Orlando shooter had paid reconnaissance visit to Disney World before unleashing his murder at Pulse

The gunman who unleashed last weekend’s slaughter inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, paid a visit just days before to Disney World in the midst of its annual Gay Days celebration which can draw as many as 50,000 mostly gay and lesbian tourists from around the country.

It’s now the belief of investigators that the shooter, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, took a trip to Disney Springs, a concentration of shops, bars and clubs as well as apartments, owned and operated by Disney just on the edge of the main theme park between 1 June and 6 June to scope it as a possible target.

The discovery clearly raises the spectre that Mateen was deliberately assessing Disney, an iconic American tourist site, as an alternative to the Pulse nightclub where he eventually launched his bloody assault in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing 49 people before being shot himself.

While it appears that he visited Disney Springs alone earlier this month, he also travelled to Disney World as long ago as in late April but on that occasion he was accompanied by his second wife, Noor, also for reconnaissance purposes, investigators have indicated.

The wife is said to be cooperating with authorities but may yet face charges. She has reportedly revealed already that she was with her husband when he purchased guns and ammunition, which happened at the time of his second Disney foray, and tried to talk him out of committing violence.

For years, the large gay and lesbian community in the Orlando area drew a significant portion of its energy and numbers from the nearby theme parks, including Disney World where many of its employees, known as “cast members”, identified as being homosexual. Gay employees typically gathered at one of the park’s own entertainment areas one night a week to mix and relax.

But that tradition of gay openness and acceptance is flung open to LGBT visitors from around the whole country, indeed the whole world, for the park’s official Gay Days celebration in June. For some in the community, it is part of their annual gay-themed travel calendar, that might also include Gay Pride weekends in a number of cities, or gay ski weekends at winter resorts like Aspen.

Visitors who come for the Disney event often identify themselves by wearing red T-shirts in the park. The festivities culminate with gay parade in the Magic Kingdom on the first Saturday in June.

It isn’t clear whether the shooter was at the park on that actual Saturday. And muddying the investigation are reports suggesting that Matteen may have been struggling with his own sexuality, raising the possibility that his visit to the park was something more than reconnaissance with an intent to kill.