The gunman who killed 49 people at a Florida nightclub had attended the club before and had been using a popular gay dating app for more than a year.
Pulse nightclub regular Kevin West said he had been chatting to Omar Mateen on the gay chat app Jack’d for around 12 months prior to the shooting.
A least four other Pulse regulars told the Orlando Sentinel they had seen Mateen in the club at least a dozen times before.
“Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” said Ty Smith, who also uses the name Aries.
“We didn’t really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times. He told us he had a wife and child.”
Mateen entered Pulse with a high-powered assault rifle in the early hours of Sunday morning, opening fire and killing 49 people and injuring dozens more. He was eventually killed by police.
Islamic State has claimed Mateen was a member and sympathised with its philosophy.
