Trial begins for widow of shooter in Orlando nightclub massacre
ORLANDO, Fla. — Noor Salman’s trial in the massacre at Pulse nightclub began Thursday morning in downtown Orlando, with attorneys asking questions of potential jurors in the case against the widow of Pulse gunman Omar Mateen.
A potential juror who lives two blocks from Pulse was released from jury service.
The woman, who has a 7-week-old baby, said she wasn’t sure if she could set aside feelings from passing by the nightclub daily. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron decided to excuse the woman, due in part to the possibility of her being sleep-deprived as a new mom.
Other jurors have come from different cities within Central Florida.
About 15 survivors, victim’s families and supporters were in the courtroom, a victim advocate said. They are not allowed to wear anything that sends a message, U.S. marshals said. A few were asked to change or cover shirts with Pulse emblems before being allowed into the courtroom.
The judge told potential jurors that, to protect their privacy, if they’re selected they will meet each morning at an undisclosed location. From there, marshals will take them to the courthouse. They’ll also leave together, be taken back to the secret location and go home from there.
Salman, 31, is charged with aiding and abetting her husband in supporting a foreign terror organization, the Islamic State, and obstructing justice. Her husband was killed by police hours after he began shooting in the Orlando club June 12, 2016, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more.
About 5 a.m. Bob Kunst of Miami Beach parked across the federal courthouse in Orlando, armed with a lawn chair, a jug of water and a white cardboard sign: ‘FRY’ HER TILL SHE HAS NO ‘PULSE’.”
Kunst, president of Shalom International Miami Beach and a longtime gay rights activist, said he drove more than 200 miles before dawn to deliver his message.
“I’m here to take a stand against the insanity of not just this madness here, what we experienced in Parkland, what we’re experiencing everywhere,” Kunst said, referring to the mass shooting at a South Florida high school last month. “The FBI, the police that dropped the ball ... It leaves us all vulnerable.”
Kunst noted that the FBI had previously investigated Mateen in 2013, before clearing him, and that Orlando police waited to go into the club during Mateen’s assault. A school resource officer at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School has also been criticized for not going into the school during the shooting.
“She deserves the death penalty. Nothing less,” Kunst said. “You have to send a message to every one of these people that are out there ready to do us in that you have to pay the penalty.”
Salman could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. She does not face the possibility of execution.