© Handout . / Reuters
According to a letter sent to Facebook on Wednesday by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Orlando shooter Omar Mateen posted Facebook messages pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS. Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wrote that Mateen vowed there would be more attacks on the U.S. The letter asks for Facebook’s help in the shooting investigation. “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state,” Mateen reportedly posted. “I pledge my alliance to [Islamic State leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi ..may Allah accept me.” Mateen then allegedly wrote: “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west” and “You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”
Government sources briefed on the FBI investigation said Mateen watched ISIS beheading videos and told his co-workers about them. He also reportedly said he wanted to be a “martyr” for the Islamic State terror group and that if the FBI “raided his house and killed his wife and child, that would free him to martyr himself in an operation.” Mateen was also apparently addicted to steroids at one point.