Mateen, 29, declared his devotion to ISIS in a 911 call right before killing at least 50 people at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Sunday morning, according to NBC News.
Authorities deemed the attack an act of terrorism, and a congressman said the FBI investigated the would-be killer about three years ago.
"He was subject to an FBI investigation, there was some information passed along that caused them to look at him, but it didn’t seem to rise to the level of terrorism," Rep. Pete King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told the Daily News.
Read More : Politicians weigh on horrific shooting at Orlando club
King was unaware if Mateen was on a terrorism watch list, or if the FBI passed its information about him to authorities in Florida.Any link Mateen had to Islamic extremists has not been confirmed.
Mateen took over Pulse with a rifle, a handgun and a "device," law enforcement said. By the time SWAT team officers shot and killed Mateen, ending an hours-long standoff, he had killed at least 50 people and wounded another 53.
Mateen's father insisted the rampage had nothing to do with religion. Instead, he said, Mateen was enraged after seeing men kissing in downtown Miami months ago.
Terror attack at Orlando gay club leaves about 20 people dead
Mateen "saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry," Mir Seddique told NBC News.
"They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, 'Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.' And then we were in the men's bathroom and men were kissing each other."
The father said the family is "in shock like the whole country."
Mateen was apparently an abusive spouse, who drove away his ex-wife years ago after only a few months of marriage.
"After three or four months she was abused by him and then we went and picked her up from there," the ex-wife's father told the Daily News from a New Jersey home. He asked not to be identified because he feared for the family's safety.
"We even called cops to pick up her belongings."
The ex-wife is now living with her fiancé in Colorado and has had "nothing to do with" Mateen for years, her father said.
The former spouse told the Washington Post Mateen was "not a stable person."
After they met online and married about eight years ago, he repeatedly beat her while they lived together in Florida, she said.
"He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that," said the ex-wife, who also asked not to be identified.
They divorced in 2011.
Mateen worked as a security guard, and had a firearm license for his job, as well as a statewide concealed carry license, records show. The licenses were active through September 2017. It is unclear where he obtained the weapons used in the shooting.
Details about the son and current wife that Mateen's father mentioned are unknown.
Mateen was born in New York to parents from Afghanistan, law enforcement said. Before the massacre he lived in Port Saint Lucie, about two hours south of Orlando.
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