Police still clueless about Orlando killer’s motives

It’s been two weeks since the worst mass shooting in US history and authorities have yet to announce any breakthrough in the investigation into the motives of gunman Omar Mateen.Many questions remain, but experts say there are similarities between him and perpetrators of previous atrocities.Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen of Afghan origin, was buried quietly in a Muslim cemetery near Miami, about three hours from the nightclub Pulse in Orlando.Mateen entered the club and opened fire with an assault rifle, and police killed him after a three-hour standoff.Forty-nine clubgoers where killed in the shooting.The question remains: why did Mateen target the Pulse club and its gay customers?Mateen told an emergency dispatcher in a call during the carnage that he was pledging allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.But gay men in Orlando have also come forward to report that Mateen used gay dating apps and had been a repeat patron at Pulse.Was he radicalised? Or fighting an inner conflict between religious fundamentalism and repressed homosexuality?Mateen fits the profile of a “typical” militant killer in America, based on a study by the New America think tank which analysed more than 300 cases of people charged with terrorism in the United States since September 11, 2001.“They are ordinary Americans,” said Peter Bergen, New America vice president and author of United States of Jihad.According to the think tank, the average perpetrator is 28 years old. One-third are married and one-third have children.Their education level is similar to that of the average American, with 50% having completed high school.Mateen and the San Bernardino shooters fit this profile.Syed Farook, a US citizen, and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik in December gunned down 14 people at an office party in San Bernardino, California, before they were killed in a shootout with police.“They exactly fit the profile: he was 28, she was 29, they were married, they had a kid, they both attended college, they graduated with degrees in sort of a technical area,” Bergen said.Mateen was also married with a son and had a steady job in security.Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, but this wouldn’t have stopped these mass shootings because they were carried out by US citizens.Farook was born in Chicago and Mateen was born in New York’s Queens neighbourhood, “which is exactly where Donald Trump was born, so he is as American as Donald Trump,” Bergen said.