Sun 25 Sep 2016 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The ex-wife of the gunman who shot dead 49 people and injured 53 more in an Orlando gay nightclub says he was gay and carried out the attack to impress his homophobic father. Sitora Yusufiy Omar Mateen stormed the Pulse nightclub in mid-June and was himself killed in a shootout as law enforcement teams broke into the club to bring the hours-long shooting spree to a close. During the early days of the police investigation into the massacre several gay men said they believed Mateen had been cruising men on dating apps but the FBI later said they had no evidence he was himself gay. Ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy believes the gunman's violent tendencies, a main reason she ended her marriage to him, stemmed from him being tormented by his father, including publicly berating his son for having what he considered 'gay' traits. Echoing his father's anti-gay rhetoric, the gunman would say "gay people are the biggest sinners and they can’t be they should not be alive,” she said.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 25th September 2016 - 12:04pm