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9940

After the shooting, reports revealed
that Mateen had been on a terror watch
list and had been questioned multiple
times by the FBI. Rios, the G4S spokes-
woman, said in her written statement
that the FBI never informed G4S about
its concerns with Mateen.
However, company officials shuffled
Mateen from post to post due to prob-
lems with his co-workers and com-
plaints from law enforcement about
threatening behavior, investigations
into the Pulse shooting revealed. Florida
regulators also found that G4S had sub-
mitted more than 1,500 psychological
questionnaires, including Mateen’s,
purportedly signed by a psychologist
who had stopped working with the com-
pany two years earlier. G4S has argued
in court that the tests were valid even
though they had the wrong evaluator’s
name on them.
The Florida Department of Agricul-
ture and Consumer Services, which reg-
ulates the private security industry,
fined G4S $100 for each document, for a
total of about $151,000.
The fine was dwarfed by at least
$157 million in contracts G4S has made
from Florida state agencies in the past
10 years, according to state contract da-
ta. Since the Pulse shooting, the compa-
ny has won or renewed 200 contracts
with the state.

‘Think image, not qualifications’

Robert Bobo, a G4S vice president in
Colorado, told his recruiters he looked
for a certain type of job candidate.
To win contracts, he instructed them
to “think image, not qualifications”
when it came to hiring guards, accord-
ing to a complaint letter one of his sub-
ordinates sent to human resources in

2016. Bobo confronted another recruiter
      for “hiring terrorists” because the
      guards were of Middle Eastern descent,

according to the complaint.

On paper, Robert Leiman, 25, fit the

profile Bobo described. He was white,

ex-military and willing to work grave-

yard shifts as an armed guard at an

apartment complex and various office

buildings around Denver.

Leiman, however, was not the ideal

candidate. He had been discharged

from the Army amid questions about his

mental health and after threatening to

kill a fellow soldier.

On Jan. 20, 2014, Leiman and his par-

ents argued about his erratic behavior,

according to police records. His parents

told him it was time to move out of their

home.

Instead, Leiman grabbed the.

Smith & Wesson revolver G4S had is-

sued him. He shot his stepmother dead,

shot his father in the face and then

sought out his stepsister, who hid in a

closet and called police.

“My stepbrother Robbie started

shooting,” she whispered to the 911

operator, trying to stifle her sobs. “I’m

so scared.”

Leiman never got to her. He killed

himself before police arrived.

Bobo, whose LinkedIn profile says he

still works for G4S in a “semi-retired”

capacity, did not respond to voicemails

requesting an interview.

Chronic turnover has left the people

responsible for filling empty guard posts

with little choice but to hire whoever

they can get, former G4S managers said

in interviews, testimony and internal

company complaints.

In 2013, G4S’ security contract was up

for renewal at the Radford Army Ammu-

nition Plant in Virginia, a sprawling mil-

itary manufacturing campus.

The company slashed its bid and then

gutted employees’ wages and benefits,

according to company emails, records

from the internal investigation and in-

terviews with two former supervisors.

Many of the existing guards quit, and

those who remained said they had to

work up to 18 hours on a single shift, or

100 hours a week. A security manager at

BAE Systems, the defense contractor

that hired G4S, wrote in a May 2013

email that the site was struggling to refill

the positions.

“We still do not have a training pro-

gram up and running, which is a huge

concern to me,” he said in the email. “We

have officers on patrol and post that do

not really know what to do or the impor-

tance of their position because of lack of

training.”

Former site supervisor J.L. McKinney

said in an interview that recruiters

simply hired guards who promised they

could run a mile and do pushups. The

goal was “just to get the bodies in,” said

McKinney, who had a discrimination

suit against G4S dismissed by a judge in

2016.

The company handed out guns to

people who had beaten their wives and

committed crimes, according to McKin-

ney, who oversaw about 70 guards. In

one case, G4S hired and armed a man

who had recently left a psychiatric insti-

tution and wasn’t supposed to have a

gun, he said.

“My God,” he recalled thinking.

“What in the world are we doing?”

Contributing: Kevin Crowe, Mark

Nichols and Dave Schwartz

G4S

Continued from Page 2A

About this story

zThis is the first in an ongoing series of

reports about G4S, the world’s largest

private security force, which provides

guards for thousands of private

businesses and government agencies

across the nation.

zReporters at USA TODAY and the

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spent more

than a year gathering records and

interviewing current and former

employees, as well as those impacted

by violence associated with G4S guards.

zHelp us to continue reporting on G4S.

You can reach out confidentially via

Signal: 508-523-5195. Or go to this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/storytelling/g4s/

help-us-report.

Two G4S guards in Washington patrol the Constitution Center, home to multiple

government agencies, including the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.JASPER COLT/USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES – The hurricane-
force wind gusts that fanned at least 10
wildfires across the state were easing
Thursday, providing a respite for fire-
fighters and residents overwhelmed
by evacuations, preemptive power
outages and extreme fire warnings.
More than 350,000 people were
without power Thursday because of an
unrelenting series of planned outages
aimed at limiting fire risk.
Still, downed and sparking wires
were suspected of igniting some of the
blazes.
More than 17 million residents live
in areas designated as critical or se-
vere wildfire risk Thursday, the Na-
tional Weather Service said.
That number should fall precipi-
tously in the next couple of days, Ac-
cuWeather senior meteorologist Paul
Walker said.
The end of the wind event should
also bring more amenable temper-
atures for firefighters who have at
times been battling blazes in intense
heat. But the news isn’t all good.
“Any significant rain remains two or
three weeks away,” Walker said. “We
won’t see more humidity. And another
wind event could be coming in the
middle or late next week.”
The state forestry and fire protec-
tion agency Cal Fire said 10 fires had
collectively consumed more than 144
square miles in recent days. At least
36,000 Californians were underevac-
uation orders, and more were coming.
Still, the number was down from
more than 200,000 last week, thanks
to firefighting efforts that have allowed
many residents to return home.

Moorpark residents fight the Easy
Fire at Lapeyre Ranch in Moorpark,
Calif. on Thursday.
HARRISON HILL/USA TODAY

Severe risk in

play for 17M

Californians

John Bacon and Kristin Lam
USA TODAY

Journalists tell the best stories.

Not just the ones you read in print or

online every day, but the stories be-

hind the stories: How they got the

interview. The number of records re-

quests filed to get to one important

fact. Where they slept (tents, cars,

floors) while covering floods, hurri-

canes and fires.

Each week, I’m going to share some

of our best work. But I’ll also tell you

the stories behind the stories. I want

you to know how our journalists bring

you the details, the descriptions, the

images – the truth.

Let me know what you think, about

these stories or anything else on your

mind. Let’s make this a conversation.

Because at the end of the day, we exist

for you.

A security empire deployed

guards with violent pasts

across the USA. Some went on

to rape, assault or kill.

G4S, the largest private security

company in history, sells its armed

guards as a high-quality, low-cost al-

ternative to police. The company has

made billions of dollars in contracts

with federal, state and local govern-

ments around the country, as well as

with private businesses of all kinds.

But with growth, violent guards,

disgraced cops and people with men-

tal illness have been hired onto the

payroll. In some cases, these guards

have beaten or raped the people they

were supposed to keep safe.

Investigative reporters from USA

TODAY and the Milwaukee Journal

Sentinel spent a year reviewing

thousands of police reports, court files

and internal company documents. The

reporting took our staff across the

nation as we spoke to hundreds of

employees and people impacted by

the violence across the G4S operation

in the United States. Reporters identi-

fied a pattern of shortcuts and over-

sights that have, in some cases, led to

tragedy.

We tripled the size of our investiga-

tions team with this goal in mind: Be

the champion of real people, and influ-

ence positive change.

I was a free/reduced-price

lunch kid.

So at our morning news meeting, I

brought up that nearly 1 million low-

income students could lose automatic

access to free school lunches under a

proposal from President Donald

Trump’s administration that aims to

limit the number of people receiving

federal food stamps. And advocates be-

lieve even more could lose free meals.

The Trump administration says the

concerns are overblown. The deadline is

Friday to comment on the proposal.

Growing up, I vividly remember hav-

ing a different color lunch card from all

the “normal” kids. (I sure hope that has

changed.) And I worried about what

would happen if my mom couldn’t pay

the $7 a month for the reduced-lunch

program. Food insecurity is a real prob-

lem in the United States, and this is a

story worth watching.

White House calls let Kayla

Mueller’s parents know their

daughter wasn’t forgotten.

This week we got the news that ter-

rorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was

killed in a special operations raid. In his

announcement, Trump spoke often of

“Kayla.” Kayla is Kayla Mueller, a 26-

year-old aid worker who was taken hos-

tage in 2013 as she left a Doctors With-

out Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

Al-Baghdadi reportedly had been her

captor and rapist. She was held hostage

for 18 months before militants an-

nounced her death in 2015.

Since that time, Arizona Republic re-

porter Karina Bland has worked with the

family on stories and kept in touch in be-

tween, when there was no news and no

hope. Monday, Bland called Kayla’s par-

ents, Carl and Marsha. They told her

about her nearly 20-minute call with

Trump and how stunned they were to

learn the raid had been named after their

daughter. Bland got the interview be-

cause she had earned their trust, Marsha

told Bland: “When Carl said it was you

(on the phone), I was willing to talk. I

haven’t been willing to talk much today.”

On deadline, you do what it takes.

With raging fires, high winds and

blackouts, California is living a disaster

movie.Is this the “new normal”? USA

TODAY national correspondent Marco

Della Cava was reporting on the fires.

Problem was, power to his Marin Coun-

ty home had been cut off Saturday as

part of mandatory power shutoffs. In-

ternet and cell service was out.

Della Cava grabbed his laptop, MiFi

and Enzo, his English springer spaniel,

and started driving. He parked in the

first lot after crossing the Golden Gate

Bridge and spent the next two hours fil-

ing his story. He wrapped up just before

his laptop battery died, and he headed

back home to complete darkness.

Thank you for reading, and thank

you for supporting USA TODAY. To

receive this column as a newsletter,

visit newsletters.usatoday.com and

subscribe to The Backstory.

We’ll take you behind the scenes

for the week’s biggest stories

Nicole Carroll

Editor-in-chief

USA TODAY