G4S (GFSZY), the global security company that employed Omar Mateen, made a “clerical error” in documents submitted to the state of Florida in 2007 regarding his fitness to be a gun-carrying licensed security guard, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mateen is the gunman whom authorities say killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub last week, constituting it as the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. History.
Dr. Carol Nudelman was listed as the psychologist who evaluated a test for Mateen that was required under state law for him to carry a firearm as a security guard. However, after news of the document was reported by the Miami Herald and other media, Nudelman, whose last name is now Blumberg, issued a statement that said she hadn’t evaluated any tests for G4S after 2005, two years before Mateen was ever hired, according to the Journal.
Instead, G4S said Mateen’s evaluation in 2007 was in fact conducted by a third-party vendor called Headquarters for Psychological Evaluation. Mateen’s evaluation used the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a common psychological assessment tool. The security firm said Mateen had an above-average rating and that he had a favorable recommendation for employment.
“Dr. Nudelman’s name appeared on the license as scoring the exam; it was a clerical error,” G4S said, according to the Journal.
Even after the FBI investigated Mateen in 2013 into his claims of terror ties and complaints about odd behavior, G4S didn’t make Mateen undergo any additional psychological exam at any time after he was hired, according to the Journal. According to a statement from the security company, it was unaware of a second FBI investigation of Mateen in 2014.
After news emerged that G4s employed Mateen, shares of the company plunged, wiping almost 200 million pounds ($282.80 million) off the value of the world’s largest security firm. When trading opened in London on Monday, shares in G4S lost 6.6% to 175 pence to hit their lowest level since 2009.
The is the second time in recent years G4S has faced scrutiny. In 2012, it failed to hire enough security workers for the London Olympics, forcing the British government to deploy 4,700 troops to cover safety needs. The company apologized in that case and covered the additional staffing costs, according to the Journal.
Coins2Day has reached out to G4S and the Headquarters for Psychological Evaluation and will update the story if they respond.
