told AFP.
“I never expected this,” Rahman said, holding a Koran in his hand as he spoke with reporters. “We teach peace and justice.”
“It must be some kind of psychological problem or anger problem,” the imam said, adding that Mateen might have been radicalized on the Internet.
Bedar Bakht, who knew Mateen as a boy, said he saw him less than a week ago at the mosque with his young son, and that he seemed sad and was very quiet.
Mateen liked to talk about religion and could be intimidating when he argued, he said.
“He was very direct and really into bodybuilding,” Bakht said. “He was huge at one point.”
“He would tell you if he didn’t agree with you,” he said. “He may have had some anger issues.”
But Bakht said he never saw Mateen speak with hatred of any other group.
“He was respectful,” he said. “I never heard him insulting women or gays.”
Mateen owned a small caliber handgun and worked as a guard at a secure facility for juvenile delinquents.
Authorities said he bought a handgun and a long gun two days before the attack.
According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services website, he had a gun license set to expire in September of next year.
The FBI said Mateen was investigated twice for possible extremist views and contact with a US suicide bomber in 2013 and 2014 but never prosecuted.
IS claims Orlando shooting
Yesterday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Orlando shooting that killed 50 people,” saying in a radio bulletin that it was carried out by “one of the soldiers of the caliphate.”
“God allowed Omar Mateen, one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America, to carry out an attack entering a crusader gathering in a night club... in Orlando in Florida, killing and wounding more than 100 of them,” a bulletin from Al-Bayan radio said.
The jihadist group declared its “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq in 2014.
The IS-linked news agency Amaq said on Sunday that the attack had been “carried out by an Islamic State fighter.”
US media reported that Mateen had pledged allegiance to the jihadist group IS.
The FBI has admitted that Mateen – who was born to Afghan parents in New York – had previously been investigated, but cleared, for ties to a US suicide bomber.
Global condemnation
US President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and Queen Elizabeth II led global condemnation of the Florida shooting.
Pope Francis condemned the killings as “homicidal folly and senseless hatred” while Obama described them as “an act of terror and an act of hate.”
According to a tweet from the British royal family’s official account, the queen was “shocked” by the attack, adding that the monarch and her husband’s “thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected.”
The attack in which the gunman opened fire at a packed nightclub in Orlando, Florida, is the worst mass shooting in US history.
Leaders from countries shaken by recent jihadist attacks, including France and Belgium, were among the first to express solidarity with the US.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sent his condolences to the families of the victims.
“I unequivocally condemn the horrific attack in Orlando… Nothing can justify killing of civilians,” Ghani tweeted.
Reacting to the latest in a litany of mass gun killings in the US, Obama said the FBI was “appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism.”
“Although it’s still early in the investigation, we know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate,” he said, later ordering flags at half-staff as an act of mourning.
In a statement from the Holy See, the pope lamented the tragic loss of life.
The attack had “caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation... before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred,” said the statement.
“We all hope that ways may be found, as soon as possible, to effectively identify and contrast the causes of such terrible and absurd violence,” it added.
‘Barbaric crime’
In France, which remains on edge after Islamic State group jihadists killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015, President Francois Hollande reacted “with horror.”
The president “expresses the full support of France and the French people to the US authorities and the American people during this ordeal,” a statement from the Elysee Palace said.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls also expressed his “compassion” and “solidarity” with the American people.
“By striking the gay community, this terrible Orlando attack reaches us all,” he wrote in French on Twitter.
Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel tweeted his condolences over the attack, which comes two-and-and-half months after dual strikes by jihadists on Brussels airport and metro that killed 32 people.
“Deeply saddened by the loss of so many innocent lives in Orlando shooting. We join families in their grief,” he said.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter he was “horrified” by the shooting. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country saw four people shot dead by two Palestinian gunmen on Wednesday, also described the killings as “horrific.”
“On behalf of the people and government of Israel, I extend our deepest condolences to the American people following last night’s horrific attack on the LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) community in Orlando,” he said in a statement issued in English.
“Israel stands shoulder to shoulder with the United States at this moment of tragic loss,” Netanyahu added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, in a Kremlin statement called the killings “a barbaric crime.”
No Pinoy casualty
In Manila, foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the honorary consul general in Orlando reported to the Philippine embassy in Washington that “so far there are no reports of Filipinos among the casualties in the Florida shooting.”
In a press briefing, Jose said the embassy continues to coordinate with authorities in Orlando as well as the Filipino community there to gather more information.
Gay discrimination
In their respective Twitter accounts, Philippine senators also gave their respective reactions to the Florida shooting.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago described the incident as “appalling and heartbreaking,” particularly because it apparently targeted the LGBT community. – With Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy, Pia Lee-Brago, Paolo Romero