Around 4 a.m. on June 12, two hours after he started the attack, Omar Mateen texted his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, asking if she’d seen the news. At one point she sent a text saying that she loved him. A law enforcement official reported that Salman attempted to call her husband multiple times during the attacks, but he didn’t answer.
CNN reports that the timing of her calls came after reports of the attacks were emerging and that she apparently knew that her husband might be responsible. CNN is also reporting that it is unclear if Salman made any attempt to report her husband during the attacks.
Mateen’s wife also feared that her husband was going to attack a gay nightclub Saturday and pleaded with him not to do anything violent according to NBC News. NBC news is also reporting that Salman failed to warn police after he left their Port St. Lucie two hours from Pulse night club.
Salman apparently gave conflicting accounts about what she knew of Mateen’s intentions, according to CNN. She told investigators that Mateen had spent thousands of dollars in the weeks leading up to the attacks, including the purchase of the guns used in the massacre.
Salman, “could be charged with aiding and abetting, being a co-conspirator, or making false statements to federal investigators, depending on what she did,” John Malcolm, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies told Fox News.
If Salman drove her husband to the scene so he could scout targets, or accompanied him to purchase firearms, knowing of his plans, then under federal law, she is just as guilty as he is of the crimes, even though she didn’t pull the trigger according to law enforcement officials.
A federal grand jury will determine whether or not charges will be brought against Salman in connection to the attack which left 49 dead and 53 injured, many critical. Salmon is cooperating with investigators, but they worry she will stop talking once and if charges are filed. Both Salman and Mateen’s father Seddique, have been placed on no-fly lists.
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