ORLANDO, Fla. — The New York Times reporter who spoke to Pulse shooter Omar Mateen’s wife in an exclusive interview said she appeared to be traumatized and shaken by the June 12 attack at the gay nightclub.
Noor Salman told reporter Adam Goldman that Mateen had abused her.
“She thought Mateen was Prince Charming and then it went very dark,” Goldman said. “She would not stop sobbing. I was walking her through these bad memories and she was having a visceral response to all of them.”
Goldman spent five hours with Salman, who said she was the victim of verbal and physical abuse from Mateen, which she said began six months into her pregnancy.
“He killed 49 people so we should not be surprised that he would hit a pregnant woman,” said Goldman.
Salman said she had no idea he was planning the massacre, even though she went with him to Walmart to buy ammunition.
She chalked it up to his security guard job.
Goldman asked Salman about Mateen watching jihaddist videos, but she said Mateen told her to mind her own business so she did, out of fear of his abuse.
The couple made at least two trips to Disney, and investigators said during one of those trips, the terrorist made comments about planning an attack.
“Her lawyer says he is not aware of that and she herself would not answer that question when I asked her,” said Goldman.
Salman did show Goldman a receipt for a Father’s Day cars the Saturday before Mateen left to come to Orlando and carry out the massacre.
“She fills the Father’s Day card out, and that, to me, was striking because why would you fill the card out if you knew he wasn’t coming home?” said Goldman.
Salman said she was awakened at 4 a.m. the morning of the mass shooting by a call from Mateen’s mother, who was worried he had not visited for Ramadan.
Once Salman contacted her husband, he asked if she had seen what was happened on the news, and she told him no.
He then texted, “I love you babe.”
A medical expert said Salman was in danger from her husband and said it is very possible the wife would have missed obvious signs blocked by fear and her own struggle to survive the abuse.