G4S denies responsibility for Pulse shooting
G4S – the British security company whose US subsidiary, G4S Security Solutions, employed Pulse gunman Omar Mateen as a security guard – has denied responsibility for Mateen’s “terrible actions” and asked to be dropped from a lawsuit brought by survivors.
Mateen, a New Yorker of Afghan parentage who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (Isis) jihadist group, massacred 49 people at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, Florida, last June.
He was a security guard for Florida-based G4S Security Solutions at the time of his death, leading survivors of the attack to file a class-action lawsuit against G4s, alleging Mateen’s employer knew he was mentally unstable and still granted him a firearms licence, failing to revoke it even after his investigation by the FBI for terror-related offences in 2013.
Responding to the suit in the US district court for southern Florida earlier this week, the company’s lawyers denied the company’s involvement in “any aspect of Mateen’s employment”, saying its subsidiary acted independently, reports AP.
“While G4S wants nothing more than for Mateen’s victims and their families to find peace, this misguided lawsuit is not the answer”
For its part, Security Solutions earlier this month sought the dismissal of the suit, saying Mateen wasn’t working for them at the time and didn’t use their weapons in the attack. “Thus, while G4S’s employees and their families want nothing more than for Mateen’s victims and their families to find some semblance of peace, this misguided lawsuit is not the answer,” concluded its request.
It is unclear, then, exactly which company employed Mateen at the time of his death; a statement from G4S shortly after the attack confirmed that “Omar Mateen had been employed with G4S since September 10, 2007”.
The Pulse shooting was the deadliest mass attack by a single shooter in American history, and the deadliest attack on the US since 11 September 2001.
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