Pulse Nightclub Shooter Originally Planned To Shoot Up Downtown Disney But Was ‘Spooked’ By Police Presence

Omar Mateen, the POS gunman who murdered 49 people at Pulse nightclub, originally had different plans.

Pulse nightclub wasn’t his original target. He wanted to open fire in the middle of Disney Springs (or as it’s more commonly known, Downtown Disney). What made him change his plans?

Police presence. He didn’t want to be surrounded by GOOD guys with guns.

Pulse gunman Omar Mateen originally wanted to shoot up the heavily populated Disney Springs complex in Orlando with a rifle hidden in a stroller.

But he became nervous by cops around him, so he headed to the gay nightclub on June 12, 2016, where he murdered 49 people.

Prosecutors made the revelation during closing arguments in the federal case against Mateen’s widow, Noor Salman.

“The target of that terrorist attack was not the Pulse nightclub,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney told the jury Wednesday morning. “The target of the attack was Disney.”

He planned to hide a rifle in a stroller, and officials did, in fact, discover a baby stroller– too small for his son– and a doll in his vehicle.

Disney Springs, previously branded as “Downtown Disney,” is a shopping, dining and entertainment complex.

Surveillance footage played in court Wednesday showed an Mateen strolling by the House of Blues.

Mateen got scared at Disney Springs by a heavy presence of Orange County sheriff’s deputies, prosecutors said.

“He had to choose a new target,” Sweeney said.

Salman wasn’t aware her husband switched his plans, but the prosecutor argued that wasn’t important to proving she still helped him plan.

“She doesn’t have to know that his initial target didn’t work out,” she told the jurors.

It doesn’t change the heartbreaking reality, but it DOES prove that 1.) This wasn’t a deliberate attack on the LGBT community specifically– this was about hate PERIOD and 2.) Armed security deters cowardly criminals. Criminals seek out soft targets. That’s why it blows my mind that liberals want to create MORE.

Wow, so a killer was deterred by armed security and instead chose a ‘gun free’ zone. Shocking! https://t.co/nf3NXDd2Zp https://t.co/SIOQrWA0hC

— Forged Forever (@Redman757590) March 28, 2018

You mean, attackers are afraid of potential victims having their own weapon? 🤔 https://t.co/bEdKSuVa1J

— Shelby (@GreatShelbini) March 28, 2018

So wait, he was afraid of good guys with guns and chose an unarmed target?

— JWF (@JammieWF) March 28, 2018

That’s what it sounds like.

Hmmmmm…so he avoided the place with guards and guns? Imagine that. 😱

— Scorpius Dubious (@ScorpiusDubious) March 28, 2018

So a then would-be mass shooter was detered by armed security? Got it. https://t.co/BXtqs0GoAd

— Khang Q. Ngo (@YouKhangDoIt) March 28, 2018

So you are saying that this mass murderer chose to commit his evil act in a ZONE that was FREE of GUNS? Who would have thought? Its almost as if cowards gravitate toward sites that are gun-free to commit their crimes. I wonder how we can better protect schools?

— Alex Cordasco (@reportonliberty) March 28, 2018

Idk. It’s a mystery.

So, the prospect of facing an immediate response from good guys w/guns made the bad guy w/guns pick another target?
I wonder if that would work in – say – schools?

— Ben Crystal (@Bennettruth) March 28, 2018

Wow. What a thought!

h/t NY Daily News