A man who claimed to be Orlando shooter Omar Mateen’s gay lover came forward, giving an interview while wearing a disguise to Univision on Tuesday. The man, identified only as “Miguel,” says he met Mateen through the gay dating app Grindr and described their two-month relationship as “friends with benefits” where they met 15 to 20 times at an Orlando hotel, the last time in Dec. 2015.
Here’s more from a Univision story about the interview:
“I’ve cried like you have no idea. But the thing that makes me want to tell the truth is that he didn’t do it for terrorism. In my opinion he did it for revenge,” he told Univision Noticias anchor Maria Elena Salinas in an exclusive interview in English and Spanish on Tuesday. He said Mateen was angry and upset after a man he had sex with later revealed he was infected with the HIV virus. The man said he had approached the FBI and been interviewed three times in person by agents. Univision was unable to independently verify his account. The FBI confirmed to Univision that it had met with him…
He described Mateen as “a very sweet guy” who never showed a violent side. He loved to be cuddled. “He was looking for love,” he said… He said he believed Mateen’s second wife knew he frequented gay bars and that his marriage was a smoke screen to hide that he was “100 percent” gay. “He adored Latinos, gay Latinos, with brown skin – but he felt rejected. He felt used by them – there were moments in the Pulse nightclub that made him feel really bad. Guys used him. That really affected him,” Miguel said. “I believe this crazy horrible thing he did – that was revenge.”
