Before Omar Mateen became the man responsible for the worst mass killing in U.S. history, he was a Fort Pierce security guard who had failed at every powerful position he pursued.
Mateen, 29, wanted to be a police officer, but he failed. He wanted to be a corrections officer, but he failed.
He wore a New York City Police Department T-shirt in photos on his Myspace account, and he drove a vehicle with a United States logo on the back, although he never actually served as a Marine.
“This was someone who wants to align himself with power, control and dominance, but he never quite made it,” former senior FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole said.
O’Toole and another FBI profiler offered insights into Mateen, who killed 49 people and injured 53 others when he opened fire early Sunday morning at Pulse nightclub in downtown Orlando. Authorities have said Mateen claimed allegiance to the Islamic State in conversations with them before he was shot and killed, ending the three-hour siege.
Retired FBI profiler and supervisor Joe Navarro said Mateen’s claim of allegiance with the Islamic State was a relationship out of convenience. Being a member of the terrorist group brought him the strength he craved as a narcissist.
“Did he have narcissistic qualities? You’re starting to see that with a lot of the photos he has taken of himself,” Navarro said. “People like him do things like join radical groups to make themselves bigger than they really are.”
Navarro said the way Mateen gunned down so many people was more evidence of his thirst for control.
“He looked down on those people,” Navarro said. “That’s the narcissism trait right there.”
