Wife of Orlando shooting suspect once lived in Chicago suburbs
ABC7 I-Team Investigation
OAK LAWN, Ill. (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team has learned that the Orlando shooter's wife had lived in suburban Chicago. Now, authorities are looking into whether she knew about her husband's plans in advance or helped him scout out targets.
PHOTOS: Mass shooting at Orlando nightclub
The 30-year-old wife of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen is now being sized up for possible criminal charges. Law enforcement sources said Noor Mateen previously drove to the Pulse nightclub with her husband at least once, was with him when he recently bought ammo and may have known about the attack plot.
And now, the I-Team has learned she lived in south suburban Oak Lawn several years ago. She most recently lived in an Oak Lawn apartment prior to her marriage to Omar Mateen.
And before that, the landlord at a Berwyn apartment house confirmed she lived with a man who told the I-Team that her family was now handling the massacre legal situation and he didn't want to talk about it. But a former neighbor spoke to the I-Team about her on Tuesday.
"She was very quiet. Very standoffish a little bit, ya know, a head nod here or there but she really kept to herself and stood in her apartment. She never wore a hijab or anything like that. We do have a lot of Muslim people here in Oak Lawn but she never stood out as a typical Muslim woman," said Samantha Rivera, a former neighbor.
Noor Mateen was seen only under a hood leaving the apartment and has not spoken publicly, although intelligence sources say she has told the FBI her husband was self-radicalized in the last year.
"When you're dealing with homegrown extremists, the so-called lone wolf or lone actor, it is the case that almost always, somebody close to that person saw the signs. Why 'if you see something, say something' is more than a slogan," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC that Noor Mateen may have gone with her husband to buy ammo prior to the attack and had recently gone to the Pulse nightclub with him at least once. ABC News has also learned Noor Mateen told the FBI she tried to talk her husband out of harming anyone, but it's unclear if she knew the massacre was imminent.
"They spoke to her. I want to leave it at that and I don't wanna talk about anything," said Seddique Mateen, Omar Mateen's father.
Inside the couple's Florida home, video shot by Univision shows a seemingly normal life. The couple's 3-year-old son even had a Captain America shield.
Sources tell ABC that the Feds got Noor Mateen to talk only after showing her they had video of her and her husband driving to several Orlando sites.
ABC7 Legal Analyst Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, says she will face felony charges.
"As long as she took some sort of step, some encouragement of the crime, then she's absolutely exposed to criminal charges," Soffer said. "But if all she has to say is, 'I tried to talk him out of it,' then that's not going to get her very far."
She and her husband did recently go to the Disney World area in Orlando, although authorities are unclear whether that was a family trip or whether Omar Mateen was scouting for an attack.
Several reports Tuesday cited law enforcement sources that Disney World security officials actually reported the couple's presence to the FBI as a possible threat, although there is no confirmation or comment from either Disney or federal agents.
