The wife of the gunman who attacked a gay Orlando nightclub, killing at least 49 people and injuring dozens of others, told authorities that she tried to stop her husband from committing the attack, a law enforcement source tells CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton.
Noor Salman told authorities that she went with her husband, Omar Mateen to Pulse nightclub on at least one prior occasion. A second source said that Mateen was in the general area of Pulse for several hours before he went into the club and launched his attack early Sunday morning.
Salman has been interviewed by the FBI and was administered a polygraph, Milton reports.
According to investigators, Mateen’s wife has been cooperating but she could face possible criminal charges, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reported. Right now, there is no evidence Salman ever called police to warn them that she believed Mateen was planning an attack.
Salman has told the FBI that her husband had become radicalized in the last year. Family members said the pair had a young son about 3 years old.
Law enforcement sources confirmed to Pegues that Mateen visited Disney World at least twice this year, once in April and again this month. The visits, Pegues reports, were likely confirmed by Disney’s vast network of security cameras.
His wife told investigators that the April trip was a family outing but Pegues reports that investigators believe that Mateen was indeed casing Disney World and not there to have a good time with his family.
Investigators are trying to see who Mateen was in contact with and who may have had some knowledge of his plans.
Meanwhile, family photos, drawings, blackboard messages, a Quran and books on Islam decorate the apartment where Mateen lived with his wife.
Univision News reported the details and says it visited the home in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Monday when it was unoccupied. Univision reports that it was the morning after the FBI swept the apartment for evidence, and says the home was unlocked and not yet sealed off by crime-scene tape.
The report describes a blackboard message in the kitchen about an appointment at their 3-year-old son’s school and a note with an Arabic phrase praising God.
Univision says that on the living room table was a document listing items investigators removed: 9 mm cartridges, an iPad mini, a Samsung phone, a Dell computer, a CD labeled with Mateen’s name.