St. Pete-based journalist releases new ‘Untold Story’ podcast about Pulse shootings

It’s been eight years since 49 lives were stolen in what was, at the time, the deadliest modern mass shooting to occur in the United States. Our editor in chief quickly picked up on news of the shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub after a gunman opened fire at the club, just south of downtown, in the very early hours of June 12, 2016. It was Latin night. Most of those killed at the gay club were queer young people of color.

While Orlando Weekly has sought to cover the most important developments surrounding the aftermath of the 2016 massacre, journalist Trevor Aaronson of St. Petersburg, Florida, now brings to Audible listeners a new story — not about what happened after gunman Omar Mateen opened fire, but perhaps what could have been done beforehand to prevent the tragedy from occurring in the first place.

Aaronson’s podcast series, “ Pulse: the Untold Story ,” explores the relationship between the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the gunman and the gunman’s father—who the public only later learned was an FBI informant. Orlando Weekly reported eight years ago, just hours after the shooting, that the gunman had been investigated by the FBI twice before commencing the massacre.

While Aaronson told Orlando Weekly the series doesn’t intend to ascribe blame to any one person or entity, his team’s investigative podcast does delve into the questions of what, if anything the FBI could have done to prevent the shooting, and what role the gunman’s father, Seddique, had in protecting his son. “The Untold Story” questions, for instance, why the gunman’s father promoted the narrative that his son had specifically intended to target a gay nightclub—despite evidence later released that disputes this—and what purpose such a move, if any, could have served to protect the FBI from further scrutiny.

Although the local queer community was disproportionately impacted by the shooting, cellphone data and other evidence revealed through a court trial focused on the role of the gunman's wife, Noor Salman, shows victims were not targeted due to their sexual orientation. Even so, this doesn’t discount the immense pain this tragedy has caused, and continues to cause our queer community, particularly in a state that has grown ever more hostile to queer and transgender people.

Aaronson is no newcomer to investigative reporting, nor investigations scrutinizing the FBI. Aaronson is the author of the book The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism and a contributing writer for The Intercept. He also hosted the podcast series “Alphabet Boys” and the Audible Originals “American ISIS” and “Hold Fast.”

Orlando Weekly interviewed Aaronson to learn more about what his team’s investigation reveals about the Pulse nightclub shooting, and the takeaways his team hopes that locals will be able to get from the series.

The series will officially premiere Thursday, July 11, 2024.

Note: The contents of the podcast series, which include audio clips of 911 calls the night of the shooting, may be disturbing or difficult for some local listeners to revisit. Please listen with caution.

First of all, what was it exactly that drew you to this story? You live in St. Pete, which isn’t far from Orlando, but this didn’t exactly happen in your own backyard.

I felt it as somewhat of a local story, because I was living in St. Pete at the time, and Orlando, while a two-hour drive away, still feels very, very close. And so I remember waking up and seeing with everyone else on the news, you know, this kind of horrific mass shooting at this gay club in Orlando. And I didn't have any anticipation of writing or covering Pulse until Noor Salman's [wife of the gunman] trial, and when it was revealed that Sediqque Mateen, Omar Mateen’s father, had been an FBI informant for about 11 years. A lot of my prior research has been on the FBI's use of informants in criminal investigations, and I was really familiar with the kinds of the abuses that can happen with these cases. One of Noor Salman's defense lawyers mentioned to me that he thought this was a case of FBI corruption and a lack of accountability, and so during the pandemic, I was spending more time looking into this case. And one of my incentives in looking into it was this idea that when the FBI is pursuing sting operations, where they're kind of setting up some dupe in an undercover investigation — are they missing real threats?

So for me, there was a kind of larger story about whether the FBI could have prevented the Pulse nightclub shooting, given its investigations of Omar, but then also, kind of on a very macro level, whether the FBI’s counterterrorism tactics, its use of informants … maybe just doesn't work in keeping us safer.

This story first appeared at our sibling publication, Orlando Weekly—read the rest of the Q&A there.

Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter