Ex-classmate claims Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was gay

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

published 14 June 2016

A former classmate of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen claims that Mateen once asked him out on a date, The Palm Beach Post reports. Though Mateen was not open about his sexuality, the classmate, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he believes that Mateen was gay. "We went to a few gay bars with him," said the classmate, who attended a police academy class with Mateen in 2006. (Mateen did not end up becoming a police officer.)

The classmate said that he hung out with Mateen occasionally after class, and claimed that Mateen and their group of friends went to four different Florida gay clubs over the course of 2006. The classmate recalls Mateen as "socially awkward" and, according to The Palm Beach Post, said that he and "the rest in the group of friends felt sorry" for Mateen. "He just wanted to fit in and no one liked him," the classmate said.