what the fbi says is that in 10 2014, they were aware that he had contact with abu salah, they decided that the contact was minimal.had contact with abu say decided that the contact was minimal. it did not constitute a threats. the earlier thing, 2013, people who worked with him say he had made inflammatory comments to his co-workers. so the fbi actually interviewed him a total of three time after all these thing and as you heard the fbi special agent in charge down there say they decided that there was nothing basically to any of these things and they closed the investigation on him. so that was a very interesting piece of information. and then the atf just saying that he bought apparently these two weapons that were used in the shooting just within the past week or so, that he purchased them legally. now, he didn't actually say that they were the weapons used in the shooting. he said that he bought a hand gun and long gun. but in fact that's what was used was a hand gun and ar-15 rifle. and of course they also confirmed that he made this 911 call and stated some kind of allegiance to

the fbi says they became aware he had some contact with abu salah. after looking into it, they decided it was very minimal, very psmall. as we have reported all day long, nbc news has been told by his father that he saw this thing in florida and that may be what touched him off. one question here is how long was he planning this attack. the atf said just a moment ago he bought a handgun and a long gun just last week. we've since been told by authorities that those were the weapons that were used in this shooting. if he planned it far in advance, he only recently bought the guns. we don't know whether he was going to target that specific facility in orlando. >> pete, was the long gun in question indeed an ar-15? if so, remind our viewers what other shootings it's been associated with recently. >> well, they describe it as an ar-15 type weapon. the ar-15 is made by colt. it's a weapon that can hold a high capacity magazine. it's what people call an assault weapon. once you put this high capacity magazine in the rifle, then you can fire around. every ti

pierce man, abu salah. their contact, the fbi determined, was minimal. again, case closed. the fbi director says he doesn't believe agents missed any sign that mateen would later become a terrorist. >> we are looking for needles in a nationwide hay stack, but we're also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay may become needles. that is hard work. if we can find a way to do that better we will. >> reporter: during the ten months mateen was under investigation, his name was on a terror watch list. if he had tried to buy a gun then, the fbi would have been notified. but not after the case was closed. a former top atf official says the system should be changed to send an alert when anyone who's ever been investigated for terrorism goes to buy a gun. >> if something changed and a neighbor called you and said he was calling in with large barrels of chemicals that would be a trip wire that you'd want to act on. but the same could be true if a person was trying to buy assault weapons and large amounts of ammunition. >> reporter: a little over a week ago, what teen went to th

one of them did alert the fbi, but by then, abu salah had already left the u.s. at the time, the fbi thought his contact with abu salah was minimal and it didn't pose any kind of a real threat. law enforcement officials have told nbc news that there was no indication that mateen was in touch with terrorists overseas or that the attack was directed by someone else, to the point of what you were talking about. so meanwhile, we're also hearing from mateen's ex-wife. she talked to the press yesterday, and she described her former husband as unsound, claiming he was physically abusive and had in the past taken steroids. and that she actually left all of her belongings behind to escape their life together. >> instability, emotional instability, sickness, mentally, he was mentally unstable and mentally ill. that's the only explanation that i could give. and he was obviously disturbed. when he would get in his tempers, he would express hate towards things, toward everything. so in that respect, you know, yeah, but he was at the moments you would see his emotional instabi

. >> do you believe there was a connection between omar mateen and abu salah who became the suicide bomber? >> many people will not believe this and are reluctant to do so. it is truly a coincidence. >> reporter: shortly after that malik says he heard mateen talking about al-alwaki's video. it concerned him so much he called the fbi. >> he told me it was powerful. >> reporter: that was troubling? >> that raised the flag higher for me. >> reporter: the fbi did investigate mateen for the second time in two years and cleared him of any suspicion. malik says the fbi never asked about mateen again but did contact him about the muslim community. >> was he ever there for teaching that would have been considered radical? >> absolutely not. >> people that have come in have radicalized on their own. >> reporter: malik has gone public with his story because of comments made by donald trump, who argues the muslim community isn't doing enough. >> he says a lot of stuff, i believe, without factual evidence. the fbi is saying the opposite of what he says. that we do come forward and we help. i am an exam

. >> that 9/11 call also included a salute to american suicide bomber monar abu salah. and the fbi realize that the pulse shooter and the bomber were much closer than they thought. pulse survivors are also now remembering that the terrorist announcing his rifle jammed and asking if there were any black people in the club. >> and the gunman responded back to him saying that you know, i don't have a problem with black people. >> elsewhere in the club, the terrorist wasn't so talkative. >> he is shooting everybody that's dead on the floor. making sure they're dead. >> while that's happening the hospital down the street received the first wave of victims and called every doctor possible. >> i said this is not a drill, this is not a joke we have 20-plus gunshot wounds coming in. >> the emergency rooms and operating rooms were quickly crowded and there was a lull when the shooter was barricaded inside. but then a second wave. two dozen more gunshot victims. >> trauma bay was very full. >> fox news.com just learned federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury. they seek to c

and during the attack, he talked about the tsarnaev brothers and also abu salah. there was any type of collaborative relationship with isis. the dangerous thing about this enemy, when you have isis on the march in the middle east with a robust propaganda network, you don't necessarily need an operation or a relationship because just that sight of the caliphate being expanded is enough. >> congressman, today, literally a few hours ago, president obama got angry about his critics because he would not use the word islamic terror. was it islamic terror and would expression? >> without question. this was an act in furtherance of the islamic jihad. he was a militant islamist. it's important to do that because if you'll remember at the ft. hood attack, major hasan was taking all kind of radical statements but the army didn't do anything because they didn't want to call it by its name. if you look at the muslim brotherhood, they're also part of the problem. when you say it's confined to a few small people, you're not fully appreciating that this is an ideological struggle

. >> you know, obviously, a few years ago abu salah attended the mosque here, became the suicide bomber in syria. now omar. the country looks at this little mosque and says something must be here. what do you say? >> i have no comment on that. i have no idea. you have to talk to the imam. i can't say anything. >> is there any sort of rhetoric here. >> no. there is no rhetoric, that, i can say. there is no rhetoric. can you listen to our imam. there is no rhetoric. nothing like that. we are against isis and all this hamas and arched r. and r. arched are after and al qaeda. >> quiet community in fort pierce. >> griff, the orlando sentinel is reporting that mateen visited the pulse, which is behind me several times. they are reporting that we haven't confirmed it you have heard anything there about whether he visited the pulse several times before his slaughter on saturday night? >> we have not spoken to anyone yet who can confirm that we're hearing all sorts of things accomplices, even some of these folks may have gone to pulse. we have nothing to confirm that just yet. >> griff and thank

. >> that 9/11 call also included a salute to american suicide bomber monar abu salah. and the fbi realize that the pulse shooter and the bomber were much closer than they thought. pulse survivors are also now remembering that the terrorist announcing his rifle jammed and asking if there were any black people in the club. >> and the gunman responded back to him saying that you know, i don't have a problem with black people. >> elsewhere in the club, the terrorist wasn't so talkative. >> he is shooting everybody that's dead on the floor. making sure they're dead. >> while that's happening the hospital down the street received the first wave of victims and called every doctor possible. >> i said this is not a drill, this is not a joke we have 20-plus gunshot wounds coming in. >> the emergency rooms and operating rooms were quickly crowded and there was a lull when the shooter was barricaded inside. but then a second wave. two dozen more gunshot victims. >> trauma bay was very full. >> fox news.com just learned federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury. they seek to c

said that he made inflammatory remarks about terrorist ties and in 2014, after contact he had with abu salah the first american known suicide bomb inner syria. mateen was eventually cleared. >> there will be a lot of scrutiny as to whether or not fbi dug deeply enough in those two investigations. >> reporter: law enforcement is looking into whether mateen had any help and are following up on over 100 leads. don champion for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >>> tonight, hospital officials say they are expecting the victims still in their care to recover. orlando health tweeted the survivors in intensive care no longer need ventilators to breathe. city orlando identified most of the people killed in the shooting among them brendan mccool, who was with her friend nicholas perez and angel torres. perez and torres were being interviewed when they learned their friend had died. >> from what we heard she was missing but we he just saw that she has just died. >> family members say the hospital, still has more than a cost even patients who had not yet been identified. >>> tonight, dozens of people are still

mateen as a result of his so-called minimal contact with abu salah, but it was inconclusive, in their words. it sounds pretty stark to me, though. >> well, there will certainly be questions asked about this investigation. salah became the first american suicide bomber for al qaeda in may 2014, blowing himself up in syria. as peter was talking about, he came back to florida for a period of time, even after he'd spent some time in syria. both men from florida. at the same time it's got to be stressed that the fbi conducting an awful lot of terrorism investigations right now. they have opened 1,000 cases into suspected radical extremists in the united states. 800 of those cases there's some kind of link to isis in terms of sympathy. so they are stretched quite thin right now, the fbi, in terms of everything that they have to look out for. one extra point here is that over the last seven, eight months there has been a real drop in the number of americans who have been attempting to try to travel to syria and iraq. up until august 2015, according to fbi director, six to ten americans were

now, the very next year,ear, authorities looked at possible l ties connecting mateen to muhammad abu salah the first t f american to carry out a trash attack in syria. sia >>> the impact of thiss senseless tragedy has beendy has felt around the world. w >> president obama condemned omn attacks as well as hillary welai clinton and donald trump.. fox5's melanie alnwick is alnwii live from the white house withto more. good morning, mel.ng >> reporter: good morning,te wisdom and holly. you know, a vigiwil was heldas l here last night at lafayette park just after the president ordered the flags lowered aterea the white house. hse they marched from the steps of the u.s. capitol to the white house holding candles and singing for the victims of themt orlando shooting many feeling like it he's have been them. t >> earlier president obamalier addressed the nation from the white house. hou >> the shooter targeted aotergee nightclub where people cameme together to be with friends, fri to dance and to sing and too live.live a place where they wererehey wee attacked is more than a nightclub.gh it is a p

one of the questions to look into is how deep were the links between this individual and monu abu salaht to syria and joined al qaeda in syria and blew himself up in a suicide bombing. he left behind a video recording where he not only discussed why he had gone to syria but was actively encouraging people to carry out terrorist attacks not just in syria but in the west, including the united states. anyone that was remotely linked to him, that sent up flags. apparently the links were not significant to draw a red flag, but that name in particular, because he was an american, because he blew himself up in a suicide bombing, because he left behind a video urging people to carry out home grown terrorist attacks, and because he's from the exact same area, i'm sure there's going to be greater scrutiny to see was there anything there that was missed. >> evan, here we have an edp, an emotionally disturbed person. i think we can agree, who is angered by something he sees between two men on a street corner in miami. then mixed in with all the other qualities you just talked about, what -- a simpl

there was an fbi investigation into mateen because of his relationship with abu salah.know what the result of mateen being cleared was. this brings up this disturbing trend that happened after 9/11, after san bernardino and now hereafter the orlando terror attack of trying to look back seeing what dots could have been connected, what things were missed and by whom that could have prenktd these attacks. >> leland vittert, live in orlando. >>> apparently they are finding jack pots on his phones and internet search history where he didn't encrypt anything. there's the picture of the wife right there. she could have saved them all. apparently, she drove him to the gay nightclub days in advance. knew all about it and did nothing. >> there's a grand jury about to be impaneled about making a massive arrest on her. peter, your son knows, steve, that's where the investigation is heading. the kbe is -- the question is only thing that documents these things together is 2013 when they signed a mortgage together. how did they even meet? is this one of those sham marriages put togeth