Widow of Pulse shooter found not guilty

The widow of the man who opened fire at an Orlando nightclub in 2016 was acquitted on Friday of charges that she aided her husband’s rampage and misled investigators.

A jury found Noor Salman, the widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, not guilty shortly after entering a third day of deliberations, according to media reports. 

Mateen was behind the June 2016 attack at Pulse that left 49 people dead. He was fatally injured in a confrontation with police after carrying out the shooting.

In a 911 call during the attack, Mateen swore allegiance to ISIS and said his actions were motivated by a desire to “stop the U.S. airstrikes” on Iraq and Syria.

{mosads}Prosecutors argued that Salman was aware of her husband’s plans and helped with the attack, even though she was not with him at the nightclub. She was accused of helping Mateen scout locations for his strike and of later lying to investigators. 

Authorities said that Salman had already confessed that she was aware of what Mateen planned to do. They also said that she had misled investigators about how many guns her husband owned, as well as about his extremist ideology.

Salman’s attorneys, however, argued that Mateen was abusive toward his wife and that she knew little about his life outside of the home.

The defense argued that she had been pressured into offering the confession.

After the verdict was read on Friday, Salman broke into tears before being ushered out of the courtroom. Outside, Susan Clary, a spokeswoman for Salman’s family, praised the jury’s decision, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

“Noor can go home now to her son,” Clary said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying it was “disappointed” by the outcome but that “the system of justice has spoken.”

Sheriff Demings has issued a response to the Noor Salman trial and verdict: pic.twitter.com/7QFrbpD8uZ

— OCSO FL News (@OrangeCoSheriff) March 30, 2018

If Salman had been convicted on all charges, she could have faced a sentence of life in prison. 

The Pulse nightclub attack was among the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, leaving 49 people dead and more than 50 injured. It held the record for the deadliest mass shooting in modern times until October, when a gunman opened fire on a Las Vegas music festival from his hotel room, killing 58 people.

Updated at 11:16 a.m.