Noor Salman, the widow of the gunman in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub shooting, sobbed Friday as she was acquitted of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and of obstruction of justice in connection with her husband’s 2016 rampage.
A visibly anxious Salman, wearing a dark suit, stood in federal court as the verdict was read. She wept and heaved as her attorneys — one of them also crying — embraced her. She looked back at her relatives.
“Thank you,” she whispered to her attorneys.
An uncle, seated in court behind her, stifled a sob as other relatives held one another.
As Salman left the courtroom, she looked back at her family again, her eyes red and teary.
“Noor can go home now to her son, resume her life and try to pick up the pieces from two years in jail,” Salman family spokeswoman Susan Clary said, adding that the relatives were grateful for the verdict.
Salman, 31, was arrested in January 2017, months after her husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others when he opened fire at Pulse the previous June. Police responding to the attack killed Mateen.
Prosecutors said Salman aided Mateen ahead of his killing spree, then lied to the FBI in an attempt to thwart the investigation.
Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon before returning with a verdict Friday morning.
Salman’s relatives and Clary said they were sorry for the victims and survivors.
“It’s Good Friday for everybody,” said Al Salman, an uncle. “I want to say thank you, Lord, for giving my niece (freedom).”
Defense attorney Linda Moreno also expressed admiration for the victims’ families and survivors.
“We’re very grateful to this jury and to the Orlando community,” she said. “Maybe this was the only community that could do this.”
Defense attorney Charles Swift said the prosecution failed to deliver on its promises to the jury.
“The more we learned,” he said, “the better Noor Salman looked.”
He added, “This jury will stand in my mind as remarkable. … They were pillars of this community. We knew their backgrounds. They were true judges in this case.”
Assistant US Attorney Sara Sweeney, in a brief statement, said she was disappointed with the verdict but respected it. She thanked the jurors for their “hard work” and service.
Barbara Poma, founder of the onePulse Foundation, a nonprofit seeking to erect a memorial and museum at the former nightclub, said Mateen was the triggerman and “he should not have one more minute of power over our lives.”
“This verdict cannot and will not divide us,” she said in a statement. “The survivors, families, and first responders as well as the community of Orlando and everyone around the world must now focus on the work ahead of us. We will always carry the pain of what happened at Pulse, and we will never forget those who were taken.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer sad on Twitter that the trial’s conclusion will help the community heal.
“We can never bring back the 49 innocent victims whose lives were taken on June 12, 2016, or erase the pain that the horrific act brought to so many, but we remain focused on helping the victims and family members continue the healing process,” Dyer said in statement.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said he shared the disappointment of the victims’ families.
“This has been an emotional event for our community, and many feel that justice has not prevailed,” he said in a statement.
“However, the system of justice has spoken, and we should look to the continued healing for the families and our entire community so that this event will not define us.”
Prosecutor Sweeney asserted that the case was about what Salman “knew and what she did. The defendant didn’t pull the trigger that night, but she did serve as a green light for her husband.”
Salman’s attorneys argued that their client was not an accomplice but a simple-minded victim of her husband’s infidelity and lies.
“She doesn’t go to the mosque, she searches for Hello Kitty on her website,” Swift said in closing arguments. “We’re supposed to believe she had long conversations with Omar Mateen about jihads?”
Salman did not testify during the trial. She faced life in prison.
