Pulse shooter was at a local mosque

Imam: Mateen prayed in Kissimmee days before attack

KISSIMMEE — A local imam released video footage Wednesday that he said shows Pulse shooter Omar Mateen praying at a Kissimmee mosque during the week preceding the nightclub attack.

The mosque’s security cameras captured Mateen the night of June 8, four days before the shooting that killed 49 clubgoers, said Imam Helmi Elagha. The Muslim leader said it’s difficult to fathom how Mateen could stand in worship while harboring violent intentions.

“I’m just thinking, ‘How are you praying? ... You were contemplating killing people in a couple of days,’ ” Elagha, executive director of the American Muslim Leadership Council, said at a news conference.

He spoke to reporters next to a screen displaying a grainy freeze-frame of a man — whom he identified as Mateen — walking up to the mosque about 10:30 p.m.

Once inside, Mateen “kept his head down” and made a beeline for a corner, where he prayed for about 10 minutes, Elagha said. To the imam’s knowledge, no one at the mosque exchanged words with him.

The mosque sits on the U.S. Highway 192 tourist strip, so Mateen’s behavior didn’t arouse suspicion, Elagha said.

“People will come here as travelers … and they’ll pray and walk out,” he said. “The majority of the time, no interaction takes place.”

Mateen dropped by the Kissimmee center during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. He arrived with his wife and child, but they entered the building through a separate entrance, Elagha said. The imam said the FBI told him it was the only time Mateen had visited.

The video footage provides one of the first glimpses of Mateen’s whereabouts in the days leading up to the attack. Federal investigators are working to piece together the sequence of events that led him to Pulse on June 12.

The imam was unaware of Mateen’s visit until FBI officials contacted him a couple days after the Pulse attack.