Sources: Wife of Pulse nightclub attacker arrested
ORLANDO — The wife of the man behind the deadly terrorist attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando was arrested Monday on charges stemming from the shooting that left 49 dead and dozens more injured, a law enforcement source told the Orlando Sentinel.
FBI agents arrested Noor Salman at her home outside San Francisco on charges of obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting by providing material support to a terrorist organization, the source said.
Salman, 30, is scheduled to make an initial appearance Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in federal court in Oakland. She is expected to then return to Central Florida to face the charges.
Investigators spent hours interviewing Salman after the June 12 shooting, trying to determine what she knew about her husband Omar Mateen’s plans to carry out the attack on the gay nightclub.
Her story changed during the first few days, sources had said, and during one interview she allegedly told investigators that she specifically warned her husband the day of the attack not to carry it out.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said he is glad authorities arrested Salman.
“Federal authorities have been working tirelessly on this case for more than seven months, and we are grateful that they have seen to it that some measure of justice will be served in this act of terror that has affected our community so deeply,” he said in a statement.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott also released a statement saying he hopes the arrest will provide “some comfort to the families who are mourning their loved ones.”
Mateen was killed during a final shootout with an Orlando police SWAT team nearly three hours after he opened fire at the club. He held terrified and injured patrons hostage in a bathroom during that time until the SWAT team rushed in.
Forty-nine people were killed, and at least 68 were hurt in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Salman’s relationship with 29-year-old Mateen, a security guard from Central Florida, began online, a neighbor told the LA Times after the shooting. They were married in Hercules, in Contra Costa County, on Sept. 29, 2011.
Salman filed a petition in California courts to change her child’s name in December. The 4-year-old is named Zakariaya Omar Mateen, which identifies him as the son of the mass shooter.
She has moved several times since the shooting and moved from her Fort Pierce, Fla., home to her native California. In October, she did an interview with the New York Times to discuss her life in the aftermath of the shooting.
Salman told the newspaper that the attack left her “shattered and afraid.” She also said she often depended on family members “to take care of her son.”