ZitatORLANDO, Fla. — The gunman who attacked a Florida gay nightclub had attended the club before the attack and had used a gay dating and chat app, witnesses said.
Kevin West, a regular at Pulse nightclub, said Omar Mateen messaged him on and off for a year before the shooting using the gay chat and dating app Jack'd.
But they never met — until early Sunday morning.
West was dropping off a friend at the club when he noticed Mateen — whom he knew by sight but not by name — crossing the street wearing a dark cap and carrying a black cellphone about 1 a.m., an hour before the shooting.
"He walked directly past me. I said, 'Hey,' and he turned and said, 'Hey,' " and nodded his head, West said. "I could tell by the eyes."
At least four regular customers of Pulse, the nightclub where the massacre took place, told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that they believed they had seen Mateen there before.
"Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent," said Ty Smith, who also uses the name Aries.
He saw Mateen at the club at least a dozen times, he said.
ZitatA former classmate of Omar Mateen’s 2006 police academy class said he believed Mateen was gay, saying Mateen once asked him out.
[snip]
The classmate said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out, sometimes going to gay nightclubs, after classes at the Indian River Community College police academy.
He said Mateen asked him out romantically.
“We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer,” the former classmate said. He asked that his name not be used.
He believed Mateen was gay, but not open about it. Mateen was awkward, and for a while the classmate and the rest in the group of friends felt sorry for him.
If true, the clientele at the nightclub were probably too old for him.
Taleen was of Afghan Pastun descent. Pashtun's are the main practioners of bacha bazi which I understand is not labeled homosexuality because the boys are prepubescent.
Illegitimi non Carborundum
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.