Records Show Pulse Nightclub Shooter Buried In South Florida
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HIALEAH (CBSMiami) – It's confirmed. A death certificate issued Thursday shows that Omar Mateen, the man responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, was buried at the Muslim Cemetery of South Florida in Hialeah Gardens near Miami. It doesn't say when the burial took place.
Arrangements were made by the Riyadh Ul Jannah Funeral Home, located at the same address, according to the death certificate filed Wednesday.
Mateen's violent rampage left 49 people dead and another 53 injured, at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on June 12th.
The South Florida funeral home and cemetery in Hialeah Gardens has not responded to calls for comment.
The death certificate lists his job as a security office but does not state his cause of death. Investigators said Mateen was shot and killed by a SWAT team which stormed the nightclub just after 5 a.m. to rescue more than a dozen hostages.
Some South Floridians with family members buried in the Hialeah Gardens cemetery aren't happy to learn Mateen is buried there.
"Hearing he was going to be at the same place that my wife was... frustration," Andre Wade said. "Everyone's resting place should be a place of peace."
Buried next to a killer, it's not what Wade wanted when he chose his wife's final resting place.
"It was a kind of a kick in the gut," Wade said. "I was surprised going there and seeing the news reporters there because at night is when I go to say a few prayers and talk to her."
His family has been through a lot.
Aisha Wade, his wife of 20 years, had a long battle with cancer.
So imagine, on top of that grief, learning that your wife, the mother of your children, would share a cemetery with a mass murderer.
"He was a real monster," he said.
While two teenage boys learn to live without their mother, their father is having to discuss whether to keep their mom at the same cemetery or move her.
"They did not like the idea of moving her. Their first thing to me was why not move him because leave mommy where she is," Wade explained.
In other developments Thursday, about two dozen media organizations including The Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times have filed a lawsuit seeking disclosure of city of Orlando phone recordings stemming from the Pulse nightclub shooting.
The city, meanwhile, claimed in its own court filing that the recordings are exempt under Florida public records law and that the FBI insists releasing them may disrupt the ongoing investigation.
The media lawsuit contends city officials are wrongly withholding recordings of dozens of 911 calls as well as communications between gunman Omar Mateen and the Orlando Police Department.
Also Thursday, a new assistance center for shooting victims opened, and an evening street party was planned by the Pulse nightclub owner as a way to show the community's resilience. The party was Latin-themed, since it was "Latin night" at Pulse the night of the shootings.
