Potential jurors talk about guns, terror as trial starts for Florida nightclub killer’s widow

ORLANDO, Fla. — Noor Salman's trial in the massacre at Pulse nightclub opened Thursday, as the judge asked jurors their thoughts on topics including guns and terrorism, hoping to find a panel fit to decide the fate of Pulse gunman Omar Mateen's widow.

U.S. District Judge Paul Byron began the afternoon session by questioning two potential jurors, one of whom remained as a potential selection. The other was sent home after expressing strong anti-gun views.

"I don't like shooting. I don't like guns. I don't see why people even go there," the sixth juror of the day said when asked about evidence of Salman at a gun range years ago. "Why would she want to do that from the beginning? What is the purpose of learning to shoot?"

Thursday morning, four other jurors were questioned, with two allowed to remain in the pool. Two were dismissed: a new mother and a man who works on commission and said he would not be paid if he had to be away from his job to sit on the jury.

"I thought he was a candid, lovely gentleman, but he just can't do the job," Salman's attorney, Linda Moreno, told Byron after the juror who works on commission left the room.

The two people who are still in the jury pool are a man who sells forensic cyber-security software and said he believed religion had little to do with a violent attacker's motive.

"I don't look at it as a Muslim thing," the man said.

Another woman still in the jury pool told Byron she had some trouble understanding English and preferred that people speak slowly. Byron said her English comprehension seemed good enough that she could understand court proceedings.

"She's competent enough to do the job," Byron said.

While attorneys in the case worked, survivors and family members of the victims watched.

"I just felt I had to come. I had to make my presence known for the survivors, for the families," said India Godman, a survivor of the attack. "We all embraced one another. We're all here to support one another."

Godman wanted to see "at least some type of justice," she said. She said she believes Salman knew what her husband was planning.

"She says she has PTSD," Godman said. "What kind of PTSD does she have? Guilt? That she knew what was going on that night?"

Pulse owner Barbara Poma was also there.

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron told potential jurors the trial could last about three weeks, once a jury is chosen. He spent the morning questioning possible jurors about their ability to fairly judge Salman, whose husband killed 49 people nearly two years ago.

Jurors were also asked if they could still be impartial given any feelings they may have about the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks or the recent mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, a South Florida community.

Byron said testimony in the trial could begin in 7 to 10 days.

One potential juror questioned during the morning session — who lives two blocks from Pulse — was released from jury service.

The woman, who has a 7-week-old baby, said she wasn't sure if she could set aside feelings from passing by the nightclub daily. Byron decided to excuse the woman, due in part to the possibility of her being sleep-deprived as a new mom.

Other jurors have come from different cities within Central Florida.

About 15 survivors, victims' families and supporters are in the courtroom, a victim advocate said. They are not allowed to wear anything that sends a message, U.S. marshals said. A few were asked to change or cover shirts with Pulse emblems before being allowed into the courtroom.

Godman was one of the people asked to turn her Pulse shirt inside out.

"I wanted to be loud and proud like, 'Yes,' I'm here,'" Godman said as she left the courtroom after some jurors were questioned.

The judge told potential jurors that, to protect their privacy, if they're selected they will meet each morning at an undisclosed location. From there, marshals will take them to the courthouse. They'll also leave together, be taken back to the secret location and go home from there.

Salman, 31, is charged with aiding and abetting her husband in supporting a foreign terror organization, the Islamic State, and obstructing justice. Her husband was killed by police hours after he began shooting in the Orlando club June 12, 2016, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more.

About 5 a.m. Bob Kunst of Miami Beach parked across the federal courthouse in Orlando, armed with a lawn chair, a jug of water and a white cardboard sign: 'FRY' HER TILL SHE HAS NO 'PULSE'."

Kunst, president of Shalom International Miami Beach and a longtime gay rights activist, said he drove more than 200 miles before dawn to deliver his message.

"I'm here to take a stand against the insanity of not just this madness here, what we experienced in Parkland, what we're experiencing everywhere," Kunst said, referring to the mass shooting at a South Florida high school last month. "The FBI, the police that dropped the ball … It leaves us all vulnerable."

Kunst noted that the FBI had previously investigated Mateen in 2013, before clearing him, and that Orlando police waited to go into the club during Mateen's assault. A school resource officer at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School has also been criticized for not going into the school during the shooting.

"She deserves the death penalty. Nothing less," Kunst said. "You have to send a message to every one of these people that are out there ready to do us in that you have to pay the penalty."

Salman could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. She does not face the possibility of execution.

To prove their case against Salman, federal prosecutors will first have to prove that Mateen provided material support to the Islamic State, and that his support for the terrorist group caused the deaths at Pulse.

That means the jurors chosen to try the case will see some evidence from inside the club, including video.

In the months before the trial, hundreds of prospective jurors filled out questionnaires about their personal backgrounds, viewpoints, and knowledge of the case. Some of them will be called to the federal courthouse on Central Boulevard today, where attorneys will spend the first days of the months-long trial asking them more questions.

On the eve of the trial, a judge on Wednesday unsealed records that shed new light on aspects of Salman's defense strategy — including the claim that her husband was so abusive that she was afraid to question his actions leading up to the attack, such as watching Islamic State videos.