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

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 13 June 2016

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."

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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.

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