Yesterday we published reports that Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was a frequent visitor to the Pulse nightclub, where he took the lives of 49 people and injured 53 others early Sunday morning. Other reports, from MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, said that Mateen used gay social dating apps to message men.
Now you can watch the interview with Hayes and Cord Cedeno, who lost friends during the massacre in Orlando, and says he recognizes Mateen from his photos on one such app. He adds that he blocked Mateen immediately because of his “creepy” messages.
Watch the interview below.
RELATED: What Can We Learn from the People Who Knew Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen?
A friend of Cedeno’s claims that he had contact with Matten on dating apps Adam4Adam and Jack’d.
Now there is a new report from the Palm Beach Post from a former classmate of Mateen who says Mateen was gay and used to ask him out:
The classmate said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out, sometimes going to gay nightclubs, after classes at the Indian River Community College police academy. He said Mateen asked him out romantically.
“We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer,” the former classmate said. He asked that his name not be used.
He believed Mateen was gay, but not open about it. Mateen was awkward, and for a while the classmate and the rest in the group of friends felt sorry for him.
“He just wanted to fit in and no one liked him,” he said. “He was always socially awkward.”
