ORLANDO, Fla._When law enforcement officers encountered Noor Salman in the hours after the mass shooting at Pulse, they noticed "red flags" in her behavior, according to testimony Thursday: She seemed too calm, knew details they hadn't shared, and showed little curiosity as to what her husband, Omar Mateen, had done.
Salman reacted harshly during a break in the testimony: "He's lying," she said of FBI Special Agent Christopher Mayo, a key witness for the government's case.
The testimony came on the 10th day of Salman's trial, as prosecutors work to prove that she knew of her husband Omar Mateen's plans to attack the nightclub in advance _ helping him to plot the massacre that claimed 49 lives, and lying about her involvement after the fact.
Lt. William Hall, one of the five Fort Pierce officers who arrived at the couple's Fort Pierce apartment, said he was instructed to gather as much information on Mateen as he could find. Hall said officers found Salman's phone number and asked her to come outside.
They were warned the house could have "possible bombs or booby traps" by the Orlando Police Department, according to records shown in court.
"We were not just going to walk up to the front door and knock on it without some sort of plan," Hall said.
Salman then walked out of the apartment wearing her pajamas. Hall, who had a long gun hanging around his neck, said that upon seeing her he didn't consider her to be an immediate threat and lowered his weapon.
"I could see she wasn't armed so I handed my rifle" to another officer, Hall said.
Salman's treatment at the hands of Fort Pierce police _ and later, special agents with the FBI _ is a key element in the case, as the government is relying on statements Salman made during questioning by the FBI in which she admitted to knowing about her husband's plot before the attack.
Salman's defense attorneys argue that her confession was coerced _ the product of an 11-hour interrogation defense attorney Linda Moreno said had "no integrity."
Hall testified Thursday that he told Salman that "something happened in Orlando" and her husband might be involved. Salman immediately responded saying her husband is safe with guns, and wouldn't hurt anyone except to protect himself.
"I thought it was rather strange that she would bring up anything about a gun because I hadn't brought up anything about a gun," Hall said.
Mayo, who took Salman's statements, testified about their conversation before going back the FBI office. He said he thought it was odd she didn't ask him what had happened and that she seemed calm.
"Most people I've dealt with are in a frantic, panic mode," Mayo said.
Mayo said Salman said the last time she saw her husband was the night before, when he left for dinner with a friend named "Nemo." Mateen's mother called her and asked if he was back home because he never called. At that point, Mayo noted, she still had not asked what had happened in Orlando.
Authorities had, to that point, referred to the mass shooting as an "incident."
Mayo said he asked Salman if her husband had any enemies. She said he liked everyone, "including homosexuals" _ before there was any mention that the "incident" was at a gay nightclub, he said.
Mayo said he identified "red flags" in Salman's statements, as well as inconsistencies: recently-purchased flight tickets to California, offering that Mateen likes gay people without being told he'd attacked a gay club and initially denying having gone to a gun range with Mateen, among others.
However, Mayo did not record his questioning of Salman _ though, "in hindsight," he should have.
"It never crossed my mind," he said.
Salman's defense lawyer, Charles Swift, honed in on that point.
"That's the only 10 hours for which we have no video tape whatsoever," he said.
Swift then asked why Salman wasn't allowed to leave Mayo's office during questioning. Mayo said she asked to go home, but her condo was "frozen" because authorities were still seeking a search warrant to go inside.
"Is it protocol to interview people who are exhausted?" Swift asked. "It's a very long time for her, wasn't it?"
Earlier in the day, Salman's jury watched graphic videos of the Pulse massacre.
The videos traced a timeline of Mateen's assault on the club.
It showed club-goers dancing and mingling before the attack, as Mateen's vehicle pulled up outside the club. Minutes later, Mateen was shown entering the club through the front doors. As the gunfire began, victims began to collapse onto the dance floor, falling like dominoes atop each other.
Mateen moved toward a bar in the back of the club, before shooting again. The video showed him reloading as people near him tried to crawl to safety. Mateen was the only person standing.
He opened fire again _ shooting people already lying on the ground. Jurors watched as Mateen walked toward the restroom where _ as the jury knows from other video shown Wednesday _ he began firing shots into the bathroom stalls, where some had taken refuge.
As photos from inside the club of bodies were shown, one juror in the front row held her arms, sitting on edge of seat. Afterward, she slouched back, removing her glasses and blinking several times.
Salman shielded her face from the evidence of her husband's rampage that was presented in court: video of Mateen shooting, photos of his corpse, bloody images of slain victims and video of their falling bodies. During video of her husband shooting, Salman covered her face with her hand and shook her head.
Jurors also saw video from 2:08 a.m., when police entered the club. Some victims were still moving on the floor. The body-cam footage shown was silent, but on other clips the jury saw Wednesday, the wounded could be heard moaning and screaming, while cellphones rang, unanswered.
They also saw footage from 5:06 a.m., when police breached a bathroom wall. Helicopter footage showed the firefight that followed. Mateen was killed in the shootout. The jury was shown his corpse.
Jurors also heard from FBI Special Agent Paul Castillo, who testified about the decision to breach the bathroom wall. "It was deemed to be the safest and most effective tactic at the time," he said.
Castillo, a bomb technician, said he arrived mainly to search for improvised explosive devices. He said that, because of the number of bodies on the floor in the nightclub and the rubble from the explosion of the breach, it was hard to see. The search took about an hour, he testified.
When Mateen was killed, he fell on a torn-down emergency exit sign. Officials initially thought the wires could have been part of an explosive device, but none was ever found.
Next the jury heard from FBI Special Agent Lynn Billings, who led the main investigative team at the nightclub. They cataloged evidence, including Mateen's weapons and his Samsung phone, which was found in a pool of bloody water in the bathroom where the wall was breached.
Billings said it took until 11 p.m. that night to remove all of the bodies. Shell casings and long-gun magazines were scattered all over the blood-soaked floor. Aside from the long rifle, Billings' team found a knife and a handgun next to Mateen's left hand, which was rolled into a fist.
Among the evidence the government showed jurors were about 20 receipts, documenting thousands of dollars in purchases by Mateen in the week before the massacre. He bought a long gun, a handgun, Glock magazines and speed ammunition-loaders at St. Lucie Shooting Center.
He also made several purchases at Disney parks and Michael Kors in Orlando.
The firearm purchase records showed Mateen purchased his weapons on June 4 and 5, but picked them up on June 9, three days before the Pulse attack. FBI Special Agent Lauren Regucci said investigators found several items inside Mateen's car, including a backpack with a full box of ammunition.
Salman is accused of aiding her husband in the planning of the attack at Pulse, during which Mateen killed 49 people and wounded dozens more, and also of lying to federal investigators afterward.
During opening statements Wednesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers painted starkly different portraits of Salman. The government said she gave Mateen "a green light" to carry out the massacre, helping him scout targets and keep secrets; the defense portrayed her as a "trusting, simple" person unaware that she was living with a "monster."
The government then called several witnesses, including Orlando police Detective Adam Gruler, who was working as off-duty security at Pulse when Mateen began his rampage in the early hours of June 12, 2016.
"Time froze. There was no concept of any time for me," Gruler said, his voice quaking as he testified about entering the club minutes after the gunfire began. "No matter where we stepped, there was blood."
Jurors also heard from a survivor who played dead beneath a slain victim as Mateen stalked the club, a terrorism expert, a TV news producer who took a call from Mateen, and from the Orlando police hostage negotiator to whom Mateen proclaimed his support for the Islamic state, among others.
The evidence-and-testimony portion of the trial, which began Wednesday, is expected to last three weeks. Salman faces up to life in prison.
