But ample evidence now affirmatively casts serious doubt about whether there is any truth to this widely accepted belief about Mateen’s motives in attacking Pulse. Perhaps most importantly, Mateen’s alleged motive in choosing Pulse - that he wanted to target and kill LGBTs due to some toxic mix of self-hatred over his own sexual orientation and his fealty to Islam - has been treated as unquestionably true in countless media accounts, statements from public officials, and ultimately in the public mind. As so often happens in the wake of mass shootings and terror attacks, media narratives emerge early on, when little is known, and never become dislodged from the public’s mind, even as the formal investigation reveals that there is little evidence to support those initial, still-common media claims - or, as is the case here, overwhelming evidence that strongly negates those beliefs. Additionally, the DOJ refused to prosecute Katherine Russell, the white, ex-Christian wife of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, also in the face of evidence of possible complicity that was far stronger than exists for Salman.īut independent of the problematic nature of Salman’s prosecution, numerous myths continue to persist about Mateen’s actions, particularly regarding his motives in why he attacked Pulse.
The decision to prosecute Salman is particularly odd given the Department of Justice’s refusal to prosecute Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, despite far greater evidence suggesting her foreknowledge of his plans. The prosecution of Mateen’s wife is highly unusual and troubling, riddled with evidentiary holes, and seemingly designed to feed, and exploit, community outrage that demands someone be punished for this massacre. With Mateen dead, the city - led by its LGBT community - is united in its eagerness that someone pay a price.
When the presiding judge denied the request of Salman’s lawyers that the trial be moved out of Orlando, he ensured that she would be tried by a jury chosen from a city that is still deeply traumatized and understandably enraged by that horrific massacre.
These doubts have been strongly fortified by the new facts, previously under seal, that were revealed by today’s court filing.īeyond changing how the public understands the motives for this attack, this new perspective is likely to play a major role in the criminal trial of Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman, that is now underway in an Orlando federal courtroom, with jury selection expected to last another 10 days. Salman is accused of having aided her husband’s June 12, 2016, attack on the Orlando LGBT nightclub. She is also accused of obstructing justice by lying to the FBI. Several journalists closely covering the Mateen investigation have, for some time now, noted the complete absence of any evidence suggesting that Mateen knew that Pulse was a gay club or that targeting the LGBT community was part of his motive. In particular, Mateen went to Pulse only after having scouted other venues that night that were wholly unrelated to the LGBT community, only to find that they were too defended by armed guards and police, and ultimately chose Pulse only after a generic Google search for “Orlando nightclubs” - not “gay clubs” - produced Pulse as the first search result. Newly released evidence today calls into serious doubt many of the most widespread beliefs about the 2016 shooting by Omar Mateen at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which killed 49 people, along with Mateen himself. Because the attack occurred on the club’s “Latin night,” the overwhelming majority of the victims were Latinos, primarily Puerto Ricans.