This is an accepted version of this page Omar Mir Seddique Mateen[1] (Pashto: عمر مير صديق متين; born Omar Mir Seddique; November 16, 1986 – June 12, 2016) was an American terrorist and mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, before he was killed in a shootout with the local police.

[2] Born in New York to Afghan-American parents, his family moved to Florida as a child, where he displayed an interest in violence and had behavioral problems in school, including struggling academically and receiving numerous suspensions.

[9] Mateen was born Omar Mir Seddique[1] on November 16, 1986,[10] at Long Island Jewish Medical Center[11][12] in New Hyde Park, New York, to Afghan parents.

[17] Seddique Mateen also owns a non-profit company named The Durand Jirga, Inc. based in Port St. Lucie, Florida, which was founded in 2010 where he hosted a political commentary show[18] that aired on the California-based Payam-e-Afghan television channel,[19] in which he expressed anti-Pakistan views.

While at Mariposa Elementary School, a third grade teacher wrote that Mateen was "very active ... constantly moving, verbally abusive, rude, aggressive ... much talk about violence & sex ... hands all over the place – on other children, in his mouth."

In the seventh grade, Mateen was moved to a separate class with the purpose of avoiding "conflicts with other students" and suffered from poor scholarly performance due to "many instances of behavioral problems.

[25][26] While a sophomore attending Spectrum, an alternative high school for students with behavioral issues, classmates told The Washington Post that Mateen cheered in support of the hijackers during the September 11 attacks and stated that Osama bin Laden was his uncle who taught him how to shoot AK-47s.

[27][29][30][31][32] By the time, Mateen had returned and graduated from Martin County's Stuart Adult Vocational School in 2003, he had been suspended for 48 days for being involved in fights and injuring other students.

[13][24] Mateen attended Indian River State College's Criminal Justice Training program and in a questionnaire, he admitted to committing or being involved in a crime that went undetected, but did not provide specific details.

Skipper, who was the warden at the institution, wrote that "in light of the tragic events at Virginia Tech officer Mateen's inquiry about bringing a weapon to class is at best extremely disturbing."

[43] Under Florida state law, for him to work as an armed guard the company was required either to make a full psychiatric evaluation of Mateen, or to administer a "validated written psychological test.

[45][46] On September 10, 2016, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services fined G4S $151,400 for providing inaccurate psychological testing information after it found the psychologist whose opinion was necessary to permit Mateen to carry a weapon was not practicing as a screener.

[48] G4S admitted Mateen's form had a "clerical error," and clarified that he had instead been cleared by Rahman, who was from the same firm that bought the wrongly named doctor's practice.

[1][13] In April 2009, Mateen married his first wife, Sitora Alisherzoda Yusufiy,[12][56] an Uzbekistan-born woman whom he met in 2008 through Myspace, a social networking site.

[32][70][71] At the time of the shooting, he lived about 100 miles (160 km) from Orlando, Florida,[14][15] in Fort Pierce, but received mail at his parents' home in nearby Port St.

He was quoted as saying that he had seen his son get angry after witnessing a gay couple kiss in front of his family at the Bayside Marketplace in Miami months before the attack, which he suggested might have been a motivating factor.

[27] Imam Shafiq Rahman at the Fort Pierce Islamic Center told reporters that Mateen would come to the mosque "three or four times a week"[79] with his father and his three-year-old son as recently as two days before the shooting, and said, "He was the most quiet guy.

[90] After the shooting, the Orlando Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post reported that at least five regular customers at the Pulse nightclub had seen Mateen visit the venue on at least a dozen occasions.

[13] A spokesperson for Barbara Poma, the owner of the Pulse nightclub, called the statement that Mateen had been a regular patron "untrue and totally ridiculous.

"[94] However, during an interview with the Brazilian television station SBT Brazil, Mateen's ex-wife claimed that his father called him gay while in her presence.

[99][100][101][102][103] On June 25, The New York Times reported that after exhaustive investigation with help from the FBI, the gay dating network Adam4Adam concluded that Mateen had never used its app.

Mateen came to the FBI's attention again in July 2014, when he was linked to Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an American who had traveled to Syria and committed a suicide bombing in late May 2014.

[108][109] After Mateen's attack, the FBI determined his computer had been used to watch extremist videos, including beheadings, and "to seek information on Islamic State.

[119][120] Several weeks before the attack, he attempted to purchase body armor and 1,000 rounds of bulk ammunition at another gun shop, but the staff became suspicious of him and turned him away.

A salesperson at the shop then said he contacted the FBI, but federal officials said they had no record of such a report, and the local sheriff's office also said it was unaware of the incident.

[121][122] ABC News and Fox News reported that early in the morning of June 12, the day of the attack, Mateen posted on one of his Facebook accounts: "The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west ... You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes...now taste the Islamic state [sic] vengeance" as well as "America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state."

[66] On June 14, 2016, NBC News reported that Noor Salman told the FBI she "drove him once to the gay nightclub, Pulse, because he wanted to scope it out.

[129] An official involved with the investigation told the Associated Press that authorities believed she knew about the plot beforehand, but were reluctant to charge her based only on this suspicion.

At 2:22 a.m., he made a 911 call in which he pledged allegiance to IS; referenced Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombers;[116] and mentioned Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, an acquaintance of his who died in a suicide bombing in Syria for the Al-Nusra Front in 2014.

[133] He also called News 13 of Orlando and identified himself as the nightclub shooter; The Washington Post reported that he said "he had carried out the Pulse attack for the Islamic State.