(CNN) The Orlando shooter and his wife exchanged text messages during the Pulse nightclub rampage, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN. 
 
 Around 4 a.m. on June 12, about two hours after he started the attack and while holed up in a bathroom, Omar Mateen texted his wife, Noor Salman, asking if she'd seen the news, the official said. 
 
 At one point, she responded with a text saying that she loved him. Salman also tried calling her husband several times during the standoff, a second law enforcement official said. 
 
 The timing of her calls came after reports of the attack had emerged, and apparently after she realized her husband might be responsible. He didn't answer, the official said. 
 
 It's not clear if Salman made any attempt to report her husband during that time. 
 
 Salman is coming under increasing scrutiny as police investigate the killing of 49 people and wounding of at least 50 at the gay nightclub in Orlando. Authorities say Mateen carried out the killing with a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic assault-style rifle and a pistol. 
 
 Salman apparently gave conflicting accounts about what she knew of Mateen's intentions in the hours before the attack. authorities said. She also told investigators that in the weeks before the attack, Mateen spent thousands of dollars, including for the guns used in the attack. 
 
 Mateen and Salman married in 2011. They have a 3-year-old son and lived in Fort Pierce, about two hours from the massacre. 
 
 A U.S. attorney plans to bring evidence before a federal grand jury to determine whether charges will be filed, two law enforcement officials said. 
 
 Facebook postings 
 
 Mateen also vented on Facebook before and during the massacre. 
 
 "America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state," the gunman wrote, according to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 
 
 "You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes ... now taste the Islamic state vengeance." 
 
 Then, in his final post, an ominous warning: ''In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa." 
 
 JUST WATCHED New video of Orlando shooter emerges Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH New video of Orlando shooter emerges 01:50 
 
 The messages were described in a letter from committee Chairman Ron Johnson to Mark Zuckerberg, asking the Facebook CEO to provide "all Facebook data on Mr. Mateen's activities on his account and any affiliated Facebook accounts." 
 
 It's not the only time Mateen invoked ISIS during his rampage early Sunday. In the middle of killing 49 people, Mateen also called 911 to pledge allegiance to the terror group and CNN affiliate News 13 to say, "I did it for ISIS. I did it for the Islamic State." 
 
 And an analysis of Mateen's electronic devices showed searches for jihadist propaganda, including videos of ISIS beheadings, an official said. 
 
 Reported gun store visit 
 
 The owner of a Florida gun store said Thursday that employees contacted the FBI four or five weeks ago because they became suspicious when Mateen tried to purchase body armor and a large amount of ammunition. 
 
 Robert Abell of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach said a man asked for soft and then hardened body armor but was told the store didn't carry that merchandise. 
 
 During his visit, the man spoke on the phone to somebody in a foreign language and asked to buy 1,000 rounds of ammunition -- a request the store turned down, Abell said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Orlando GoFundMe breaks record Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Orlando GoFundMe breaks record 01:49 
 
 The store called the FBI with the suspicions, Abell said, but didn't know the man's name. 
 
 The FBI investigated another incident reported by the gun store owner that coincided with Mateen's possible visit, three law enforcement officials told CNN. 
 
 Agents originally looked into a call from the store about a group of suspicious foreign men appearing to be of Middle Eastern descent, who were buying police gear. 
 
 The FBI tracked down the men, who were visiting government security officers from a Middle Eastern country. The purchase was not deemed suspicious, the sources said. 
 
 When the FBI closed the matter with the store, an employee mentioned another unidentified suspicious man who days before had tried to buy Level 3 body armor. 
 
 There was no name or any purchase record to review. The FBI asked the person at the store if there was surveillance footage or a car description or license plate. There wasn't. 
 
 After the shooting, store employees realized the man was Mateen, Abell said. 
 
 The FBI had no official comment on the matter when reached Thursday night. 
 
 Spokesmen for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Martin County Sheriff's Office said the agencies don't have any records of receiving calls from Lotus Gunworks. 
 
 ISIS, or personal conflict? 
 
 JUST WATCHED Witness: We thought gunshots were 'part of the music' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Witness: We thought gunshots were 'part of the music' 05:24 
 
 Despite mounting pledges of allegiance to ISIS, some say they believe Mateen was actually fueled by struggles with his sexuality -- and may have latched on to ISIS as a vehicle for his anger. 
 
 Several regulars at the gay nightclub said the gunman visited frequently over the past few years. Cord Cedeno said Mateen saw him at Pulse and messaged him on Grindr, a gay dating app. 
 
 Cedeno said he wasn't interested in Mateen, but his friend was. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Steve King: 'Gays were targeted in Orlando, and it does matter' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Steve King: 'Gays were targeted in Orlando, and it does matter' 06:48 
 
 "One of my friends ... has been speaking with him since 2007, on and off," on another gay dating app, Cedeno said. 
 
 "(Mateen) sent him a picture of his private part, and my friend actually was attracted to him. He almost went and hooked up with him." 
 
 FBI agents are interviewing people who claim they met the gunman on gay dating apps, a law enforcement official said. Those claims "certainly change the perspective," the source said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Was the Orlando shooter gay? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Was the Orlando shooter gay? 01:54 
 
 CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said the gunman's complex background makes the investigation challenging. 
 
 "I'm not a psychiatrist, but the struggle with his humanity, his sexuality, combined with the potential for putting the onus on an organization that's asking people to do this -- asking extremists to do these kinds of things -- is an interesting dynamic," he said. 
 
 "And that's the thing that makes this case so extremely difficult." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Ex-wife: I questioned his sexuality Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ex-wife: I questioned his sexuality 02:01 
 
 The gunman's ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said she was not sure about his sexuality. 
 
 "It doesn't surprise me that he might be gay," she said. "And it doesn't surprise me that he was leading two totally different lives and was in such deep conflict within himself." 
 
 But the gunman's father, Seddique Mateen, has said he didn't think his son was gay. He emphasized that Mateen had a wife and child. 
 
 Victim's video 
 
 Throughout Orlando, survivors mourned the dead and recalled their experience. 
 
 Miguel Leiva shot cell phone video while huddled inside a bathroom with about 16 other people, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday night. 
 
 The video showed people passing a cup of water around. One man was choking on his own blood, Leiva said. They whispered because they feared the gunman, who twice came back and fired his weapon, would return. 
 
 "I just remember you can smell the blood, there was so much blood," Leiva said. "All my clothes was full of blood. We were sitting down and there was a huge puddle of blood." 
 
 Only five or six people made it out alive, he said. Leiva was shot in the foot and leg. 
 
 "So many innocent people just there to have a good time." ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Pete Williams and Ayman Mohyeldin 
 
 Gunman Omar Mateen made his final stand at an Orlando nightclub, but why did he buy plane tickets to the West Coast — on a flight two days after the shooting? 
 
 A federal official confirmed to NBC News Tuesday that Mateen made the purchase for his family to travel to Northern California to visit his ailing mother-in-law. Wife Noor Zahi Salman's mother recently had an operation and was not getting better, and the family was planning on spending an extended period of time with her. 
 
 Related: Friend Who Told FBI About Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen Saw a 'Red Flag' 
 
 The tickets were purchased two days before the June 12 attack to travel to San Francisco on July 14 for two weeks. It's unclear, however, why Mateen would have bought the tickets if he was planning the shooting, only to die in it. 
 
 Mateen, who lived two hours south of the club in Port St. Lucie, was armed with a semiautomatic rifle and 9mm semiautomatic pistol when he slaughtered 49 people and injured 53 others in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, police said. 
 
 Federal law enforcement officials said Mateen, 29, arrived at Pulse around midnight — but he left and then came back to the nightclub about two hours later to gun down his victims. 
 
 Investigators are trying to determine what he was doing for that two-hour period. 
 
 In addition, after combing through his electronic devices and doing interviews, they have not found anything to indicate that he was ever at Pulse in the days, weeks or months before the day of the shooting. 
 
 Related: DOJ Giving $1 Million in Federal Funds to Orlando First Responders 
 
 Right before Mateen had left the night of the attack, Salman became suspicious of her husband and pleaded with him not to do anything, a source told NBC News, although she did not call authorities. 
 
 A source close to the family said Mateen sent his wife a text message during the rampage, asking her, "Do you see what's happening?" After swapping texts, she tried to call him. Later, federal agents arrived at her door. 
 
 Salman, who has not been charged for failing to report her husband to law enforcement, continues to cooperate with investigators, a source said. ||||| Ron Hopper, FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Tampa Division, speaks during a news conference on the shooting investigation at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 
 
 On the day of his rampage at a gay nightclub, the Orlando shooter posted messages on Facebook pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State and vowing that there would be more attacks in the coming days by the group in the United States, according to a letter sent to Facebook on Wednesday by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. 
 
 “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state..I pledge my alliance to [Islamic State leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi ..may Allah accept me,” Omar Mateen wrote, according to the letter, which requested Facebook’s assistance in the investigation into the shooting that resulted in 49 deaths. 
 
 Mateen then posted, according to the letter: “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.” 
 
 At some point on Sunday, Mateen also searched on Facebook for “Pulse Orlando” and “Shooting,” according to Johnson. 
 
 The social media postings corroborate accounts that Mateen was motivated in part by a perceived connection to the Islamic State. The shooter made 911 phone calls during the shooting in which he pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, although he also apparently mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers. 
 
 The FBI investigated Omar Mateen twice before he killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) 
 
 [After Orlando, gun control getting a fresh look from GOP] 
 
 FBI Director James B. Comey said earlier this week that there were no signs that Mateen was directly tied to any kind of network, and he added that it remained unclear exactly which extremist group he supported. Mateen’s references to terrorist groups have at times been muddled. Officials say he made comments in recent years to co-workers claiming he had family connections to ­al-Qaeda and was a member of Hezbollah, two opposing terrorist groups that have clashed repeatedly in Syria. 
 
 Mateen also apparently used Facebook in May to look for information on the terrorists behind the 2015 San Bernardino attack. On June 4, 2016, he searched “Baghdadi Speech,” according to Johnson’s letter. 
 
 Authorities continued Wednesday to seek answers about the gunman who carried out the shooting rampage here, expanding the investigation to include interviews with his relatives, friends and anyone else who may have had contact with him in the months before the attack. 
 
 [FBI under scrutiny after dropping past investigation of Orlando shooter] 
 
 Mateen had smoked marijuana, used steroids and been expelled from high school in the ninth grade for fighting, according to records dating to last year obtained by The Washington Post. 
 
 He said he had been convicted of a crime, placed on probation and had a criminal conviction sealed or expunged. He did not specify the offense. 
 
 1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What the investigation into the Orlando mass shooting looks like View Photos Officials are scouring the site and others in the area for information about the June 12 massacre. Caption Officials are scouring the site and others in the area for information about the June 12 massacre. June 15, 2016 Law enforcement officials gather outside Pulse nightclub in Orlando during the shooting investigation. David Goldman/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 He said he spoke excellent Farsi and good Arabic. The email address he listed using: niceguy43212001@yahoo.com. 
 
 Asked why he had never served in the U.S. military, Mateen said that he “wanted to stay close to family.” 
 
 Reached by telephone Wednesday evening, Mateen’s mother, Shahla Mateen, said she knew nothing of her son’s plans. 
 
 “No. Nothing. Nothing,” she said. 
 
 [Orlando shooter’s wife facing intense scrutiny from the FBI] 
 
 Mateen said “we” — she didn’t specify who else — were out of town and got back late last week. 
 
 “Friday I didn’t see him and just Saturday,” she said, before she stopped talking and hung up the phone. 
 
 A man later answered Shahla Mateen’s phone. He did not identify himself. 
 
 “We want to have our own life back again,” the man said. “We have a loss, and there are a lot of disasters and a lot of bad news and because of it and we don’t have a life.” 
 
 While the FBI said it views the shooting as a hate crime as well as an act of terrorism, officials said there were “no impending charges” in the case and declined to discuss whether any were forthcoming. 
 
 The FBI confirmed that it had interviewed the wife of Mateen, who was 29. Noor Z. Salman urged her husband not to do anything the night of the attack, said one U.S. law enforcement official. But the bureau also tried to play down this element of the investigation, saying it was part of the larger work of piecing together the gunman’s movements and motivations. 
 
 [Orlando gunman’s wife warned him not to carry out attack, official says] 
 
 “With respect to the wife,” Ronald Hopper, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, said Wednesday, “that is only one of many interviews we’re doing.” 
 
 Salman has not publicly commented on the attack, and she has not been seen since Monday night, when the Miami-based television station WSVN recorded video of the 30-year-old being escorted from her home in Fort Pierce, Fla. Her face was shrouded by the hood of her sweatshirt, and her left hand had what appeared to be a silver wedding band. 
 
 Former neighbors in Salman’s home town of Rodeo, Calif., an area of oil refineries about 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, have described her as a shy and sheltered woman. 
 
 Jesus Torres, who attended middle school and high school with Salman, described her as quiet and smart, someone who hung out with the smart kids. He has remained in touch with her family since graduating from high school in 2004, and said he believed they were worried about her but did not want to pry. A neighbor told the Mercury News that Salman’s “mother would always complain” that Mateen never let his wife visit her family. 
 
 Salman’s romance with Mateen began online, and they were married on Sept. 29, 2011, in an Islamic ceremony in Hercules, Calif., a town near Rodeo, according to friends and public records. The couple have a 3-year-old son. 
 
 Jasbinder Chahal, who has lived across the street from Salman’s childhood home for the past 15 years, told the Associated Press that Salman did not appear to have lofty ambitions beyond marriage after graduating from high school in 2004. 
 
 “You know, some kids after high school, they open up the box and the world is theirs,” Chahal said. “She was inside the box — just pack it up and get married.” 
 
 She added: “Noor never played in the street, and the girls were never allowed to drive.” 
 
 The family lives in a beige split-level home with rose bushes out front in a neighborhood that is ethnically diverse and middle class. Many of the immediate neighbors are of Indian descent. 
 
 [After Orlando attack, prevailing view is there are ‘not any gays’ in Afghanistan] 
 
 Mohamed Diouf, 23, went to the same high school with Salman’s cousins Sana and Salam. Diouf described them as straight-A students — “a couple of the smartest ladies I’ve ever met.” 
 
 Diouf added about their mother: “She raised two successful, intelligent daughters that I got to grow up with, and I kind of respect that. I feel she’s someone to respect. The family is someone to respect.” 
 
 Diouf describes them as mainstream in their Muslim faith. He also grew up in a Muslim household. 
 
 “They’re like my parents — my mother and father, devout Muslims. It’s Ramadan right now. They would be fasting, they would be praying. They would wear their hijabs sometimes. But they were just regular people.” 
 
 On Wednesday, the family was holed up inside their home all day, with the shades drawn. Multiple visitors came and brought food and other household goods. 
 
 Salman accompanied Mateen at one point to buy ammunition and went with him on at least one trip to Pulse described as “reconnaissance” not long before the shooting, according to officials familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe. 
 
 Whether she knew the purpose of that trip remains unclear. 
 
 Investigators are still working to corroborate what Salman told them during interviews, according to authorities, and will also try to determine if she suffered any abuse at the gunman’s hands. His first wife — Sitora Yusifiy, to whom he was briefly married in 2009 — said he beat her repeatedly while they were married. How authorities ultimately view Salman’s role and actions could change if she was a victim of abuse or feared for her life, officials say. 
 
 As investigators continue probing Mateen’s life, they are also scouring digital forensics and are trying to reconstruct his actions dating back months. Meanwhile, evidence technicians were methodically tracing the path of the barrage of bullets that flew inside Pulse as they attempted to diagram precisely what happened. 
 
 [The gun the Orlando shooter used was a Sig Sauer MCX, not an AR-15. That doesn’t change much.] 
 
 “We’re looking at everything,” Hopper said. 
 
 He also said authorities had found no evidence yet that Mateen intended to target any other locations, and officials said they had no information about any possible surveillance at Disney or any knowledge of Mateen patronizing clubs besides Pulse. 
 
 At least two witnesses at Pulse said Mateen had previously visited the club. President Obama, who is traveling to Orlando on Thursday, has called the shooting “an act of terror and an act of hate,” while FBI Director James B. Comey said authorities were working to see if anti-gay sentiment played into the decision to attack the club. 
 
 Mateen appeared to be a very skilled shooter, according to documents released Wednesday, repeatedly scoring high marks on tests needed to obtain firearms licenses. 
 
 After opening fire on scores of people inside the nightclub here early Sunday, Mateen then threatened to strap explosives to his hostages and left police fearing possible booby traps even after the attacker was killed, the city’s mayor said Wednesday. 
 
 No explosives or bomb vests were found, but suspicions of possible devices forced authorities to wait a “significant time” before entering the club and fully assessing the mayhem after a commando-style raid freed survivors and killed the gunman, said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. 
 
 Since Sunday’s attack, authorities have confronted a jumble of potential leads and loose ends. Among the unanswered questions were why an earlier FBI investigation into the gunman was closed two years before the shooting and whether Sunday’s slaughter at the popular gay club was an act of politically driven rage or triggered by personal demons — or even a mix of both. 
 
 Meanwhile, German investigators examined a Düsseldorf bank account held by Mateen’s father, who has claimed that his son visited him at his home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the day before the attack and showed no hints of anger or anxiety. Germany’s Rheinischen Post reported that Mateen’s Afghanistan-born father, Seddique Mateen, posted the bank account details in a 2013 video soliciting donations — receiving only two payments totaling the equivalent of about $200. 
 
 There was no immediate indication of how the money was used, but the elder Mateen has been active in the Afghan expatriate community in the United States and elsewhere as a self-proclaimed political figure and analyst. 
 
 Survivors of the attack have relayed some of Mateen’s comments during the standoff with police officers, offering clues to his motivation. 
 
 One witness said that during the hostage standoff that followed the shooting spree, Mateen claimed he carried out the attack because he wanted “Americans to stop bombing his country.” While Mateen’s parents are from Afghanistan, he was born in the United States. Another witness said Wednesday that Mateen said, “America needs to stop bombing ISIS in Syria.” 
 
 The FBI said Wednesday that Mateen made phone calls during the standoff, but it has not publicly released any additional information on these calls. 
 
 Mateen made at least one phone call to an acquaintance he knew from Florida, two U.S. law enforcement officials said, but it is unknown what Mateen told this person. 
 
 Mateen’s phone has been recovered, and forensic experts were about to access the data, an official said. 
 
 Berman and Nakashima reported from Washington. Adam Goldman, Jennifer Jenkins, Sarah Larimer, Brian Murphy and Julie Tate in Washington; Emily Badger in Rodeo, Calif.; and Zachary Fagenson in Port St. Lucie, Fla., contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 How a heroic Marine’s military training helped him save dozens from Orlando gunman 
 
 For many victims, a freedom their parents couldn’t have imagined 
 
 Gunman who killed 49 in Orlando nightclub had pledged allegiance to ISIS ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Andrew Blankstein, Tracy Connor and Ayman Mohyeldin 
 
 The wife of Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen was arrested by the FBI on Monday in connection with the mass shooting and charged with obstruction and giving support to a terrorist organization, officials said. 
 
 Noor Salman was taken into custody in California, where her family lives, but the case is filed in Florida, where her husband massacred 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in June, swearing allegiance to ISIS. 
 
 Her attorney said she had no advance knowledge of what her husband was planning and should not have been charged. 
 
 "Noor has told her story of abuse at his hands," the lawyer, Linda Moreno, said in a statement. "We believe it is misguided and wrong to prosecute her and that it dishonors the memories of the victims to punish an innocent person." 
 
 Noor Mateen and her husband Pulse gunman, Omar Mateen, from a Facebook profile photo. via Facebook 
 
 Authorities said early on that they would file criminal charges against Salman — who was with her husband when he bought ammunition and exchanged texts with him in the middle of the attack — if it was shown that she knew what he was planning and did nothing. 
 
 The 30-year-old was being held at the Santa Rita Jail ahead of an appearance in federal court on Tuesday. Prosecutors will then seek to bring her back to Orlando to face the charges. 
 
 Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on MSNBC that the charges showed federal investigators' commitment to the case. 
 
 "We said from the beginning we were going to look at every aspect of this case, every aspect of this shooter's life — to determine not just why did he take these actions, but who else knew about them, was anyone else involved, is there any other accountability that needs to be had here in this case," she said. 
 
 Orlando Police Chief John Mina disclosed the specific charges — obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting by providing material support to a terrorist organization — in a tweet. 
 
 "Nothing can erase the pain we all feel about the senseless and brutal murders of 49 of our neighbors, friends, family members and loved ones," Mina said. "But today, there is some relief in knowing that someone will be held accountable for that horrific crime." 
 
 One of Salman's family members told NBC News that she is a simple person who should be seen as a victim, too. 
 
 In an interview with the New York Times in November, Salman said that she met her husband, the son of immigrants from Afghanistan, on an Arab dating site and that six months into their marriage, he began beating her. 
 
 Although she was with him when he bought bullets at Walmart and scouted out the club in Orlando, she told the newspaper, "I was unaware of everything." 
 
 She claimed that she thought her husband was out with a friend the night of the mass murder until his mother called her at around 2 a.m. to ask about his whereabouts. 
 
 Salman said she did not know, and texted her husband: "Where are you?" a source close to the family told NBC News. 
 
 Mateen responded: "Do you see what’s happening?" 
 
 Salman replied "No?" according to the source. 
 
 Mateen then responded "I love you, babe." 
 
 Last month, Salman applied to change the name of her 3-year-old son with Mateen. 
 
 Massacre survivor Demetrice Naulings, whose close friend was killed, was surprised to hear Salman was being charges so many months later. 
 
 "I'm just kind of shocked," Naulings said, adding that it was difficult to know how to feel since the feds had not outlined the allegations against Salman. 
 
 "I forgave her husband," Naulings said. "I pray for her and the kid." ||||| Nearly one decade ago, Orlando mass killer Omar Mateen was fired from a briefly held job as a state corrections officer, newly released records show. 
 
 But exactly why remains unclear — and whatever led to his firing, it wasn’t enough to keep him from becoming a gun-wielding security guard just months later. 
 
 The state records show that Mateen passed a psychological exam to earn that firearms license. He was also a crack shot. His firearms tests showed he performed well in training, sometimes at the very Port St. Lucie gun range where he purchased the weapons used in Sunday’s Orlando nightclub massacre. 
 
 Those were the revelations in state records authorities released Wednesday documenting Mateen’s licenses to carry firearms and work as a security guard in Florida. 
 
 Never miss a local story. Sign up today for a free 30 day free trial of unlimited digital access. SUBSCRIBE NOW 
 
 The only blemish, the records show, is that Mateen’s firearms license was briefly suspended when he failed to submit paperwork to the state. 
 
 The documents shed some new details into the employment history of Mateen, 29, who worked for G4S Security Solutions for nearly nine years; the company was previously known as Wackenhut. 
 
 His history with the company has come under scrutiny since Mateen stormed the Pulse gay nightclub in downtown Orlando on Sunday, killing 49 people and wounding 53 in what was the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. 
 
 The FBI said that agents investigated Mateen in May 2013 after he made “inflammatory” comments while working security with G4S at the Port St. Lucie courthouse. Co-workers said he claimed family ties to the al-Qaida terror network. 
 
 A 10-month investigation yielded no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, and Mateen claimed he only made the statements because co-workers were teasing him about his Muslim faith. The feds also investigated him briefly in 2014 to see whether he had any ties to a Vero Beach suicide bomber who killed himself in Syria. 
 
 The records don’t reflect that the state ever knew he was investigated by the FBI. In his applications, he answered “no” to the question if he had ever been convicted of a crime. He had not. 
 
 Speaking on background, a G4S official said the FBI never raised any concerns about Mateen to the company. 
 
 But the company did know that agents had questioned Mateen — he himself “disclosed” it to a G4S lawyer as the company probed his claims of being harassed by his peers in 2013. As for the FBI investigation the following year, the company denies ever knowing about it. 
 
 Nevertheless, the company later moved him from the courthouse to a gated community, where he was not armed. 
 
 A former co-worker there, Daniel Gilroy, told the Miami Herald that he complained to no avail about Mateen’s virulent outbursts against gays and blacks. The company says it has no record of any complaints from Gilroy. 
 
 The U.S. born Indian River Community College graduate worked retail at gyms and nutrition stores and that short stint as a probationary officer “taking care of inmates” at the state’s Martin Correctional Institute. 
 
 The corrections records released Wednesday showed he was dismissed in May 2007 but don’t reveal why. A few months later, he caught on with GS4. He was approved after taking a 40-hour security-guard training program and 28 hours of firearms training. 
 
 Florida does not require a psychological evaluation to become a security guard, but does mandate one to carry a firearm as a security guard. G4S also conducts psychological evaluations for all of its guards. 
 
 Mateen’s driving record and credit also came back clean, the company official said. Mateen passed another criminal background check in 2013. 
 
 For his firearms licenses, Mateen — then 20 years old — was first evaluated psychologically in September 2007 on behalf of G4S. The psychologist who cleared him was listed as Dr. Carol Nudelman, then of South Miami. 
 
 Nudelman has been in the news before for evaluating a prospective G4S security guard who later turned to violence. In 1998, she passed Paul D. Ahern, who went on a shooting spree in Miami, killing two people and wounding a cop. 
 
 On Friday, Nudelman issued a statement saying her Florida practice had long since been closed, and she did not evaluate him. The company acknowledged Nudelman’s name on the “character certification” was a “clerical error,” and another doctor evaluated his test results. 
 
 The records show that over the years, Mateen received high marks on yearly shooting and written tests, eight of them in all. 
 
 Three of those tests took place at the St. Lucie Shooting Center, where federal authorities say Mateen bought the assault rifle and pistol he used in the massacre. His last visit was on Aug. 16, 2015. 
 
 The issue of screening of Florida security guards is a perennial source of scrutiny. 
 
 Last fall, Miami security guard Lukace Kendle was sentenced to life in prison for murder. He shot two unarmed men outside a strip club, killing one and paralyzing the other. After his arrest, he was twice found mentally incompetent by court-appointed psychologists. 
 
 In Mateen’s case, his state records were released as a host of media outlets, including the Miami Herald, have repeatedly asked the state to release Mateen’s 911 calls and other documents. 
 
 Mateen was likely inspired by Islamic extremism, according to the FBI and President Barack Obama, although there is no signs he acted on orders from anyone abroad. 
 
 The killer’s motives may have been more complicated — several club-goers have said that he himself was gay and frequented the club for months before the shooting. 
 
 Federal authorities and now a grand jury are weighing whether to charge Mateen’s wife, who acknowledged he had discussed targeting the club and Disney World. 
 
 In other developments on Wednesday: 
 
 ▪ The FBI urged people to report information about threats against mosques and Muslims in the wake of the killing. Special Agent Ron Hopper also asked citizens to report any past interactions with Mateen. 
 
 “No matter how big or small,” Hopper said. 
 
 ▪ Authorities opened the Orlando Family Assistance Center, located at the stadium commonly known as the Citrus Bowl. It’s a venue where family members can get help arranging funerals, securing room and board and getting grief counseling. 
 
 ▪ Central Florida leaders said they are preparing for a hate organization that is notorious for picketing funerals after high-profile tragedies. That group: the Westboro Baptist Church, which has drawn infamy for picketing funerals after national tragedies and displaying anti-gay messages. The group tweeted “Orlando Bound” after the shooting. 
 
 Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said police officers are on alert if the group shows up. 
 
 “It is a call for our entire community to rally behind what we believe — and that’s love and compassion,” Jacobs said. 
 
 ▪ News emerged that Mateen may have called a local TV news station during the shooting. According to News 13’s website, a TV producer named Matthw Gentili took a call from a man during the shooting. 
 
 “He did it for ISIS, and he started speaking Arabic,” Gentili told his station. “At the time, I didn't know what he was saying. He was speaking so fast.” 
 
 The man eventually hung up.
– Omar Mateen used Facebook before—and even during—the Orlando mass shooting, ranting against the West and searching for posts on the massacre, according to a lawmaker's letter to Mark Zuckerberg. Sen. Ron Johnson, GOP chair of the Homeland Security Committee, quotes posts including: "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" in a letter asking Zuckerberg for his assistance investigating the attack, the AP reports. According to Johnson, Mateen searched Facebook for "Pulse Orlando" and "shooting" on Sunday morning, apparently when the mass shooting was already underway. In other developments: Mateen was kicked out of high school in the ninth grade for fighting, according to records seen by the Washington Post. The records also state that he used marijuana and steroids and had been convicted of a crime, though records do not specify the offense. A student at Indian River State College tells NBC News that Mateen was rejected from a six-month law enforcement training program last year. Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, says he "worked very hard to put him in the police academy." News 13 reports that Mateen called the station during the rampage, telling producer Matthew Gentili, "I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter." Gentili says the caller said he "did it for ISIS." It's too early to say whether Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, will face charges, the US Attorney for the Middle District of Florida tells the Orlando Sentinel. Lee Bentley promises that "no stone will be left unturned" and that "you will not find a more exhaustive or thorough investigation anywhere else in the United States." Insiders say Salman told federal agents that she tried to talk Mateen out of the shooting. The Miami Herald reports that Orlando has opened a center at the Citrus Bowl Stadium to deal with bereaved family members. The city is also bracing for the arrival of anti-gay protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church. The New York Times spoke to Joshua Stephany, Orlando’s chief medical examiner, who lost count of how many autopsies he performed this week. "Take a typical homicide scene, multiply it by 50, even that just won't prepare you for what you see," he says. Stephany says that out of respect for the victims, Mateen's body is being kept in a separate area of the morgue that is normally used for decomposing bodies. (A Pulse survivor says Mateen claimed he wanted to spare black people.)