Wife of Orlando shooter arrested
January 16, 2017
The wife of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was arrested on Monday, US authorities said. Noor Salman was arrested in San Francisco, California, where she moved after her husband killed 49 people at the Pulse gay nightclub in June.
Salman faces charges of obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting the attempted provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization, ABC News reported. Some news outlets reported that she had initially informed the FBI that she had tried to stop her husband from carrying out the attack, though she told "The New York Times" in November that she had no knowledge of what Mateen was planning.
US media outlets reported that Salman was set to appear in court for her initial hearing on Tuesday.
On June 12, 2016, 29-year-old Mateen entered the Pulse club with a semi-automatic rifle and pistol. He had pledged his allegiance to the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist organization, and the FBI has classified the act as both a terror attack and a hate crime.
In total, 53 were wounded on top of the 49 killed, making the incident the worst mass shooting in US history and the worst terror attack in the US since September 11, 2001. Mateen was killed by a police SWAT team at the club after a three-hour standoff.
es/se (AP, Reuters, AFP)