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ARTICLE · 28 JUNE 2016

Learning From Orlando: Addressing Potentially Violent Employees

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Reports of a potentially violent co-worker bring many difficult questions to bear. What are the nature of the alleged comments?

United StatesEmployment and HR
FordHarrison LLP
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In the nine days since Omar Mateen opened fire in the Pulse nightclub, killing 49 individuals and injuring several others, a report surfaced that Mateen's violent nature and potential to do harm to others was readily apparent to at least one of his co-workers. According to the Los Angeles Times, Daniel Gilroy, who worked with Mateen for about a year as a security guard at PGA Village South in Port St. Lucie, FL, complained multiple times to their employer that Mateen was dangerous, that "he didn't like blacks, women, lesbians and Jews." Gilroy claims his employer's failure to respond to the complaints left him with no choice but to resign. "I quit because everything he said was toxic," Gilroy to USA Today, "and the company wouldn't do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people." 

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