[Capt. Tom]

He purchased plane tickets for himself, his wife and his son, as an escape to be used after the attack.

What B.S.

To certainly get to heaven a Muslim DIES in Jihad.
Jihadists go immediately to heaven with Allah and don't have to wait until judgement day.

Mateen called the cops and told them where he was and what he was doing, and pledged allegiance to ISIS.
. Certainly no intention to escape.- Tom

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not everything is clear — maybe a suicide mission was Plan B.

Not all jihadists are superhuman. Some have ordinary human conflicts.

[justa-hairyape]

After he was trapped with no escape possible. He then needed to delay until an alternate escape could be attempted. And he did eventually try to escape through the wall hole.

[Myrddin]

I agree with your assessment. The jihadi attack was to atone for his homosexual nature. Instant forgiveness if you kill a bunch of infidels and die in jihad. His religion convinced him that jihad and death was his only option.

[arthurus]

I suspect he was of both minds. Part of him was American enough that he thought he was planning a hit and run raid while at the same time, he knew that he, as a pious mussulman, was to be a martyr. You can think it both ways but the reality is one or the other.