Orlando Shooter Met Wife on Online Dating Site, Allegedly Beat Her

Noor Salman, wife of the Orlando Pulse nightclub attacker, Omar Mateen, says she met him on an online dating site, Arab Lounge, and that roughly six months into their marriage, he allegedly began beating her.

The marriage was the second one for both of them.

According to the New York Times, Salman said she and Mateen met on the dating site in 2011. She thought he was “the whole package” at the time, and they soon married. They moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, where Salman quickly became pregnant. She said it was while shopping for baby clothes that Mateen beat her for the first time.

Mateen alleged that he began having serious anger issues–that “he would [start] biting his lips and clinching his fists” and would use a code word to call her into line if he got angry with her in public. That word was “shar,” which is Arabic for “whore.”

Salman indicated that she was scared to stay with Mateen, but also scared to leave, as he convinced her he would get custody of their son if she tried to break things off.

Mateen took his wife and son to Disney World in April 2015. “Law enforcement officials suspect Mr. Mateen went there to see if it would be a good target.” They also believe he probably “hinted at his intentions to conduct an attack.” Salman’s lawyer will not allow her to speak to these things.

The Times points out that she also went with her husband to buy ammunition, something that did not seem strange to her since her husband was a licensed, armed security guard.

On June 11, Salman said she was planning a family night, but Mateen came home from work around 3:00 p.m. and soon departed. She said she did not know where he went, but it is now clear he drove approximately two hours to Orlando and attacked the Pulse nightclub. She was awakened at 4:00 a.m. when Mateen’s mother called to look for him. Shortly thereafter, she received a text from Mateen, which said, “Did you see what happened?”

She texted that she had not seen. He responded with, “I love you babe,” and she never heard from him again.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.