NEW YORK: Wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, could face criminal charges for failing to tell police about her husband’s plan as she had an “inkling” about it, US media outlets said on Wednesday.

Noor Salman feared Omar Mateen was going to attack a gay nightclub and pleaded with him not to do anything violent, but failed to warn police after he left home on Saturday.

She told the FBI that her husband had assured her that he was simply going to see friends, although she believed he was actually planning to unleash terror at the Pulse nightclub.

Mateen, 29, opened fire when he was inside the Pulse early on Sunday, leaving 49 dead and 53 injured.

Six of the people injured in the attack were in critical condition on Tuesday, according to hospital officials who said the death toll could rise.

NBC news said Noor apparently had an inkling about her husband’s sinister plot as she told the FBI she once drove him to the Pulse because he wanted to scope it out.

She also said she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the investigations said.

Authorities are considering filing criminal charges against Noor for failing to tell them what she knew before the brutal attack, law enforcement officials say, but a final decision has yet to be made.

She is cooperating with the investigators, several officials add, but worry that once charges are filed she may stop talking.

Mateen, who was carrying a handgun and a Sig Sauer MCX, died in a shootout with police following the worst mass shooting in modern US history and the most deadly act of terrorism in the country since the Sept 11 attacks.

Mateen was born in New York to Afghan immigrants, described by one family friend as “loving, close-knit and very respectful of America”. His family ended up in Florida, where he studied at the Indian River State College near his home.

He graduated with an associate degree in criminal justice technology in 2006, and later got a job as a private security guard. He was fascinated with law enforcement, people who knew him said. He was married twice and was the father of a three-year-old boy.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016