Orlando shooter was fired for making a gun joke days after Virginia Tech killings

[kpete]

Orlando shooter was fired for making a gun joke days after Virginia Tech killings
Florida corrections department dismissed him after he joked about bringing gun to class, and security company that hired him next didn’t check past employment

The man who killed 49 people and wounded 53 at an LGBT nightclub in Florida on Sunday was dismissed from the state department of corrections in 2007 after joking about bringing a gun to a training class, according to records released on Friday.

The Guardian can also report that G4S, the security company that employed Omar Mateen just months after his dismissal, did not carry out a check on his employment record at the department, which could have raised further red flags about his state of mind.

Mateen began his employment with the Florida department of corrections on 27 October 2006 and was involuntarily dismissed six months later during a required training class at Indian River State program. The 29-year-old did not complete his academic program and was never certified as a correctional officer.

The records released on Friday showed Mateen was dismissed after approaching a fellow recruit and asking: “If I bring a gun to school would (you) tell anybody?”

“I looked at him and turned away,” the recruit wrote in a memo dated 23 April 2007.

As a result, the warden of the institution where Mateen was employed recommended his dismissal:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/17/orlando-gunman-omar-mateen-fired-gun-joke-state-department-corrections

[JonathanRackham]

1. This guy also tried to become a Florida trooper.

[linuxman]

2. Pretty consistent with his personal history.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/orlando-shooter-omar-mateen-was-suspended-for-cheering-911-and-beating-another-student-in-high-school-015839725.html