FBI director doesn’t think the agency could’ve prevented Orlando shooting

FBI Director James Comey believes if everyone reported it anytime they saw something suspicious, we would be able to eliminate almost all terror attacks.

But in the case of Omar Mateen —the shooter who killed 49 people in a gay Orlando nightclub early Sunday and is believed to have ties to radical Islam — his coworkers did report when they saw something suspicious, and the FBI chose to close the case.

And Comey doesn’t believe the FBI should’ve done anything differently.

In a news briefing Monday afternoon, Comey said Mateen had come under investigation with the FBI twice, and the FBI chose to take him off the terrorism watch list.

The first time, Mateen’s coworkers said he hoped law enforcement would come into his home and assault his wife so “he could martyr himself.”

The FBI interviewed Mateen about the comments, who said he had made them in anger because he felt his coworkers discriminated against him because he was Muslim.

The second time Mateen’s name came up he was indirectly connected to a suicide bomber from Florida. Again, the FBI decided to take Mateen’s name off the terror watchlist.

But while asking himself in the briefing if the FBI should’ve handled the case any differently, Comey said, “I don’t think so.”

Instead, he called on the public to say something if they saw anything suspicious, saying it could prevent nearly all terrorist attacks. He did not mention what those who made reports to the FBI in Mateen’s case could have done differently.

President Barack Obama said in remarks just before the briefing that he doesn’t think the FBI did anything wrong either.

“The FBI followed the procedures it was supposed to,” Obama said.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 10:13 AM with the headline "FBI director doesn’t think the agency could’ve prevented Orlando shooting."