Relatives of Orlando shooter speak – He ‘was a regular at Pulse nightclub’ others say

The father of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen called his son a “very good boy” in a local television interview late Sunday, but also denounced the shooting, apologizing to the victims and their families.

Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, told Fox 35 news that he can’t explain why his son chose Orlando or the nightclub he targeted.

“I wish he was alive,” Mateen said. “I would ask him one question — why? Why Orlando? Why did he do this? Because, it’s not allowed in my family.”

Authorities said Omar Mateen, 29, fatally wounded 49 people and injured 53 more before dying in a shootout with police at Pulse, a gay nightclub on South Orange Avenue, in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Over the hours that followed, details of Mateen’s life emerged: The divorced father of a 3-year-old, his interest in terrorism had twice put him on the FBI’s radar.

Seddique Mateen said he was unaware of the problems in his son’s marriage, but disputed that he was unstable. He said his son was punctual at work and visited regularly.

“I don’t know what happened between them, but I don’t agree with that,” the elder Mateen said. “He was a very good boy and he was very respectful.”

In an earlier interview with NBC News, Seddique Mateen said his son recently got angry after seeing two men kissing in downtown Miami. Reportedly born in New York state, Omar Mateen was believed to have lived in Fort Pierce.

Seddique Mateen told Fox 35 he wants to meet his son’s living victims and the families of the deceased: “I am ready to go and see them because they are my family.”

Asked what he’d do if they were not ready to meet with him, Seddique Mateen said he would tell them, “I am sorry.”

“I am dearly saddened and I am very upset about the whole thing,” he said. “I wish it didn’t happen… Now, it’s too late. There’s nothing I can do, except, I say: My condolences and my sympathy to them.”

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New reports about Mateen being a regular at the Pulse club.

Omar Mateen is said to have been a regular at the venue and had messaged several people on gay dating apps. Watch here another regular at club Pulse saying Omar Mateen had been to the venue on numerous occasions before Sunday, and he believes Mateen was gay and had been trying to pick up men.

Four regular customers said they had seen killer Omar Mateen drinking at the nightclub on multiple occasions. “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,” Ty Smith told the Orlando Sentinel

“We didn’t really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times,” Smith said. “He told us he had a wife and child.”

Asked by the Guardian about rumours his son was gay, Mateen’s father Seddique Mateen said: “It’s not true. Why, if he was gay, would he do this?”

But when asked why she thought he went regularly to a gay club, his ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy told CNN: “When we had gotten married he confessed to me about his past that was recent at that time, and that he very much enjoyed going to clubs and the nightlife … I feel like it’s a side of him or a part of him that he lived but probably didn’t want everybody to know about.” Asked if she thought he was gay, she said: “I don’t know.”

Sources:  Orlando Sentinel, cnn.com  and The Guardian.