MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Omar Mateen's school records reveal multiple suspensions, drug use and unspecified criminal behavior that kept him from being admitted to a Florida police academy.
The Orlando nightclub shooter, who on Sunday shot and killed 49 people and injured 53, was suspended 48 days between 2000 and 2002, while he was in junior high and high school, according to Martin County school records obtained by TCPalm.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.
Mateen’s misbehavior, a pattern established in his elementary and middle school years, did not end in 1999, when he transferred from St. Lucie County schools to Martin County in eighth grade.
Most of the offenses were categorized as "other rules violations," while two suspensions in 2001 resulted from fights just six days apart, according to records.
But details of Mateen's behavior problems, discipline, including suspensions, and communications with his parents were unavailable. Martin County School District retains discipline records only for three years, school officials said Thursday.
Toward the end of Mateen's freshman year in 2001, he was removed from Martin County High School and sent to Spectrum Junior/Senior High School — the district's disciplinary campus.
Mateen explained he was sent to Spectrum for fighting a fellow student, according to a 28-page personal-history questionnaire that accompanied his December 2013 application for the Indian River State College police academy.
In his questionnaire, Mateen marked "yes" that he'd had criminal records sealed and expunged and that he had been a suspect in a criminal investigation.
He also divulged that he had participated in "undetected crimes," which the questionnaire described as criminal acts for which you have not been caught, including underage drinking, petit theft, shoplifting, burglary, stealing from your employers or use of illegal substances.
He did not indicate which crime or crimes he committed.
Mateen also admitted using marijuana and steroids. He said he had never consumed alcohol.
Mateen’s application was rejected by the police academy. The college didn't tell him why, and officials wouldn’t divulge even now their reasons for not accepting him into the training, a required step to becoming a law enforcement officer.
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