Florida killer’s wife, ex-East Bay resident, reportedly knew plot

Residents in Rodeo expressed shock that a woman who once lived in the quiet East Bay community has become caught up in the FBI’s investigation into the slaughter of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando — a massacre carried out by her husband.

Noor Zahi Salman grew up in a four-bedroom home on Donald Drive after she and her family immigrated from the Palestinian territories, several neighborhood residents said. After divorcing her first husband, she returned to Rodeo and lived there with her mother and sister before she married Omar Mateen around 2013 and moved with him to Fort Pierce, Fla., an Atlantic coast town 120 miles southeast of Orlando.

Noor Zahi Salman, left, told the FBI that she had driven her husband Omar Mateen to the Pulse at some point before the night of the attack and had been with him when he bought ammunition two days before he killed 49 club-goers and wounded 53, NBC News first reported, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official. Note: This photo was altered to protect the privacy of the child. less Noor Zahi Salman, left, told the FBI that she had driven her husband Omar Mateen to the Pulse at some point before the night of the attack and had been with him when he bought ammunition two days before he ... more Image 1 of / 52 Caption Close Florida killer’s wife, ex-East Bay resident, reportedly knew plot 1 / 52 Back to Gallery

On Tuesday, the FBI was looking into whether Salman, 30, knew in advance that her husband was planning the shooting rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, according to several reports.

Salman told the FBI that she had driven her husband to the Pulse at some point before the night of the attack and had been with him when he bought ammunition two days before he killed 49 club-goers and wounded 53, NBC News first reported, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official.

Salman, however, told investigators that she had urged the 29-year-old Mateen not to commit the massacre, reports said. Police shot Mateen to death in the club about three hours after the killings began.

Mateen’s father, Sedique Mateen, asked by a reporter if he believed Salman “helped your son commit this crime,” replied, “I don’t think so.”

Salman and Mateen have a 3-year-old son. She has not commented publicly since the killings.

“She never made problems for anyone,” Rajinder Chahal, who lives across the street from Salman’s family in Rodeo, said about the gunman’s wife. “I was surprised. Nobody can imagine that.”

Neighbors said Salman and Mateen met online about five years ago and later married — the second marriage for both of them.

Salman had been living in Chicago but moved back to Rodeo shortly before her 2009 divorce, according to Contra Costa County Superior Court records. She studied at the now-defunct Heald College, a for-profit business school, and later worked at Kmart in Pinole and a grocery store in Richmond until 2010, according to her online resume.

Another neighbor, Sarwan Kaur, said Salman’s mother was upset that her daughter almost never visited after her marriage to Mateen. Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusifiy, has told reporters that he was abusive and mentally unstable.

Salman’s mother wept after hearing about Sunday’s mass killing at the Orlando club, Kaur said.

The family’s home is on a quiet hillside street on the east side of Rodeo. A Middle Eastern amulet called a hamsa, a talisman believed to ward off evil, hangs by the family’s front door.

A woman inside the home declined to speak to a reporter, saying only, “No comment, no comment,” through the closed front door.

It’s unclear whether authorities are seeking to build a criminal case against Salman. One legal expert and former federal prosecutor said that even if Salman knew that her husband posed a threat and didn’t tell authorities, she may not have committed a crime.

“The question is how much she knows and whether she joined in his purpose,” said Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “It’s not just what she knew. It’s what she did to help.”

Levenson added, “If she’s trying to convince him to not attack a place, it shows she does not join in the criminal activity. That would very much work in her favor — but that doesn’t mean they won’t question her.”

Kimberly Veklerov and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KVeklerov @EvanSernoffsky