Feds Arrest and Charge Suspect In Major US Mass Shooting With Islamic Terrorism
Noor Salman, the Pulse nightclub shooter’s widow will be standing trial in Orlando, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.
Salman is being charged with providing material support to a terror organization and obstruction of justice. Her husband, Omar Matee was the Islamic terrorist who murdered 49 people in cold blood and injured at least 68 others when he opened fire in a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida on June 12, 2016.
Salman obviously tried to persuade the judge to hold the trial in another city, saying she could not get a fair trial in Orlando but federal judges are constitutionally required to hold trials in the same community where the crime was committed, unless the accused can prove the publicity from the crime was so inflammatory and prejudicial that the community was saturated and an impartial jury will not be able to be chosen.
Wouldn’t it have been great for her if the judge would have moved her case to San Francisco, where any two-bit illegal alien criminal or Islamist is worth more than the life of an American citizen?
The Federal judge wrote in the order that the federal Middle District of Florida which is where Salman is being tried includes five counties where approximately 2.8 million people reside. He also stated in the decision that Salman’s lawyers could not point to a single local media story that implied that their client was indeed guilty of the crimes she was being accused of. Salman’s trial is scheduled to begin in March of 2018 and is expected to go on throughout the year.
An officer hailed as a hero for his actions during the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando is being let go just six months before he would have become vested in his pension.
Omar Delgado, 45, a corporal at the Eatonville Police Department, was one of the first officers at the club in the early hours of June 12, 2016, after a gunman killed 49 people and injured dozens in what then the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Delgado, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of witnessing the carnage, scoured through bodies that littered the ground and helped survivors get to safety. One of the clubgoers he helped was Angel Colon, who was shot six times. The pair’s story of survival and their growing friendship grabbed headlines around the world.
The department is terminating Delgado from the force at the end of the month, Eatonville Town Council members confirmed at a meeting late Tuesday. His last day on his $38,500-a-year job is scheduled for Dec. 31.
Delgado, who has mainly worked on desk duty since the attack, said the department told him they needed to replace him because of his PTSD and because they need an additional officer on patrol, a job he can no longer perform. He said he’s ready to leave and focus on his mental health but asked his superiors to wait an additional six months so he can mark 10 years at the department and become vested in his pension.
“Just let me get vested and I will be more than happy to pack up my troubles and leave,” he said. “This is the thing I’ve been working toward for 10 years and to be six months shy then be fired, it’s like ‘wow!’ ”
Eatonville Mayor Eddie Cole said the situation is complex but added he hopes to start a conversation about helping law enforcement officers after traumatic incidents. He said he couldn’t talk specifically about Delgado’s situation. Officials at the city’s police department also would not comment on the termination.
Delgado said he had hoped for a better outcome. “It’s a small town and we’re like a family,” he said. “You don’t just throw a family member to the street. They’re acting like a Fortune 500 company and saying since you can’t do your job, we’re going to replace you. Even if the world saw me as a hero, that was yesterday.”
Colon said he is shocked to hear about Delgado’s situation.
“He was my hero. He saved my life and for them to just do what they’re doing to him in front of my face is a slap to my face as well,” Colon told WFTV, a local ABC affiliate. “He did his job that night on June 12 so they should have his back 100% totally and just be there for whatever he needs.”
Delgado said he partially blames his termination on his decision to speak up about his mental state, adding he regularly sees a psychologist, though it hasn’t helped much.
Delgado tried coming back to work about a month after the shooting, on the Fourth of July, but said the loud bursts from fireworks gave him flashbacks to the sounds of gunfire.
And more than a year and a half later, Delgado still wakes up from the same nightmare every night. It always starts the same: He’s working to get survivors out of the nightclub when gunman Omar Mateen starts firing his rifle.
He and other officers drop to the ground. They don’t know where the gunshots are coming from or who they’re aimed at.
Delgado wakes up screaming and sweaty. He can never go back to sleep.
“I never thought I would have gotten to this point. I thought I’d shake it off and everything would be fine,” he said. “But that hasn’t happened. Nothing has been right since that day.”
Delgado said he has a GoFundMe page to raise money and plans to apply for disability, but until he’s approved it’s going to be an uphill battle financially for him, his wife and their three kids.
“This Christmas is going to be a really sad one,” he said. “There’s simply not enough money to make it.”