The Martin County School District referred all questions about Mateen’s time as a student to the FBI. His unusual behavior that day was also corroborated by other classmates in public posts on Facebook. 11, 2001, when they were watching the attack on the World Trade Center unfold on live TV.įour classmates said Mateen cheered and made mocking comments, which got him pulled from class and may have led to his departure from the school. Some of Mateen’s high school classmates pinpointed a particularly strange moment on Sept. He switched jobs constantly and became increasingly frustrated, unpredictable, sporadically religious and prone to anger. But there were also hints of darkness in Mateen’s life, according to interviews with relatives, friends, ex-classmates, former co-workers and acquaintances: Being Afghan American meant he stood out in a small South Florida town and was bullied in school. Mateen and his family had the typical profile of striving immigrants in this country. “He was open with his picture on the sites he was easy to recognize,” said Cedeno, 23, of Orlando, who said he was also contacted by Mateen at least a year ago on a dating app. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)Ĭord Cedeno said he had also seen Mateen inside Pulse before, standing at the bar with a drink. The gunman who killed at least 49 people in a shooting rampage at an Orlando nightclub has been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen.
