Gun Store Owner: We Alerted FBI to 'Suspicious' Customer Weeks Before Orlando Shooting

[cali]

The owner of a Florida gun store said he tried to alert the FBI to a "very suspicious" man later identified as Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen after Mateen tried to buy body armor and bulk ammunition from the store.

Robert Abell, a co-owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, told ABC News today that a man entered the store five or six weeks ago and asked specific questions about high-end body armor. When employees said the store didn't carry the body armor he wanted, Abell said, the man made a phone call in a foreign language, hung up and then asked about ammunition in bulk.

Abell said a member of his staff thought the questions were "odd" and made him uncomfortable, so he turned the man away.

Abell added that they thought the man was "very suspicious," so they called the local FBI office in West Palm Beach and reported the incident. But they didn't have the man's name, since no sale was made, and the only surveillance footage they had was grainy.

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read:http://abcnews.go.com/US/orlando-shooter-turned-gun-store-suspicious/story?id=39901107

[Ex Lurker]

1. I hope it was Mateen

otherwise there's another one walking around out there.

[jmg257]

2. Who the fuck was he calling about body armor?? Lone Wolf or not? Not good.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

4. They know exactly when and where the call was made

I would think that would be enough information to verify if it was him and see who he called. IIRC gps coordinates are part of phone companys' records.

I'd expect more to come from this.

[Ilsa]

3. Too bad they didn't offer to order the body armor for him.

They could have gotten his name and contact information and turned it over to the fbi.

[scscholar]

6. This.

Instead the store decided to protect the identity of the killer. That shows who gun shop owners identify with.

[Quackers]

8. You realize your comment makes zero sense, right?

The store is the one that called the FBI.

[scscholar]

9. Look at what I was replying to

The store decided to not take the guy's information.

[JudyM]

7. Or get the police there right then. Who shops for body armor and massive amounts of ammo? Um,

nobody home there? Jeebus.

[leftstreet]

5. Sounds fishy

Not your link - just their story

[gratuitous]

10. If it was Mateen

Isn't it nice that he was able to finish his purchase at another gun store where they weren't quite so sensitive and more eager to make a sale?

And if it wasn't Mateen, as noted upthread, there might be someone walking around Jensen Beach or its environs who's thinking about how he's going to top Mateen. Feel good about that, Florida? How about you, Attorney General Bondi? Governor Scott, your thoughts?

[Aerows]

11. I'm pretty sure Scott

doesn't have thoughts, just reptilian instincts.

The alligators in his state have more compassion than that criminal.

[Odin2005]

12. The FBI really dropped the ball on this one.