(14 Jun 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus057483
Regular customers of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando say they recall seeing shooter Omar Mateen at the gay bar on several occasions.
Jim Van Horn, 71, said he was a frequent patron at Pulse and said another "regular" there was Mateen. Van Horn said he believes Mateen was gay.
"He was trying to pick up people. Men," Van Horn told The Associated Press late Monday outside the Parliament House, another gay club.
Van Horn said he met Mateen once. He said the younger man was telling him about his ex-wife.
"My friends came out from the back and said, 'Let's go take pictures on the patio,'" Van Horn said. "So I left. And then they told me they didn't want me talking to him, because they thought he was a strange person."
Wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, Mateen opened fire at Pulse Orlando early Sunday in a three-hour shooting rampage and hostage siege that ended with a SWAT team killing him. During the attack, he called 911 to profess allegiance to the Islamic State group.
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