Regulars at Pulse nightclub say shooter visited at least a dozen times before attack

Pulse nightclub.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A regular at Pulse nightclub says he saw the man who killed 49 people there early Sunday at least a dozen times before the mass shooting.

Ty Smith told the Orlando Sentinel that "sometimes" Omar Mateen would "go over in a corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent." Smith said he didn't really talk with Mateen, but remembers "him saying things about his dad at times. He told us he had a wife and child."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.