A man claiming to be the gay lover of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen says Mateen was “100 percent” gay and held a grudge against Latino men.
The man, who withheld his identity in an interview with Univision, only called himself Miguel, and said Mateen carried out the shooting for “revenge.”
“But the thing that makes me want to tell the truth is that he didn’t do it for terrorism. In my opinion he did it for revenge,” he said in the interview published Tuesday. The man spoke in both English and Spanish. According to Miguel, he and Mateen met on a gay dating website last year and considered each other “friends with benefits.”
“He was looking for love,” Miguel said of Mateen, who he called “a very sweet guy.”
However, Miguel said that Mateen never told him his name, only that he was 35 years old and married with a son. They met 15-20 times, and met last in late December.
“He adored Latinos, gay Latinos, with brown skin — but he felt rejected. He felt used by them — there were moments in the Pulse nightclub that made him feel really bad. Guys used him. That really affected him,” Miguel said. “I believe this crazy horrible thing he did — that was revenge.”
According to Miguel, Mateen was upset about a sexual encounter with two Puerto Rican men, one whom later told him he was HIV positive.
“He [Mateen] was terrified that he was infected,” Miguel told Univision. “I asked him, ‘Did you do a test?’ Yes. He went to the pharmacy and did the test … it came out negative but it doesn’t come out right away. It takes four, five months.”
“When I asked him what he was going to do now, his answer was ‘I’m going to make them pay for what they did to me,'” Miguel explained.
Miguel also told Univision that he had approached the FBI and had been interviewed three times by FBI agents. The FBI confirmed to Univision that it had met with him.
“It’s my responsibility as a citizen of the United States and a gay man,” he said when asked why he came forward with the story.
Mateen opened fire on Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., during a Latin-themed night on June 12. In the shooting, 49 people were killed and 53 others injured before Mateen was killed in a shootout with police. Most of those killed were Hispanic.
The investigation into Mateen’s motive is still ongoing, though he did pledge allegiance to the Islamic State in a 911 phone call from the club. Mateen had also posted on social media his support for the Islamic State.
Miguel told Univision that once Mateen criticized the United States’ war on terrorism, to which Miguel told him, “You’re totally right.”
