Investigators Say Orlando Shooter was Regular at Pulse, Used Gay Dating App
Numerous interviews have been done in an effort to gather as much data as possible on Orlando club shooter Omar Mateen. Investigators have unearthed record of him glorifying and claiming to have met Boston Bomber brothers Tamerlin and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, and discovered record of a history of domestic abuse against his wife Sitora Yusufiy at home. Now comes word from talks had with regulars at Pulse nightclub, that Mateen was a familiar face at the gay establishment where the recent shooting took place. There is also news that the 29-year-old had exchanged messages on a gay dating app.
'It"s the same guy. He"s been going to this bar for at least three years,' Chris Callen, who performs in drag under the alias Kristina McLaughlin, told the Canadian Press on Monday. Callen's husband Ty Smith also recalled Mateen's acquiesces among the Pulse regulars, stating, '(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 b**** about it.'
Smith told the Canadian Press that he and Callen discontinued their relationship with Mateen after he pulled a knife in the face of a religious joke, but they described him none the less as a "jokester" who seemed relatively easy around the crowd and "didn't have an issue with the LGBT community". Furthermore, in an interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes, a man known as Kevin West has claimed to have been contacted by Mateen via the gay dating app "Jack'd". "He was saying things like, 'What clubs are popping & things of that sort,what are good places to go?'' West said.
Smith told the Canadian Press that he and Callen discontinued their relationship with Mateen after he pulled a knife in the face of a religious joke, but they described him none the less as a "jokester" who seemed relatively easy around the crowd and "didn't have an issue with the LGBT community". Furthermore, in an interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes, a man known as Kevin West has claimed to have been contacted by Mateen via the gay dating app "Jack'd". "He was saying things like, 'What clubs are popping & things of that sort,what are good places to go?'' West said.
Mateen, who opened fire on the packed club during Latin Night on early Sunday morning [June 11], taking the lives of 49 innocents and injuring 50 more before he was taken down in a gun battle with police, was originally said [by his father] to have expressed anger at seeing two men kissing. The investigation continues, as President Obama announced on Monday afternoon, that while Mateen had declared he was executing the shooting in ISIS name in a 911 call during the attack, there were no evident links to the organization.
Source: uproxx.com
