The couple was together for only four months, she said in remarks televised from Boulder, Colorado, and the two had no contact for the last seven or eight years. Mateen was short-tempered and had a history with steroids, she said. She described him as religious but not radical. He wanted to be a police officer and applied to a police academy, but she had no details.Ī law enforcement official said the gunman made a 911 call from the club in which he professed allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The official was familiar with the investigation, but was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The extremist group did not officially claim responsibility for the attack, but the IS-run Aamaq news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the attack was carried out by an Islamic State fighter.Įven if the attacker supported IS, it was unclear whether the group planned or knew of the attack beforehand. Mateen was not unknown to law enforcement: In 2013, he made inflammatory comments to co-workers and was interviewed twice, according to FBI agent Ronald Hopper, who called the interviews inconclusive.
