Police officials investigate wife of nightclub shooter

RODEO, CALIF. • She was a sweet, pretty California girl with Palestinian roots who left an arranged marriage only to find love with a man who committed the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Little by little, details have begun to emerge about 30-year-old Noor Zahi Salman, who grew up in the small suburb of Rodeo, Calif., tucked in the hills 40 kilometres northeast of San Francisco.

Her romance with Omar Mateen — security guard, bodybuilder and devout Muslim — began online, according to a neighbour, and they were married on Sept. 29, 2011, near her hometown. The couple has a three-year-old son.

Early Sunday, the 29-yearold Mateen opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded.

Authorities believe Mateen’s wife knew about the plot ahead of time, said an official who requested anonymity, and various news sources reported Wednesday that officials have turned to a grand jury to help investigate the shooting, looking at Salman’s actions specifically.

At a news conference however, U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley repeatedly refused to say whether any charges might be brought against anyone.

Three people identifying themselves as FBI agents visited Salman’s childhood home in Rodeo on Tuesday and spoke with her mother, said Jessie Rojas, a next-door neighbour.

According to marriage documents on file in the Contra Costa County Recorder’s office, Salman was born in the United States while her parents’ birthplaces are listed as “Palestine.”

No one answered the door at the Salman home Tuesday, but neighbours who know the 2004 graduate of John Swett High School in nearby Crockett said they find it hard to believe she had anything to do with the massacre.

Jasbinder Chahal, who has lived across the street from Salman’s childhood home for the past 15 years, said Salman is “very nice ... not the smartest, but she was beautiful.”

Salman’s marriage to Mateen was her second, said Chahal. Mateen had previously been married as well.

Salman’s first marriage had been arranged in the Palestinian Territories by her parents, said Chahal, adding that the union did not work out.

Investigators have spoken extensively with Salman and are working to establish whether she recently accompanied Mateen to the nightclub.