ORLANDO, Fla. – Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, was an informant for the FBI for more than a decade before the 2016 mass shooting and is facing a criminal investigation in connection with money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan. … Mateen made at work in 2013 about belonging to terrorist organizations. Defense lawyers for Noor Salman, Omar Mateen’s widow, argued the case against her… (more…)
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that bans some transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military, but gives the armed forces latitude in implementing policies. The memorandum said transgender individuals with a history of gender dysphoria, defined as “those who may require substantial medical treatment, including through medical drugs or surgery,” are disqualified from military service “except under certain limited circumstances.” (more…)
Osvaldo “Ozzy” González, 57, and Alberto Arias, 54 were killed instantly when their car passed under a collapsing bridge in Miami.
The couple, described as “soulmates”, who had been together for 21 years, had spent the morning helping Alberto’s mother move into their home. They went out to do some tasks, when their white Chevy truck passed under the Florida International University footbridge as it came crashing down on March 15th.
The 862-tonne, 174ft (53m) bridge collapsed at 1:47 PM. It killed six victims who were passing under the bridge at the time of its failure. The footbridge was newly built and construction took just six hours.
According to the Miami Herald, Alberto’s mother became worried after she heard about the disaster on local media and started to call her son’s mobile phone, but it was already too late.
The couple owned a business together and were originally both from Cuba.
Ozzy’s sister, Marisol González, said he was, “The best brother, friend, very cheerful, with a desire to live life to the fullest.”
The couple will be buried together.
Luis Arias, Alberto’s nephew said, “They were together for 21 years — they were partners,”
“They were together in their ups they were together in their downs, they were together in their travels and enjoying life and they will be together when they are laid to rest.”
Both families of the men are filing a lawsuit against the companies involved in the bridge collapse.
Cynthia Nixon, the US actor who shot to international stardom as tough-talking lawyer Miranda on “Sex and the City,” announced Monday that she is running to become the governor of New York state … (more…)
ORLANDO, Fla. — In the hours after the massacre at Pulse nightclub, FBI Special Agent Ricardo Enriquez transcribed a statement from Noor Salman, the widow of shooter Omar Mateen. As he finished, he asked her to add a passage in her own writing, saying he had treated her fairly, he testified Monday. (more…)
After receiving stellar reviews in London, the revival of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize–winning drama Angels in America descends on Broadway. Opening March 25, Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika will run on consecutive nights. (more…)
ORLANDO, Fla. — Bobby Rodriguez was in the bathroom at Pulse nightclub when Omar Mateen opened fire, she said Wednesday, during the first day of testimony in the trial of Mateen’s widow, Noor Salman. “I panicked, I threw myself into the toilet seat and picked up my feet,” she recalled. (more…)
High school students and staff are standing behind a gay football player after the notorious Westboro Baptist Church protested the teenager on March 12. The targeted student is a senior at the John Burroughs School in the St. (more…)
An Ohio man was arrested for a threat he made on a dating app to kill dozens at a gay club, reported WBNS, a CBS affiliate in Columbus. Me’Schach D. Israel-Miller sent the message on Grindr, threatening to “kill 85 f—-ts at a gay club.” (more…)
Ali Muhammad Brown has shocked a court in the US after he admitted to killing numerous men, some because he thought they were gay. At first, Brown admitted to killing a 19-year-old, Brendan Tevlin in New Jersey.
Brown then confessed to killing three other men, two of them because it was his belief that they were gay.
In July 2014 it was thought that Brown may have used a social app to meet with at least two men. The victims had been enjoying an evening at R Place, a popular gay nightclub on Capitol Hill, in Washington State. Initial autopsies suggest that the victims were ‘essentially executed’, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Wyman Yip said.
Prosecutors say that two of the Washington victims, Ahmed Said, 27 and Dwone Anderson-Young 23, were targeted and lured via a social app.
Brown is already serving a 35-year term for an armed robbery.
If Brown is convicted he will given the death penalty. The prosecutor’s office said: “In his statement to the court today Brown admitted that the killings were a part of what he described as a ‘jihad.’”
Jamel Semper, who led the prosecution in New Jersey, said that Brown had “grievously harmed families and terrorised entire communities across the country.
“This defendant is no martyr.
“He’s just an admitted terrorist who will now spend the rest of his life in prison.”
He will be sentenced on the 1st May.
Jury selection began Thursday in the trial of the widow of the Orlando Pulse shooter, nearly two years after the slaughter at the gay Florida nightclub that left 49 dead and scores wounded. Gunman Omar Mateen’s widow, 31 year-old Noor Salman, faces charges of aiding her husband and lying to investigators. (more…)