Gun store owner says he called FBI about Mateen before Orlando attack

The owner of a Florida gun shop told reporters on Thursday that his employees had tipped off the FBI after Orlando shooter Omar Mateen entered his store and acted suspiciously.

Robbert Abell, co-owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, told ABC News that Mateen entered the shop around six weeks before the deadly Orlando shooting and inquired about level-three body armour, a high-end body armour that protects US military and NATO soldiers.

When store employees told the man they say was Mateen that they did not carry that kind of body armour, he made a phone call in a foreign language and asked about bulk ammunition after he hung up, Abell said.

Store workers did not sell him the ammo, he added.

But law enforcement officials told CBS News that they had no evidence the gun shop workers made a phone call to the FBI or local police about Mateen.

One of Abell’s employees said he believed Mateen's questions were "odd" and sent him away.

Abell said he then called and reported the encounter to Florida’s FBI office in West Palm Beach. He said he didn’t give a name because there was no transaction, and said surveillance footage from a security camera – erased by the time of the shooting - was grainy.

"We gave them information and everything that took place, and that was the end of the conversation," Abell said.

The FBI followed up with Abell, according to the co-owner, but the bureau didn’t visit the store or continue investigating.  

When images of the attacker circulated after the shooting, Abell remembered the suspicious person and thought he looked just like Mateen.

"He slipped through the cracks," Abell said.

Lotus Gunworks staffers claimed they once again contacted the FBI following the attack about their encounter with the suspicious person.

The FBI offices in Washington, DC and Miami have not yet commented on the matter.

Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a gay nightclub before being shot and killed by police early on Sunday morning.