The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people in the Pulse nightclub shooting was arrested on Monday near the Bay Area, an FBI official said.
Noor Salman is the widow of Omar Mateen, who died in a shootout with police after the 12 June 2016 terror attack at an LGBT night club in Orlando, Florida, in which 53 people were wounded.
“I can confirm she was arrested this morning in the Bay Area,” a local FBI official told the Guardian.
The official was unable to confirm the exact charges against Salman, explaining that Florida’s middle district FBI office, which covers Orlando, was handling the case and therefore made the charges.
Messages left for the middle district office were not immediately returned. Linda Moreno, Salman’s lawyer, whose website describes her as an expert in the criminal defense of “national security and terrorism cases”, confirmed Salman had been charged with obstruction.
In a statement, Moreno said: “Noor Salman had no foreknowledge nor could she predict what Omar Mateen intended to do that tragic night.
“Noor has told her story of abuse at his hands. We believe it is misguided and wrong to prosecute her and that it dishonors the memories of the victims to punish an innocent person.”
A Twitter post from the US attorney’s office in Orlando said Salman would make her initial appearance on Tuesday morning in Oakland, California on federal charges filed in Florida.
Salman was interviewed by FBI officials immediately after the attack and has said she was “unaware” of her husband’s plans to embark on a mass shooting.
She described her husband, who she met on a dating website in 2011, as abusive, often choking her or pulling her hair. It was the second marriage for both of them.
The shooting took place in the early hours of a summer Sunday, during Latin night at the popular gay nightclub. Many of those killed were young, gay people of color.
Mateen described himself as an “Islamic soldier” in 911 calls recorded during the Pulse attack. The CIA said it found no direct link between Mateen and the terror organization.
Reports at the time indicated that Mateen may have been motivated by struggles with his own sexuality and that Pulse regulars said they had seen him before.
The 29-year-old was a security guard living in Fort Pierce, Florida, with his wife and son, about two hours’ drive from Orlando. He was born in New York City but his family moved to Florida when he was a child.
After the Orlando attack, the Senate tried and failed to pass laws regarding background checks and gun control restrictions.
The scene of the deadliest mass shooting in US history has been purchased by the City of Orlando and will become a permanent monument to those killed.
