Records: Man who shot cop, killed 4 children told probation officer he was getting ‘back on track'

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The man who shot an Orlando police officer and killed four children and then himself told his probation officer just days earlier that he was trying to improve himself.

New documents shed more light onGary Lindsey's supervision during his 28-year probation sentence.

Lindsey moved around a lot before moving to the Eaglesmere Drive apartment where the standoff happened.

But he wrote in a supervision probation report two months earlier that he wanted to get his life “back on track and organized.”

He had a few low-paying jobs and said part of his job was, “taking care of his babies.”

Not long after he filed the supervision report, police got a call from his girlfriend saying she had been battered and that Lindsey was in the home with guns and four kids.

He shot Orlando police Officer Kevin Valencia through the door when Valencia and his squad tried to go into the home.

Later, he killed four children in their beds.

Notes from the probation officers say he moved several times and lived with family members until he said he and his girlfriend were moving in together.

Early this year, records show Lindsey moved to the apartment where he held the standoff.

Read: Judge approved deal that kept man in deadly Orlando standoff out of prison, records show

Records show he was a painter and pressure washer in Deltona and, at one point, worked at a 7-Eleven in Orange County.

But in March, he told probation officers he was working as a mechanic at a shop on Orange Blossom Trail.

Lindsey was reported for four violations over the time, the latest being on May 4, when he was arrested on a charge of grand theft in Sanford.

Lindsey was nearly sent to prison after that arrest, but a judge allowed him to stay on probation so he cold continue making restitution payments to his ex-girlfriend after setting her house on fire.

Cox Media Group