‘Time people know the truth’: Widow of Pulse nightclub gunman maintains innocence in new interview

The widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter maintained her innocence related to the shooting in an interview with VICE News published on Wednesday.

Noor Salman was acquitted on charges of aiding and abetting her husband in 2018, a year and a half after her husband killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

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In the interview, Salman detailed the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, Omar Mateen, and maintains that she had no idea of any plans her husband had for mass murder.

“It’s time people know the truth,” Salman said in the VICE interview. “I hate how people assume I didn’t care or that I supported him. It hurts sometimes to think that people assume that I am this kind of monster.”

READ: Pulse Nightclub shooter’s wife speaks at fundraiser for Muslim legal defense fund

According to VICE, Salman said she was physically and sexually abused by Mateen throughout their marriage.

And Salman told VICE for years since her acquittal, she limited her time in public and dressed in disguises when she did go out for fear of being recognized.

READ: 9 facts about Noor Salman

The FBI claimed she knew what her husband had planned and helped him carry out the attack, and admitted to it during questioning.

She said she was unexpectedly taken from her home handcuffed and put in a room where she was questioned for 11 hours.

READ: Noor Salman trial: ‘We were convinced she did know,’ jury foreman says

Salman told VICE she just wanted to get out of the questioning room and that she’d begged for a lie detector test.

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Watch: Pulse 5-year remembrance ceremony Survivors, victims' families, first responders and officials gather at Pulse nightclub in Orlando to mark five years since the massacre. (WFTV)

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