ORLANDO, Fla. — Eyewitness News is looking into the past of Omar Mateen and his failed attempts to get into the Law Enforcement Academy.
Mateen is the gunman who shot and killed 49 people, injured 53 others early Sunday morning inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Channel 9 learned Omar Mateen’s troubles may have started when he was a teenager.
A police academy application he submitted last year to Indian River State College in Fort Pierce shows that in 2001, he was expelled for a semester and sent to an alternative school after a fight in the ninth grade. He went back to the school where he got into the fight once the semester was over.
Document: Omar Mateen school grades
Mateen attended Indian River Community College in 2003 and received a science Associate degree in Criminal Justice Technology from IRSC in 2006.
He then went to IRSC Corrections Academy in Martin County in January 2007, under the sponsorship of the Florida Department of Corrections, where he worked from October of 2006 to April of 2007. He was then released from the D.O.C.
The Florida Dept of Corrections said he was terminated for reasons “other than misconduct” but didn't specifically list the reason to ABC News.
Story: Orlando mass shooter, Omar Mateen, worked at Department of Corrections
In the documents, Mateen went on to check the ‘yes’ boxes for being the subject of a criminal investigation, along with being fingerprinted for criminal reasons, being questioned as a suspect, and getting a criminal record sealed or expunged.
Read: Omar Mateen documents
The shooter admitted to using marijuana and steroids but never said how often or when, but he did check a box stating he doesn’t drink alcohol.
The shooter was not admitted into the academy and didn’t appeal the decision.
Mateen said in 2006 he left his job at General Nutrition Center so he could find work related to becoming a police officer.
Mateen also applied to be a trooper for the Florida Highway Patrol in September of 2011.
The FBI is pouring through Mateen’s past.
Read: Omar Mateen criminal justice documents
Between 1992 and 1999, he was disciplined 31 times for disruptive or disrespectful behavior, insubordination or striking a fellow student. Such behavior led to academic struggles. One seventh-grade report card shows he managed mainly Ds and Fs. In a letter sent to Mateen’s father in 1999, a Southport Middle School official wrote, “Omar’s attitude and inability to show self-control in the classroom create distractions and become a main source of difficulty for him.”
In his final year in St. Lucie County schools, Mateen was transferred to another classroom: "Omar will be placed in another class in order to avoid conflicts with other students," his teacher wrote, adding that he refused to speak about his behavior to anyone except his father. "Omar spoke only to his father in Farsi (Arabiand never addressed anyone else," the teacher's note said.
The school records include two grade school photos of Mateen (attached) as well as samples of drawings.
Cox Media Group
