FBI arrests wife of killer in Orlando mass shooting

Questioning leads to charges, including obstruction of justice

WASHINGTON — More than half a year after Omar Mateen committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, his wife, who was extensively questioned by federal agents in the days after the bloodshed in Orlando, Fla., was arrested by the FBI on Monday in connection with the attack, authorities said.

Noor Salman was taken into custody Monday morning in the San Francisco area and is facing charges in Florida including obstruction of justice. A Twitter post from the United States attorney’s office in Orlando said Ms. Salman will make her initial appearance this morning in Oakland, Calif.

Ms. Salman moved to her family’s Rodeo, Calif., home after Mateen — her second husband — was killed in a shootout with SWAT team members during the June 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

FBI agents repeatedly questioned Ms. Salman, 30, in the aftermath of the shooting about whether she had advance knowledge of her husband’s plans. Ms. Salman told The New York Times in an interview published last fall that she knew her husband had watched jihadi videos but that she was “unaware of everything” regarding his plans to shoot up the club.

She had told investigators that she had driven her husband to the nightclub at some point leading up the the attack, and was with him when he bought ammunition two days before the shooting spree, according to several reports citing anonymous senior law enforcement officials.

The woman reportedly told authorities during the interviews that she urged her 29-year-old husband to not commit the massacre.

She also said he had physically abused her.

By the time Mateen’s three-hour standoff with law enforcement had ended, 49 patrons were killed and another 53 people required hospitalization.

Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a 911 call to emergency officials during the standoff.

“You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq,” Mateen said in a 911 call from the nightclub during the shooting spree. “They are killing a lot of innocent people. What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there?”

At one point during the standoff, Mateen sent his wife a text message, asking if she had seen the news of the attack, the Times reported. When she replied that she had not, Mateen responded in his final message to his wife, “I love you babe,” Ms. Salman told the paper.

Orlando police Chief John Mina said in a statement that Ms. Salman was facing accusation of obstruction of justice and “aiding and abetting by providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.”