Agencies
Washington, June 16: The gunman who killed 49 people at a gay club in the US this week wrote a series of Facebook posts about the “filthy ways of the West” before and during the shooting rampage, a top US Senator has said and asked the founder of the social networking site to assist in the probe.
Such an assertion by Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs came amidst reports that Mateen, 29, made as many as 16 phone calls, including three to 911 and one to a local television stations during the several hours of early Sunday morning when he carried out the deadliest shooting in American history.
In a letter to the Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Johnson said it is his understanding that Mateen used Facebook before and during the attack to search for and post terrorism-related content. “I appreciate Facebook’s support of the law-enforcement investigation into this attack and previous attacks. While Facebook is not a target of the Committee’s inquiry, I respectfully request your assistance with the Committee’s inquiry,” he said.
Johnson said according to information obtained by his staff, five Facebook accounts were apparently associated with Omar Mateen. June 12, 2016, Mateen apparently searched for ‘Pulse Orlando’ and ‘Shooting’. Mateen also apparently posted “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic State…I pledge my alliance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi…may Allah accept me.”
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Orlando-style massacre threat Los Angeles: A chilling post on free advertisement website Craigslist has threatened an Orlando- style massacre in California’s San Diego city, saying, “you’re next”, in an eerie warning that has prompted an FBI probe. A KGTV news station viewer saw the post in the men-seeking-men section of the Craigslist San Diego personal advertisements. He took a screenshot and sent it to the TV station before the post was flagged and removed. The post was titled, “We need more Orlando’s (sic),” and it was accompanied by a photo of a hand firing a revolver with a bullet coming out of the barrel. |
