Omar Mateen was the mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terror attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. The news media has looked into the gunman’s past in a search for answers that would explain his violent rampage. They’ve looked into the obvious explanations such as his connections to radical Islamic extremism and his religiously-motivated hatred of gay people. Unfortunately, the news media has also gone to great effort to imply that Mateen’s interest in bodybuilding and anabolic steroids may have played a role.
The news media first picked up on the steroid angle after his first wife Sitora Yusufiy described Mateen as a man with a history of steroid use who physically abused her. Yusufiy gave the media a reason to pursue the story when she asserted that steroids must have played a role in the Orlando massacre.
“[Omar Mateen] was mentally unstable and mentally ill. That’s the only explanation that i could give and he was obviously disturbed, deeply and traumatized,” Yusufiy said. “I know that he had a history of steroids. I don’t know if that caused it. I’m sure it had something to do with it, you know?”
The Palm Beach Post later reported that Mateen admitted using anabolic steroids in a personal history questionnaire submitted as part of his application to Indian River State College for the Law Enforcement Academy in March 2015. Mateen did not describe the steroids he had used nor did he provide a date of his last steroid use.
The Daily Mail (UK) sought to corroborate accounts of Mateen’s steroid use when it contacted Tagreed Lillian Zaky. Zaky worked with Mateen at Gold’s Gym St. Lucie West in 2005. She recalled that Mateen’s job description required that he clean the weights at closing time. She claimed that Mateen started working out with some local bodybuilders and even start using steroids when he was only 18 years old.
The Tampa Bay Times interviewed a Gold’s Gym member who “got to know” Mateen in 2005. Stefan Cornvalius recalled that Mateen had a “terrible temper” and speculated that it caused by the use of anabolic steroids.
CBS News investigative producer Laura Strickler interviewed the woman who was Mateen’s boss at the GNC in Jensen Beach between February 2006 to November 2006. GNC Supervisor Margaret Barone claimed that Mateen was “doing too much” steroids because he “blew up” and became “huge” with arms that increased in circumference from 20 inches to 40 inches.
“If his arms were 20 inches, he had them over 40,” Barone said. “He was doing massive steroids that he said he was getting through the mail. He’d come in and buy $50 or $60 worth of protein powders, and also the supplements we sold…
“This kid bulked up so fast and so quick that he had stretch marks on his skin. When I tell you he bulked up, oh my Lord, it was like seeing a puny little kid turn into the Hulk.”
If Mateen used steroids some 5 to 10 years ago, it is interesting trivia. However, any media attempts to connect it to his actions at the Pulse nightclub do not represent a genuine desire to explain Mateen’s actions. The linking of steroids with a true monster represents nothing more than a pathetic attempt to further stigmatize bodybuilding and demonize the muscle-building drugs.
40 inch arms eh….. right…