Wife Of Orlando Massacre Shooter Arrested Outside San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) -- The wife of shooter Omar Mateen in the Orlando nightclub massacre has been arrested at a home outside San Francisco.
Noor Salman is facing charges of aiding and abetting, as well as obstruction of justice in the case of the worst mass shooting in American history. According to jail records, she is also suspected of tampering with a witness.
She is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Salman married Mateen in 2013. They had a young son together.
Mateen died in a violent shootout with police after killing 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. Fifty-three others were injured. The shooting is considered the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Salman was interviewed by the FBI after the massacre, but wasn't charged at the time.
Now, almost six months later to the day, Noor was taken into custody by F.B.I. agents at her home in Rodeo, a city outside San Francisco in Contra Costa County. She lived there with her son.
KPIX 5 heard from one of her neighbors, who said they kept to themselves.
"Very private family, very quiet. You don't see no problems at all," said Glauber Franchi. "The blinds always shut. The mom worked all day long, that I know. She leaves normally at about 8:00 in the morning, comes back six, seven at night."
Franchi said he is most concerned about the couple's 3-year-old son once his mom returns to Florida.
Noor grew up in Rodeo and graduated from John Swett High School in 2004. According to The Los Angeles Times, she met Mateen online and they were married on September 29, 2011.
Investigators have long suspected Noor had some role in the attack, and it was reported she went ammo shopping with Mateen sometime before the shooting.
Salman, however, told FBI investigators she tried to stop her husband from committing the attack.
The Orlando Police Chief John Mina issued a statement regarding Monday morning's arrest.
"I am glad to see that Omar Mateen's wife has been charged with aiding and abetting her husband in the commission of the brutal attack on the Pulse nightclub. Nothing can erase the pain we all feel about the senseless and brutal murders of 49 of our neighbors, friends, family members and loved ones. But today, there is some relief in knowing that someone will be held accountable for that horrific crime," he said.
The FBI is characterizing the shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub, as both a terrorist attack and a hate crime.
Noor is expected to appear in federal court in Oakland on Tuesday.
