A man who says he was the lover of Omar Mateen, the killer of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub last week, says Mateen did not commit an act of terrorism, but was seeking revenge for the rejection he received from gay Latinos.
A heavily disguised man identified as "Miguel"
told Univision on Tuesday that he wrestled with being a gay man who was raised in a conservative Islamic home.
"He adored Latinos, gay Latinos, with brown skin — but he felt rejected," the man said. "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. I believe this crazy horrible thing he did — that was revenge."
Miguel said Mateen's rage toward Latinos — particularly Puerto Ricans —may have been begun after a sexual encounter with two Puerto Rican men, one of whom later revealed he was HIV positive. Mateen took a test that showed him HIV-negative, but he worried that the virus had not yet shown up.
"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 said.
Conservatives and liberals have been split on the cause of the shooting, with liberals saying Mateen targeted the club because he hated gay people. Conservatives point to Mateen's pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) during 911 calls made during the attack as evidence of a terror attack.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.