This undated image provided by the Orlando Police Department shows Omar Mateen, the shooting suspect at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. The gunman opened fire inside the crowded gay nightclub early Sunday before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. (Orlando Police Department via AP)
FORT PIERCE, Florida鈥擳here were conflicting profiles of the 29-year-old Omar Mateen who opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, leaving 50 people dead and 53 wounded.
He was a religious man who attended the local mosque, according to an imam. But Mateen鈥檚 ex-wife said he was bipolar with mental issues.
Even so, both Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman and the ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, voiced doubts Mateen had anything to do with the Islamic State (IS) group, an angle police investigators are looking into.
Mateen was the son of an Afghan immigrant who had a talk show in the United States, the nature of which was not entirely clear: A former Afghan official said the program was pro-Taliban but a former colleague said it was enthusiastically pro-American.
Rahman said Mateen attended evening prayer services at the city鈥檚 Islamic Center three to four times a week, most recently with his young son.
Although Mateen was not very social, he also showed no signs of violence, according to the imam. He said he last saw Mateen on Friday.
鈥淲hen he finished prayer he would just leave,鈥� Rahman told The Associated Press (AP). 鈥淗e would not socialize with anybody. He would be quiet. He would be very peaceful.鈥�
鈥楳entally unstable鈥�
Yusufiy said her ex-husband was bipolar. 鈥淗e was mentally unstable and mentally ill,鈥� she told reporters in Boulder, Colorado.
Although records show the couple didn鈥檛 divorce for two years after the marriage, Yusufiy said she was actually with Mateen for only four months because he was abusive.
She said he would not let her speak to her family and that family members had to come and literally pull her out of his arms.
Authorities immediately began investigating whether Sunday鈥檚 attack was an act of terrorism. A law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,聽 said the gunman made a 911 call from the nightclub professing allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Yusufiy said she was 鈥渄evastated, shocked, started shaking and crying鈥� when she heard about the shooting, but she attributed the violence to Mateen鈥檚 mental illness鈥攏ot to any alliance with terrorist groups.
Rahman agreed.聽 鈥淢y personal opinion is that this has nothing to do with IS,鈥� he said.
Father speaks
Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of the shooter, is a life insurance salesman who started a group in 2010 called Durand Jirga Inc., according to Qasim Tarin, a businessman from California who was a Durand Jirga board member.
The name refers to the Durand line, the long disputed border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tarin said Seddique Mir Mateen had a television show on which issues facing Afghanistan were discussed.
鈥淚t鈥檚 shocking,鈥� he said about the shooting. 鈥�(Omar Mateen鈥檚) father loves this country.鈥�
Some of Seddique Mir Mateen鈥檚 shows were taped and later posted on YouTube. During one episode, a sign in the background read: 鈥淟ong live the USA! Long live Afghanistan . . . Afghans are the best friends to the USA.鈥�
Pro-Taliban
But a former Afghan official said the 鈥淒urand Jirga Show鈥� appears on Payam-e-Afghan, a California-based channel that supported ethnic solidarity with the Afghan Taliban.
Viewers from Pashtun communities in the United States regularly call in to the channel to espouse support for Pashtun domination of Afghanistan over the nation鈥檚 minorities, including Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks, the official said.
The 鈥淒urand Jirga Show鈥� expresses support for the Taliban, has an anti-Pakistan slant, complains about foreigners in Afghanistan and criticizes US actions there, the official said.
Seddique Mir Mateen lavished praise on current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani when he appeared on the show in January 2014, but he has since denounced the Ghani government, according to the official, who said that on Saturday, Seddique Mateen appeared on the show dressed in military fatigues and used his program to criticize the current Afghan government.
No criminal record
Mateen purchased at least two firearms legally within the last week or so, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Mateen had no criminal record.聽 Yusufiy said he wanted to be a police officer and had applied to the police academy. Mateen became a security guard at the G4S company, which identifies itself on its website as 鈥渢he leading global integrated security company.鈥�
Rahman said he knew Mateen and his family since the shooter was a young boy. Playful as a child, he became more serious as an adult, Rahman said.
He spoke both English and Farsi, and was into body building. He was not, as far as the imam could see, someone who would ever commit such a gruesome act of mass violence.
鈥淚t was totally unexpected,鈥� Rahman said. AP