According to prosecutors Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub gunman, was originally targeting the Disney Springs entertainment center at Walt Disney World in Orlando, but he later decided to attack the Pulse nightclub.
You can get a full look at him scouting and making preparations in the video below:
Jurors deliberated all day Thursday and still no verdict on day two of deliberations. Jurors began deciding Wednesday whether the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter lied to the FBI and helped her husband in the attack that killed 49 people or was an abused wife who knew nothing of his plans.
Noor Salman is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of all charges.
She lied to the FBI about the number of guns her husband had and his internet use, which included watching beheadings and visiting Islamic State group websites and she knew he was buying ammunition for his AR-15 in preparation for a jihadi attack.
“She does not have to be his equal in the attack, and in fact she is not,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney said.
Salman was born in California to Palestinian parents was described by defense attorneys as a simple woman with a low IQ. Her husband cheated on her with other women and concealed much of his life from her and he abused her, they said.
Attorney Charles Swift said there was no way Salman knew that Mateen would attack the Pulse nightclub because even he didn’t know he would attack the nightclub until after he went to the Disney Springs complex.
“It’s a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster,” Swift said. “But it wasn’t preplanned. The importance to this case is that if he didn’t know, she couldn’t know.”
Salman’s confession was coerced and she signed it because she was tired and scared of losing her son, he said.
The statement said in part that “the last two years, Omar talked to me about jihad.” Swift said Salman was not capable of such a discussion because she wasn’t an extremist.
*UPDATE*
After three days of deliberation, Noor Salman, the wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, was declared not guilty on all counts Friday morning.
