Orlando shooting: Who is Noor Salman and why could she be charged for Pulse massacre?

The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on 12 June could face charges in connection with the attack. On 14 June, sources told Reuters that a grand jury has been set up to investigate the role Noor Salman played in the shooting at Pulse nightclub.

The attack in Florida was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in recent history, injuring as many as 53 people, with six believed to be in a critical condition. According to several US officials, the gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (Isis) during the attack and was killed by police when they stormed the nightclub.

IBTimes UK rounds up everything you need to know about Noor Salman, the wife of the gunman.

Who is Noor Salman?

Salman, 30, is a woman of Palestinian heritage and is the second wife of gunman Omar Mateen. Little is known about her at this stage, although public records have stated that she was a student at Heald College-Concord in California before the school shut down.

According to a mortgage document, Salman has been listed as Mateen's spouse since September 2013, however, this appears to be the only legal indicator of their marriage. It is believed that the two had a three-year-old son together and Salman's Instagram account hosted an image of Mateen kissing a child under the caption, "daddy's boy".

The couple were originally living with Mateen's father and another relative in Port Saint Lucie. However, Salman moved out of Mateen's house in December 2015 and went to live with relatives in Rodeo, California. According to Mateen's father, the gunman became enraged when he saw men kissing in Miami two months ago. His father said that the incident took place in front of Mateen's wife and son.

Although Sitora Yusufiy, Mateen's first wife, has spoken out since the attack. Salman has avoided the media and local TV network WSVN said she was escorted from her home on 14 June, lowering her head and refusing to speak to the media – as seen in a tweet by a reporter.

What was Salman's involvement in the Orlando shooting?

Salman reportedly went with Mateen to buy ammunition and also drove him to the Pulse nightclub ahead of the attack so that he could survey the location. Sources have told NBC News that she said she tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the shooting.

According to Fox News, Salman told investigators that Mateen had shared his plans of the attack with her. There is also a possibility that the gunman called his wife from the Pulse nightclub during the shooting and Salman has confirmed details of Mateen's gun purchases prior to the massacre.

US Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN: "It appears she had some knowledge of what was going on. She definitely is, I guess you would say, a person of interest right now and appears to be cooperating and can provide us with some important information."

Salman told the FBI that her husband became radicalised in the past one year, CBS News reported.

What could Salman be charged with?

Prosecutors told Fox News that they are seeking to charge Salman as an accessory to 49 counts of murder and 53 counts of attempted murder. A federal law enforcement source confirmed that she is also being investigated for failure to notify law enforcement about the attack and lying to federal agents.

FBI agents have already interviewed Salman since the shooting on 12 June but she has not been arrested. She is believed to be cooperating with the FBI's inquiry.

Florida US Attorney Kendall Coffey told Yahoo News that the severity of charges against Salman will correlate with the extent to which she was involved in the crime.

Coffey said: "If she drove him to get ammunition or to case the crime scene, I think that's enough to warrant very serious charges if she had requisite knowledge of the crimes."