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Widow of Pulse gunman told FBI she knew attack 'was close,' agent testifies

By WFTV Web Staff
By WFTV Web Staff
Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented arguments Thursday over what evidence should be included, or excluded, in the trial of Noor Salman, the widow of the man who carried out the Pulse massacre in Orlando.
Salman is accused of aiding her husband, Omar Mateen, in planning and carrying out the June 12, 2016, shooting that killed 49 people and injured dozens.
Prosecutors argue she knew about the attack. 
Special Agent and polygraph examiner Ricardo Enriquez testified Thursday that Salman gave three statements to the FBI.
She told agents that Mateen had been looking at jihad videos and websites almost every day in the two years leading up to the attack, Enriquez said.
Salman also told investigators that the week before the attack, she and Mateen drove around Pulse for 20 minutes, Enriquez said.
One of the most damning statements Salman allegedly made to the FBI was about the night she walked in on Mateen looking at the Pulse nightclub website.
Mateen told her that "this is my target" and "I knew that the time to attack the club was close," Enriquez said.
Salman's attorneys are working to have the statements thrown out of the case.
Salman’s attorneys have sought for the court to allow evidence they say shows Omar Mateen was living a double life.
The FBI said Mateen made claims to his wife he was visiting a friend.
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Lt. William Hall, the hostage negotiator from Orlando police who talked with Mateen when he was inside the club, spoke at the hearing about his interaction with Salman.
He told the court she said her husband was careful with guns and would not hurt anybody unless he was defending himself.
Hall also said that when Salman was told people from Orlando wanted to speak to her, she asked if she was going to Disney.
Police had said she was with her husband when he scouted out Disney Springs for hours for a possible attack.
The defense also asked Hall about his interaction with Salman.
The attorneys pointed out that when investigators arrived at her apartment after the shooting, they did not handcuff her or evacuate the building to check for explosives.
They argued that at that point, nobody was concerned about her involvement.
Hall said Salman scared him when she pulled out a cellphone and that he did not know if she was about to detonate a bomb.
Even after that, they didn’t pat her down.
Christopher Mayo was the first FBI agent to interview Salman after the Pulse attack and said some of her statements immediately raised red flags.
In one statement, Salman indicated that she knew Mateen was dead, even though no one had told her that, Mayo said.
She also claimed that her husband would never hurt anyone because he liked everyone, including homosexuals, Mayo said.
Salman shouldn't have known at that point that the attack involved a popular Orlando gay club, Mayo said.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said it could be a while before the judge makes a decision.
“In all likelihood, the judge won't rule from the bench,” Sheaffer said.
Defense attorneys hope to show a jury text messages from the night the gunman killed 49 innocent people and injured dozens of others.
Salman's team said the text messages show she had no clue about the gunman's whereabouts.
“The strongest evidence that the government has are Noor Salman's own statements,” said Sheaffer.
But, the defense argued, Salman wasn't read her Miranda rights before she started talking to law enforcement agents and she was not arrested the night of the attack.
For those reasons, they said the statements Salman made should be thrown out.
Prosecutors said the month of the attack, the pair racked up $25,000 in credit card charges.
Records show Salman told the FBI she knew her husband was "preparing for jihad" because of the increased spending.
The defense is also trying to keep the couple's spending habits in the weeks before the attack from being presented to jurors.

Cox Media Group

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