In the first reports after the massacre, the F.B.I. These new reports add another level of complexity to the mass shooting, which left 50 dead (including Mateen) and at least 53 injured-the worst mass shooting in American history. He might’ve even sat down at the bar and had a drink and laughed with the bartenders, knowing that they were lesbians.” “Because he would come into the and laugh with us. “That’s the thing that’s pinning me to the wall the most, that it was a gay nightclub,” King said. He believed that Mateen, who worked at the GNC next door, had attended one or two of his drag shows, or at the very least had known about his sexual orientation and didn’t appear to mind. Samuel King, an openly gay man who performs as a drag queen, was stunned that Mateen had targeted a gay nightclub, telling the Daily Beast that the two used to hang out, roughly a decade ago, at the Ruby Tuesday where King worked. “We went to a few gay bars with him, and I was not out at the time, so I declined his offer,” said the anonymous classmate, who said he thought Mateen was closeted.Įven if Mateen was not closeted, he appeared to have no problems with the L.G.B.T. The Palm Beach Post published an interview with a former classmate from Mateen’s time at the Indian River State College police-academy program, who said that Mateen had asked him out once in what the classmate believed was a romantic context.