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| Orlando shooting: details emerge about wife of Omar Mateen | Orlando shooting: details emerge about wife of Omar Mateen |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| So little is known about the wife of Omar Mateen, the gunman who massacred 49 people at an Orlando nightclub on Sunday, that their neighbors in Florida claimed that they didn’t even know she existed. | So little is known about the wife of Omar Mateen, the gunman who massacred 49 people at an Orlando nightclub on Sunday, that their neighbors in Florida claimed that they didn’t even know she existed. |
| Noor Zahi Salman, 30, reportedly told federal agents that she tried to talk her husband out of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, and that law enforcement officials said she could be charged if she knew. The Guardian has not been able to independently confirm the report by NBC. | Noor Zahi Salman, 30, reportedly told federal agents that she tried to talk her husband out of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, and that law enforcement officials said she could be charged if she knew. The Guardian has not been able to independently confirm the report by NBC. |
| Related: Orlando shooter's wife could be charged if she knew he was planning mass attack | Related: Orlando shooter's wife could be charged if she knew he was planning mass attack |
| Amid the intense scrutiny of Mateen’s motivations and life, his second wife has lain low, avoiding the media and cameras in the aftermath of the shooting. | |
| Few records describe how she lived, whether she worked, or when she married the man who fathered her child and died in the attack on Sunday. But conversations with neighbors in Florida and California, where she grew up, paint a picture of a quiet woman who rarely appeared in public. | Few records describe how she lived, whether she worked, or when she married the man who fathered her child and died in the attack on Sunday. But conversations with neighbors in Florida and California, where she grew up, paint a picture of a quiet woman who rarely appeared in public. |
| Salman, who is of Palestinian descent, grew up in Rodeo, California, a small town of 8,600 in the San Francisco bay area, and graduated from John Swett high school in nearby Crockett in 2004. | |
| The neighborhood is a typical suburban subdivision with some well-tended front yard and others filled with weeds. Roses and brown lawn are in front of the two-story, light green house where Noor Salman once lived. Her mother still lives in the home, but her father has died. | The neighborhood is a typical suburban subdivision with some well-tended front yard and others filled with weeds. Roses and brown lawn are in front of the two-story, light green house where Noor Salman once lived. Her mother still lives in the home, but her father has died. |
| “She’s beautiful; she’s tall,” said Rajinder Chahal, an Indian-born mortgage broker who lives across the street. He said Salman was a “normal child”. | |
| “She was born here. She was not extremist,” he said. | “She was born here. She was not extremist,” he said. |
| Chahal added that Noor’s mother has lived in the house since about 1990. “She was very strict with her daughters,” he said. “She never allowed them to mix with other cultures.” | Chahal added that Noor’s mother has lived in the house since about 1990. “She was very strict with her daughters,” he said. “She never allowed them to mix with other cultures.” |
| Weeks after Noor’s 19th birthday, in June 2005, she married her first husband, Ahmed Abu-Rahma. On graduates.com, a website for reconnecting high school classmates, Salman wrote that, eight months after marrying him, she was living in Chicago and working at a daycare. Beyond that, she wrote, “nothing else has changed.” | Weeks after Noor’s 19th birthday, in June 2005, she married her first husband, Ahmed Abu-Rahma. On graduates.com, a website for reconnecting high school classmates, Salman wrote that, eight months after marrying him, she was living in Chicago and working at a daycare. Beyond that, she wrote, “nothing else has changed.” |
| By the summer of 2009, the couple’s relationship had deteriorated, and in December, Salman served Abu-Rahma divorce papers and moved back to California. | By the summer of 2009, the couple’s relationship had deteriorated, and in December, Salman served Abu-Rahma divorce papers and moved back to California. |
| Records from the pair’s divorce file shed some light on Salman’s early years out of high school: she owned a coin collection and jewelry that in total was worth $7,000. She also had $3,000 of debt, while Abu-Rahma listed no property. | Records from the pair’s divorce file shed some light on Salman’s early years out of high school: she owned a coin collection and jewelry that in total was worth $7,000. She also had $3,000 of debt, while Abu-Rahma listed no property. |
| An email for Salman listed on a public records database is registered to the now-defunct Heald College in Concord, California, but it is unclear if she attended the school or worked there. | |
| Neighbors told a local NBC affiliate that she married Mateen and moved to Florida five years ago. In 2011 and 2012, federal law enforcement officials have said Mateen made two trips to Saudi Arabia. The couple has a child aged three. | Neighbors told a local NBC affiliate that she married Mateen and moved to Florida five years ago. In 2011 and 2012, federal law enforcement officials have said Mateen made two trips to Saudi Arabia. The couple has a child aged three. |
| Neighbors also said Salman only returned home to visit family in California twice, once in 2011 for her sister’s wedding, with Omar Mateen at her side, and again roughly two years ago for her father’s funeral, and suggested that he was very controlling of her. Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, has said that he beat her and held her hostage. | Neighbors also said Salman only returned home to visit family in California twice, once in 2011 for her sister’s wedding, with Omar Mateen at her side, and again roughly two years ago for her father’s funeral, and suggested that he was very controlling of her. Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, has said that he beat her and held her hostage. |
| “I don’t know why he didn’t allow her to come here,” Chahal said of Mateen. | “I don’t know why he didn’t allow her to come here,” Chahal said of Mateen. |
| Salman and Mateen lived in an apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida, among a gray, low-slung group of buildings set back on a residential street. This week, a Fort Pierce police cruiser idled outside. | Salman and Mateen lived in an apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida, among a gray, low-slung group of buildings set back on a residential street. This week, a Fort Pierce police cruiser idled outside. |
| There, some of the couple’s longtime neighbors said they were unaware that Mateen ever had a wife. | |
| “We used to see him and his son in the neighborhood,” said Rebecca McKinney, a 32-year-old neighbor, who has lived there 17 years. “We never knew he even had a wife,” said McKinney. | “We used to see him and his son in the neighborhood,” said Rebecca McKinney, a 32-year-old neighbor, who has lived there 17 years. “We never knew he even had a wife,” said McKinney. |
| Related: Omar Mateen: Orlando killer's ex-wife says he beat her and held her hostage | Related: Omar Mateen: Orlando killer's ex-wife says he beat her and held her hostage |
| Her father echoed McKinney’s bewilderment. | Her father echoed McKinney’s bewilderment. |
| “Never, never have I seen her. I can only remember seeing the dude once or twice,” said Mike Warner, a 21-year resident of the neighborhood who lives near the complex. | |
| Estella Flores, a 12-year local who lived directly adjacent to the complex, said she occasionally saw Mateen jogging early in the morning. He was a “normal person, but serious”, she said. However, she had never seen Salman or their child. | |
| Other neighbors simply said they had “no clue” Mateen lived there, or simply called it “scary”. | |
| Whether Mateen was financially reliant on his father is unclear. Records filed in 2011 for the divorce from his first wife show he earned $400 per week working for G4S, the private security firm. | Whether Mateen was financially reliant on his father is unclear. Records filed in 2011 for the divorce from his first wife show he earned $400 per week working for G4S, the private security firm. |
| In a 2013 filing, the couple’s names were on a mortgage document for a residence on Bayshore Boulevard in Port St Lucie. Mateen’s father, Seddique, co-signed for the Port St Lucie home, and is described as the “mortgagor” on the property, but he lives in a single-family home, less than a mile away. | |
| The Washington Post reported that, at some point, Salman left Mateen and returned to her family’s home in Rodeo. Mateen’s father said in an interview with the Guardian that reports of the couple’s separation were “baseless”. | |
| “They had a good life until two days ago,” Seddique Mateen said. | “They had a good life until two days ago,” Seddique Mateen said. |