Former New York Neighbors Of Orlando Shooter In Disbelief
WESTBURY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- As facts unravel about the Orlando nightclub shooting, so do stories of 29-year-old shooter Omar Mateen and his Long Island roots.
There is a steady stream of gawkers in Mateen's former Westbury neighborhood. Many say they are disgusted and in disbelief, wondering how the boy they once knew became a violent terrorist.
"Morbid curiosity, quite honestly, that people feel the need to stand there and lurk in front of the house," one neighbor said.
The suburban white colonial with blue shutters on Land Lane, just steps away from an elementary school, is where the Orlando shooter once called home.
"A tragic and horrific act of violence like that can only leave you feeling unsettled, naturally, and knowing he was your neighbor doesn't help," former neighbor Mary Joe Spoto said.
"It's crazy, got a lot of people on Facebook saying it's really wild that this guy was really right around the block from us," former neighbor Carl Ericson said.
Mental health experts say although we feel an overwhelming aversion to glorifying the assassin in any way, humans are filled with curiosity regarding who this guy was and where he came from.
"We human beings have two things that we are drawn to: death and life," Dr. Harris Stratyner, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said. "We are drawn to our morbid curiosity."
Neighbors recalled his parents, who emigrated from Afghanistan, as quiet folks while Mateen was a wild child. The gunman was born in nearby New Hyde Park. He and his sisters attended Bowling Green School for a time and moved when he was about 9 years old.
Former neighbors are left to ponder about the family who lived among them for years, wondering if there were warning signs even back then.
Neighbors said after the family moved to Florida, they kept the Westbury home and rented it out for a number of years.