Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique, says he last saw his son a day before the Orlando nightclub shooting. And nothing seemed amiss. (The Washington Post)
KABUL — The father of the Orlando nightclub gunman insists that his son was not motivated by Islamist radical ideology, describing the 29-year-old as a “a good son” who did not appear agitated or angry the day before the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
In two videos — one is an interview with The Washington Post in Florida, and the other is a separate posting to Facebook — Seddique Mateen offered no hints on what could have driven his son, Omar Mateen, to carry out the carnage early Sunday before police killed him.
During the rampage, Mateen pledged loyalty to the Islamic State in a call to 911, but his father said he did not believe it was a genuine pledge of support.
“I think he just wanted to boast of himself,” the elder Mateen told The Post late Sunday in an interview from his home in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “No radicalism, no. He doesn’t have a beard even. . . . I don’t think religion or Islam had anything to do with this.”
An injured person is carried out of Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (Steven Fernandez/Associated Press)An injured man is escorted away from Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (Steven Fernandez/Associated Press)Emergency personnel stand at the scene of a shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (Univision Florida Central/European Pressphoto Agency)A woman with blood on her clothing and legs stands at the scene of the nightclub shooting. (Univision Florida Central/European Pressphoto Agency)Officers walk toward a group of people assisting someone on the sidewalk. (Univision Florida Central/European Pressphoto Agency)Family members wait for word from police after arriving down the street from the shooting. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)Brandon Shuford, left, waits near the scene of the shooting. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)Omar Mateen, 29, has been named as the gunman in the shooting. (Myspace/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)Police and rescue officers gather near the nightclub. (Cristobal Herrera/European Pressphoto Agency)Friends and family members embrace outside Orlando police headquarters. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)Friends and family members embrace outside Orlando police headquarters during the investigation. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)A message towed by an airplane urges people to donate blood. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Police forensics investigators work at the crime scene. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Law enforcement officials work at Pulse nightclub. (Chris O'meara/Associated Press)Officers arrive at Orlando police headquarters during the investigation. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)Police investigate the back of Pulse nightclub. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)Demetrice Naulings cries outside Orlando police headquarters as police interview witnesses. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)People wait outside the emergency entrance of Orlando Regional Medical Center. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) gets interviewed by Geraldo Rivera about gun violence and Islamic extremism. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Rivera asks a question during a news conference about why the suspected gunmen was contacted by the FBI multiple times and yet still allowed to purchase a gun. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Members of the media wait for a news conference to begin blocks from where the shooting occurred. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer was on hand at the news conference. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Annette Stubbs, a pastor at a local church, prays for victims a few blocks from the crime scene. (Loren Elliott/Associated Press)A police officer stands guard outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center hospital. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)Orlando emergency personnel work at the scene of the Pulse nightclub shooting. (Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)Medical personnel examine a body at the Orlando medical examiners office. (Alan Diaz/Associated Press)An Orange County Sheriffs Office SWAT member arrives at the scene. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)An Orlando police officers Kevlar helmet with a bullet mark from a shootout with the attacker. (Orlando Police Department/Reuters)Water, food, and other donations pour in at OneBlood, the blood bank at 345 W. Michigan St. in Orlando for the volunteers and people waiting to donate blood. The line to donate was nearly 1,000 people deep. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Potential donors get briefed outside of OneBlood, the blood bank in Orlando. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Kelvin Cobaris, a clergyman, consoles Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, right, and Terry DeCarlo, an Orlando gay rights advocate, as they arrive at the scene of the massacre. (Joe Burbank/Associated Press)Angel Mendez, standing outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center, holds up a cellphone photo trying to get information about his brother Jean C. Mendez, who was at Pulse nightclub. (John Raoux/Associated Press)Texts that Mina Justice received from her son Eddie Justice, who was at Pulse nightclub at the time of the shooting. Justice said she hadnt heard from her son since she received the messages. (Courtesy of Mina Justice/Associated Press)Friends and family react after being notified if their loved ones were admitted as wounded to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. A list was posted at the nearby Hampton Inn & Suites. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)Friends and family react are notified about whether their loved ones were admitted as wounded to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)Imam Muhammad Musri speaks at a news conference after the shooting in Orlando. (Kevin Kolczynski/Reuters)Susan Stephens, left, hugs friend Karen Castelloes. Both are from Orlando. Stephens said her daughter is gay and that in support of her, she began attending church at Joy Metropolitan Community Church, a gay-friendly congregation. Each church member I see today, Im just so relieved, Stephens said. The church held a vigil Sunday evening for the victims of the shooting. (Melissa Lyttle/For the Washington Post)Bill McKinney of Orlando, left, leans his head on friend Keith Andrews shoulder during a candlelight vigil at the Parliament House, a gay-friendly resort and club in Orlando. McKinney was at Pulse with friends until about 1:15 am. I never go there, he said through tears. (Melissa Lyttle/For the Washington Post)
Photo Gallery: The scene in Orlando after a gunman opened fire at a nightclub
Seddique Mateen said his son stopped by the day before the rampage and showed no apparent warning signs.
“He was well behaved. His appearance was perfect,” he said. “I didn’t see any sign of worrying or being upset or nervous.”
The elder Mateen said he planned to travel to Orlando and visit those who were injured or lost loved ones in the shooting at a nightclub popular with the city’s gay community.
“If they’re not ready, I still say to them, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” he said. “I’m saddened for their injury or if they lost their dear one.”
But in a Facebook video posted early Monday, he said, “God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality.”
He had a child and a wife and was very dignified, meaning he had respect for his parents,” Seddique Mateen wrote, standing in front of the flag of his apparent birthplace, Afghanistan. “I don’t know what caused him to shoot last night.”
Seddique Mateen said his son had access to a pistol through his employer. The Post and other media outlets reported Sunday that Omar Mateen worked as a security guard for G4S, a global security and contracting company.
Law enforcement officials gather outside Pulse nightclub in Orlando during the shooting investigation. (David Goldman/AP)Officials investigate the shooting scene. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)Police set up a command center outside Pulse. (Jim Young/Reuters)Police officers walk toward the scene of the shooting at Pulse. (David Goldman/AP)FBI agents investigate in the backyard of Pulse. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)Bomb-disposal officers check for explosives at an apartment complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., that has been linked to the gunman. (Alan Diaz/AP)Bomb-disposal officers head to check an apartment complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., that could be linked to the fatal shooting. (Alan Diaz/AP)A member of a bomb disposal unit checks for explosives around the apartment building in Fort Pierce, Fla., where shooting suspect Omar Mateen is believed to have lived. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)Miami FBI agent Michael Leverock carries an evidence bag and documents to his car outside a condominium complex in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)Police stand outside a home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in connection with an investigation of nightclub gunman Omar Mateen, who was killed by police after the mass shooting. (Ryan Stone/European Pressphoto Agency)FBI and local law enforcement personnel work at a residence in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in their investigation of the Orlando shooter. (Joe Cavaretta/Orlando Sentinel via AP)News media trucks line up on a street near the nightclub after the mass shooting. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Investigators work the scene at the Pulse nightclub. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Investigators inspect the street after the nightclub shooting in Orlando. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)Police officials examine holes in the back of the Pulse nightclub. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP)Abandoned shoes sit in a parking lot outside the nightclub after the shooting. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP)FBI investigators arrive at the scene of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in which 49 people were killed and 53 were injured. (Jim Young/Reuters)Orlando Police Chief John Mina spoke Monday about police officers having multiple confrontations with the gunman. (Melissa Lyttle/For The Washington Post)Law enforcement officials investigate at the crime scene, where Omar Mateen allegedly open fire on patrons of the Pulse nightclub, resulting in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)Members of the FBI mark evidence near Pulse in Orlando. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)Police forensic investigators work at the crime scene. (Jim Young/Reuters)Members of the FBI and other investigators work in the area around the nightclub. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)A member of the FBI marks off an area with crime-scene tape. (Jim Young/Reuters)Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration make their way toward the police staging area in front of the Pulse nightclub. (Melissa Lyttle/The Washington Post)Police officers walk toward the scene of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub early Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (David Goldman/AP)
Photo Gallery: What the investigation into the Orlando mass shooting looks like
“I am deeply saddened and announce this to the people of America,” said Seddique Mateen in his Facebook video, noting his son carried out the attack during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Seddique Mateen, speaking in Dari, concluded the video by expressing disbelief that his son took it upon himself to seek retribution against the LGBT community.
“God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality,” he said. “This is not for the servants” of God.
In Afghanistan, officials were still trying to piece together the family’s background.
Afghan government officials said they did not know when Seddique Mateen left the country but noted millions of Afghans fled after it was invaded by the former Soviet Union in 1979.
Omar Mateen, 29, was born in New York but moved with his family to Florida as a child.
But Seddique Mateen appeared to maintain a strong affiliation to Afghanistan, hosting a television show broadcast from California that weighed in on the country’s political affairs.
He also filmed dozens of sparsely viewed, rambling YouTube videos portraying himself as an important Afghan analyst and leader.
In one video, the elder Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban while denouncing the Pakistani government.
“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said. “Inshallah, the Durand Line issue will be solved soon.”
The “Durand Line issue” is a historically significant one, particularly for members of the Pashtun ethnic group, whose homeland straddles the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Durand Line is that border. It is not clear whether the Mateens are Pashtun. The Afghan Taliban is mostly made up of Pashtuns.
The line was drawn as a demarcation of British and Afghan spheres of influence in 1893. The British controlled most of subcontinental Asia at the time, though some parts, including what is now Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan, were only loosely held.
The line was inherited as a border by Pakistan after its independence. Because it splits the Pashtun population politically, it is seen as a cause for their marginalization. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in most of eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
Just hours before the shooting in Orlando, Seddique Mateen posted a video on a Facebook page called “Provisional Government of Afghanistan — Seddique Mateen.” In it, he seems to be pretending to be Afghanistan’s president, and he orders the arrest of an array of Afghan political figures.
“I order national army, national police and intelligence department to immediately imprison Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, Zalmay Khalilzad, Atmar and Sayyaf. They are against our countrymen and against our homeland,” he says, while dressed in army fatigues.
The most recent video on Mateen’s YouTube channel shows him declaring his candidacy for the Afghan presidency. The timing of the video is strange, as it came a year after presidential elections were held in Afghanistan.
Mateen appears incoherent at times in the video, and he jumps abruptly from topic to topic. His use of Dari, instead of Pashto, the language of Pashtuns, was another strange element of his presentation, given that he is discussing issues of Pashtun nationalism.
“People would make jokes of this guy, especially after videos surfaced of him claiming to be the president in exile,” said one senior Afghan government official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to media. “He looked very serious, but no one could tell what he was talking about.”
Seddique Mateen also appeared to go to extraordinary lengths to appear as if he was a relevant figure in Afghan politics.
In 2014, for example, Seddique Mateen uploaded a video to YouTube that showed him interviewing Ghani. At the time, Ghani was a candidate in Afghanistan’s most recent presidential election.
Ghani initially had no recollection of meeting the elder Mateen. After scrutinizing the video on Monday, his staff determined Seddique Mateen had interviewed Ghani during his unsuccessful bid for president in 2009.
Bearak reported from Washington, and Powell reported from Port St. Lucie, Fla. Sayed Salahuddin and Mohammad Sharf in Kabul contributed to this report.