What You Know About Death Threats Cause I Get a Lot
Broward Sheriff/Instagram Nikolas Jacob Cruz.
A nineteen-year-old former student with a fixation on weaponry and a trail of agonizing social media posts has been identified as the suspect in the shooting at a Florida high schoolhouse that left 17 people dead and 15 others wounded. It was the third deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, after Virginia Tech and Sandy Claw.
Nikolas Cruz, who a instructor says was previously identified as a threat to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Loftier School, was arrested after the shooting and has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, authorities said. The dollar store worker was expelled from the Parkland school for disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a press briefing. You tin can read the courtroom documents here.
Prosecutors announced on March 13 that they volition seek the capital punishment confronting Cruz, saying the crime "was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner" that was "particularly heinous, atrocious or cruel." Cruz appeared in court March 14 where the victims' emotional families saw him for the first fourth dimension; his defense force chaser indicated he was willing to plead guilty in exchange for the death sentence being taken off the table, and a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Fred Guttenberg watches as Nikolas Cruz enters the court for his arraignment at the Broward County Courthouse March fourteen, 2018 in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Guttenberg's daughter died in the attack.
CNN gained access to an Instagram group in which the network claims Cruz wrote racist posts. Cruz allegedly "repeatedly consort racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views and displayed an obsession with violence and guns," reported CNN, including writing that he hated "jews, ni**ers, immigrants" and talking "most killing Mexicans, keeping black people in bondage and cutting their necks." According to CNN, he likewise wrote that he had written a letter to President Donald Trump and proclaimed: "I recollect I am going to kill people." It was discovered that he had allegedly etched swastikas on weapon magazines and unsuccessful tried to create a "sniper's perch" in the schoolhouse to shoot students.
Nikolas Cruz is escorted into the courtroom for his arraignment at the Broward Canton Courthouse March 14, 2018 in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In the days after the mass shooting, law enforcement agencies and officers have fallen nether scrutiny later on information technology emerged that there was a series of other reddish flags about Cruz. The schoolhouse's resource officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended and resigned afterwards the sheriff revealed he never went in the school building to face the shooter despite being on schoolhouse property and existence armed. The New York Times reported that a woman called the FBI a month earlier the shooting spree to warn government about Cruz.
"If you go onto his Instagram page, yous'll come across all the guns he – he'due south so into ISIS and, um, I-I'grand afraid this is so-something's gonna happen. Because he'south, he doesn't have the mental capacity," the tipster said, according to an FBI transcript of the telephone call published by The Times.
The caller told the FBI that Cruz's Instagram folio said, "I want to impale people," adding, "And and so uh you know wanting to impale all these animals and uh he wants to um uh do something in Arabic and uh he dresses up similar a ninja or a or a-a-a ISIS guy. And he has pictures of all the rifles and everything on the Instagram, on ane of these accounts." The tipster said Cruz as well wanted to join the Army.
Cruz is defendant of taking an Uber to the school right before classes ended, and then pulling a fire alarm and gunning down students and staff members inside equally they ran through the haze from smoke grenades he lobbed in the hallway. Cruz appeared in court on February 15, standing silently in an orange jumpsuit with his caput tilted downwards. The defense made no arguments on his behalf, and he was held without bond. Later, his public defender, Melisa McNeill, told the media: "He'due south deplorable. He's mournful. He'south remorseful. He is fully enlightened of what is going on, and he's just a broken human being beingness." The public defender's role is at present asking for an indigency determination after reports that Cruz might have inherited $800,000 when his mother died.
Gordon Weeks, another attorney representing Cruz, added, "When your encephalon is not fully developed, you don't know how to deal with these things. That'due south the child I'm sitting across from. The child is deeply troubled and he has endured pregnant trauma that stems from the loss of his mother." ABC News is reporting that the doubtable told investigators "that he heard voices in his head, giving him instructions on what to practise to conduct the attack," describing them as "demons."
State of israel, the sheriff, said that authorities are examining "very, very disturbing" social media posts investigators have uncovered. Some of those posts, confirmed by Heavy, evidence Cruz belongings weapons and talking well-nigh shooting targets equally therapy. Students say that Cruz, whose adoptive mother died in November, often talked virtually guns. Cruz was currently enrolled in the Broward County schoolhouse district. Concerns have also emerged about whether the FBI could have washed more to investigate an earlier YouTube comment left in the doubtable'southward name on a human's video; information technology spoke of becoming a "professional schoolhouse shooter."
The Anti-Defamation League wrote on its website that it has information that Nikolas Cruz might have been involved in a white supremacist militia group called Democracy of Florida, even participating in its training exercises.
An ROF leader later on told the Associated Press and Daily Animal that Cruz was a fellow member and claims Cruz received a burglarize from some other person affiliated with the militia. The ROF has been described as a "white nationalist group that encourages militia training" with a similar mission to the Ku Klux Klan. However, local regime in Tallahassee, where the group is based, now say they tin can discover no link between Nikolas Cruz and the ROF militia group, according to Tallahassee.com. The ROF leader who made the claim to the media now appears to have backed down from the contention.
A representative of the ATF said the firearm was purchased lawfully simply curt of a year ago in the State of Florida. According to the sheriff, the shooter bought the gun at a dealer in Coral Springs, Florida called Sunrise Tactical.
Facebook/Douglas SportsJaime Guttenberg and Aaron Feis died in the massacre..
Israel said the victims were killed within the schoolhouse, but outside and on a road nearby, with two victims dying at the hospital. The victims included students and adults. They included a geography teacher who was shot later he opened his classroom door to relieve fleeing students; the school'southward athletic director; an assistant motorcoach called a hero for taking bullets for students; a pupil who was an immigrant from Venezuela who recently became a denizen; a senior who was already awarded a swimming scholarship, and many others whose family and friends shared their grief on social media. You tin can read about the victims here.
The motive for the Valentine'southward Day shooting is not notwithstanding known. Cruz was initially identified by the media as Nicolas de Jesus Cruz and Nicolas Cruz and also goes by Nick Cruz. But the sheriff's office clarified the correct spelling is Nikolas Cruz and records show his full name is Nikolas Jacob Cruz.
According to CNN, an AR-fifteen-manner rifle was recovered past police. CNN reports that Cruz purchased the gun himself in the past year and passed a background check.
The sheriff said Cruz had multiple magazines with him.
"It was toward the end of the day, information technology was 4th period," an 18-twelvemonth-old pupil at the high school told Heavy. "I started to put my caput downward in class and side by side matter yous know I heard virtually 6 to 7 shots in the classroom right side by side to me on the showtime floor of the freshman edifice. We all just decided to pile in 1 corner, we all decided to just stay put, because nosotros didn't know what was happening. We didn't know if it was existent or fake. We all kept quiet, the next thing nosotros know the school shooter shot the window, glass went everywhere. We all put our heads down, he put the gun inside the window, turned his gun and shot three or four bullets, I heard a kid in my class with his knee shot and another schoolhouse got shot and she was only bleeding everywhere. It was horrifying."
The student said he grabbed a towel and gave information technology to a teacher who tied it effectually the wounded student'southward leg. SWAT officers came nigh 15 minutes later to go the students out of the classroom.
Anyone with data about the shooting or the shooter is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. Videos and images of the shooting and whatsoever other data about it or the gunman can be uploaded through the FBI website here.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, "But finished update from fed authorities on #FloridaSchoolShooting. It is clear attack was designed & executed to maximize loss of life. In days ahead (information technology) will become increasingly axiomatic that killer in today's #FloridaSchoolShooting gave enough of indications of what was to come up."
President Donald Trump tweeted Th, "And then many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, over again and once more!"
A GoFundMe business relationship has been set upwards for donations for the families of the victims killed and the survivors. Y'all can brand a donation here.
Here's what you need to know about Nikolas Cruz:
1. Cruz Told a Friend 'I Don't Go to School on Valentine's Day' & Went to Subway & McDonalds After He Managed to Blend in With Fleeing Students
The sheriff and a probable crusade affidavit filed in court provided a timeline of the mass shooting. Cruz was living with a friend's family later on his adoptive mother died. An attorney representing that family told the Miami Herald that Cruz slept in Wednesday forenoon and didn't go to school, telling his friend, "'It'southward Valentine's Day and I don't become to school on Valentine's Day,'" the lawyer said.
Instead, he ordered an Uber and headed to Stoneman Douglas Loftier School. A witness told authorities that "he observed Cruz, who he recognized as a former troubled pupil, arrive at the school in a small goldish colored vehicle," the affirmation says.
Cruz was wearing a maroon shirt, black pants and a black hat and was conveying a black duffel bag and wearing a black backpack. The man, whose proper noun was redacted, said he radioed his co-worker to "alert him that Cruz was walking purposefully toward the 1200 building." Within a minute, he heard gunshots and called a Lawmaking Cherry to indicate an emergency on campus. Cruz was found an hr later on, and the witness positively identified him. Authorities too spoke to an Uber driver who said she drove Cruz to the high school and dropped him off there. Cruz was currently living in Pompano Beach with a local family unit.
The sheriff described what happened after Cruz arrived at the schoolhouse this way: At 2:19 p.g. on Feb 14, the suspect entered the east stairwell of the high school with a rifle inside a black, soft case. He pulled the rifle out of the case. At 2:21 p.m., he began shooting into iii rooms and so circled dorsum on some of them to shoot more.
The suspect then took the due west stairwell to the second flooring and shot a victim on the 2nd floor. He then took the e stairwell to the 3rd floor. Shortly thereafter, he dropped his rifle and ran downwardly the stairs. At that place was an armed officer on campus during the shooting, but he never saw Cruz, according to AP.
Cruz managed to escape in the ensuing anarchy; He ran, mixed in, with a group of students fleeing the schoolhouse. Every bit the students began to flee, he decided to discard the weapon and a vest he was likewise wearing then he could blend into the crowd. The shootings were "done with a premeditated pattern," alleges the document. He went to a Walmart store and bought a drink at the Subway and and then left the Walmart on foot. He went to McDonald'south and sat downwards for a short period of time and then also left that establishment on foot. At three:41 p.m., he was detained, the sheriff said.
The sheriff'due south part said Cruz was arrested by the Kokosnoot Creek Police Department in a neighborhood in Coral Springs. Nick Cruz was taken into custody at a Parkland home not far from the school. According to police scanner transmissions, officers were tracking the suspect'due south movements in the school through security cameras and had a clarification of the vesture he was wearing. They later had witnesses place him every bit the shooter after he was taken into custody.
Nikolas Cruz booking written report information.
Video showed Cruz on the footing being handcuffed then being led into a Broward Canton Sheriff'southward Office vehicle. Every bit reports of the shooting came in, police were given data about what Cruz was wearing through radio dispatch and one officer started traveling through residential areas nigh the schoolhouse. He discovered Cruz walking on the sidewalk. "He looked like a typical high school student," the officer said in a news briefing. "For a quick moment, I thought, 'Could this be the person? Is this who I need to stop?'" He pulled over and engaged Cruz, who complied with his commands and was taken into custody without consequence.
According to the probable crusade affidavit filed in courtroom, Cruz initially "blended in with fleeing students and was able to elude arriving officers."
"Cruz exhibited labored breathing. He was transported to a local hospital as a precaution for medical clearance," the sheriff's function said. He was later seen being transported to jail.
You can listen to police scanner audio from the shooting below:
An assault rifle was abandoned at the scene, co-ordinate to the likely crusade affidavit. An ATF gun trace was performed and records showed that Cruz purchased the rifle in February 2017. The lawyer for the family unit that took Cruz in, Jim Lewis, told the Sun-Sentry that Cruz already endemic the AR-15 used in the shooting before he moved in with the family.
"It was his gun," Lewis told the paper. "The family made him continue information technology in a locked gun chiffonier in the firm but he had a key."
The affidavit alleges that Cruz confessed. Cruz told authorities that "he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-fifteen and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds. Cruz stated that he brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a dorsum pack until he got on campus to brainstorm his assault," the affidavit alleges.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that "the shooter was not a current educatee." He added, "It's catastrophic. There really are no words. I don't know why he left," the school. He later read each victim's name out loud at a press conference to pay homage to those lost.
The sheriff says authorities interviewed ii,000 people in the first day subsequently the shooting alone as they attempted to piece together a picture of the shooter and his motives. The supposed militia angle acquired a stir after a Republic of Florida leader, Hashemite kingdom of jordan Jereb, told several media outlets that Cruz was a member. Lt. Grady Hashemite kingdom of jordan told the Tallahassee Democrat, however, that investigators accept not been able to detect an actual link between Cruz and the militia.
"We are all the same doing some work but nosotros have no known ties between the ROF, Jordan Jereb or the Broward shooter," Hashemite kingdom of jordan said to the newspaper. Broward County Sheriff Scott State of israel said on the evening of February 15 only that the merits was unconfirmed and being looked into, but he did not provide further comment on that point.
The Anti-Defamation League wrote on its website that "a spokesperson for the white supremacist grouping Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February fifteen, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous 24-hour interval's mortiferous shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, loftier school, was associated with his grouping."
According to ADL's statement, the group chosen the Democracy of Florida hotline and spoke with the member who identified himself as Hashemite kingdom of jordan Jereb "after self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum 4chan that Cruz had also been a member."
"Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. In 2016, he was arrested on charges of threatening a staffer in the office of Florida Governor Rick Scott because he was allegedly angry at the staffer's son," noted ADL. According to ADL, "Jereb said that Cruz was associated with ROF, having been 'brought up' past some other member. Jereb added that Cruz had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee surface area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida."
ROF has members throughout Florida, ADL reports. "The alt right white supremacist group borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement (not itself a white supremacist motion)," co-ordinate to ADL. The Republic of Florida's website reads, "Commonwealth of Florida is a white civil rights organization fighting for white Identitarian politics…" The hotline at present goes only to voicemail.
Jordan Jereb's Twitter profile picture show.
Jereb too told the Associated Press and Daily Beast that Cruz was a member of the ROF. Jereb is a convicted felon. Co-ordinate to the Southern Poverty Police Heart, Jereb once "professed his dearest for Molotov cocktails and shared a video that details an argument for when information technology's okay to shoot a police force officer."
Nonetheless, a reporter for Reveal says that Jereb has since posted an expletive-laden tweet calling the matter "a legit misunderstanding because we have multiple people named Nicholas in ROF." Jereb's Twitter page has at present been suspended.
two. Cruz Was Expelled Later a Fight, Was Abusive Toward His Ex-Girlfriend & Was Deemed to Exist a Threat to Other Students, a Teacher & a Classmate Say
WSVN/ScreengrabThe suspect is taken into custody exterior of a dwelling house.
Nick Cruz was a known person at the school whose own fourth dimension in that location was troubled. He was reported for making threats to students in the past, the Miami Herald reports.
"Nosotros were told terminal year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a haversack on him," Jim Gard, a math teacher who had the suspected shooter in his form final year, told the newspaper. "At that place were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to get out campus."
CNN obtained a video the network said was of the shooter undertaking target practice while wearing a MAGA hat.
Gard said the school administration sent out an email warning teachers that the educatee had made threats confronting others in the past and should non be allowed on the campus with a backpack.
Broward Sheriff Scott State of israel said that Cruz was expelled from Douglas High School at some point for disciplinary issues. He maybe afterwards attended another local high school, J.P. Taravella High School, only the sheriff said they are nonetheless not clear how long he was there. Israel did not provide details about Cruz's expulsion.
According to The Associated Press, Cruz was expelled after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Victoria Olvera told the AP that Cruz was calumniating toward his ex-girlfriend.
Gard told the New York Times, Cruz was obsessed with a girl at the school, "to the indicate of stalking her."
Israel told the public, "If you encounter something, say something. If everyone has any indicator that someone's going through a behavioral change, or on their social media that in that location are disturbing photos, perhaps bombs or firearms or just videos or pictures that are just not correct, that there's something off, please make sure law enforcement knows about it."
When asked if at that place were signs with the suspect, he said, "I believe at that place will" be indicators uncovered once investigators accept completed examining the doubtable's social media and interviewing him and those who know him. "Our investigators certainly began dissecting social media."
School officials have not released any information most possible threats made by the doubtable, and the district's superintendent told reporters that there was no warning it was going to happen.
"It's a day that yous pray every day when yous get upwardly that y'all will never have to come across. It is in front of united states," Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie said at a press briefing. "I ask the community for prayers and their support for the children and their families. We received no warning… Potentially at that place could have been signs out there. Simply we didn't have any alert or phone calls or threats that were made."
Broward Mayor Beam Furr told CNN that Cruz was a client at a mental health clinic and had been "dealing with mental wellness problems." He had been undergoing some handling, Furr said, just he did not go into detail about that.
"I don't know if he was exactly on police force enforcement radar, only it wasn't like at that place wasn't concerns for him. He had not been back to the clinic for over a year. And then there'south been a time he was receiving treatment then stopped," Furr said.
CNN is reporting that Cruz bought the AR-fifteen rifle used in the shooting himself and passed a groundwork cheque. At a press conference, Sheriff State of israel said he thinks people undergoing treatment for mental illness should not be able to purchase or carry handguns.
"While people who are the victim of mental health illnesses are being treated, in the opinion of this sheriff, they should not be able to buy, surround themselves, purchase or comport a handgun," he said. "Those ii things don't mix."
3. He Posted Photos of Guns & Knives on Instagram, Called His Weapons an 'Arsenal,' & Appears to Take Left Threatening YouTube Comments
A photo posted on Instagram past the suspect.
In i of the several warning signs the organization had before the shooting, Nikolas Cruz "cut his arms on Snapchat and said he wanted to buy a gun in September 2016," co-ordinate to The Sun Watch. The paper reported that sheriff's deputies and "adult welfare investigators from the Department of Children & Family Services" investigated but determined that Cruz's "last level of risk is depression every bit [he] resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling…"
CNN is too reporting that "the host family unit who had taken him in immediately afterwards his mother's death warned local police force enforcement that the 19-year-old had 'used a gun against people earlier' and 'has put the gun to others' heads in the by.'" I 911 call from the family's son reported that Cruz might have hidden a firearm in the backyard, CNN reported. In another report obtained by CNN, the host mother, Rocxanne Deschamps, who took in Cruz and his brother when their mother died, called 911 to allege of Cruz that "he was going to get his gun and come back."
Using the name Nikolas Cruz, the suspect posted several photos in 2016 and 2015 on his Instagram folio of weapons and made statements about wanting to buy guns. The page has since been deleted, only Heavy confirmed with sources who know Cruz that the page belonged to him, @cruz_nikolas. The Miami Herald has also verified the page belonged to Cruz.
Instagram oftentimes takes downwards pages of shooting suspects from public view at the asking of law enforcement.
A screengrab of Cruz's now-deleted Instagram folio.
In 2016, he posted a photograph of a shotgun he said he wanted to buy.
"I plan on getting this merely I demand more than information on information technology so if someone could give advice on how much I'g spending and background cheeks please to god let me know," he wrote in 2016.
A photograph posted by Nikolas Cruz in 2016.
He also posted multiple photos in January 2016 of himself holding knives.
Nikolas Cruz.
Nikolas Cruz
In 2015, he posted a screenshot of a Google search for the phrase, "what does allahu akbar." He then wrote a explanation that included an anti-Muslim slur, "Well at least we at present know what it means when a sand durka says "allahu Akbar" ??????" While some accept been using that mail service to merits that he was pro-ISIS or supporter of Islamic terrorism, comments he made on the Instagram post indicated he wanted to kill terrorists and made jokes nigh terrorism.
"Durka durka Mohamed jihad .. how do I work this oh oh I mess up cooo booom!!" he wrote. He then added, "durka durka … bam boom explosions," with a serial of flop smilies.
InstagramA photo posted by Cruz.
Bounding main Parodie, a 17-twelvemonth-erstwhile student at Broward County schoolhouse, told The Daily Animal, "I knew him to be passive aggressive simply not violent. He was rude to people. He had an human activity upwards like he was tough. He never got into, similar, physical fights with anyone, simply he did become into exact arguments. I merely thought he dropped out of school, I didn't retrieve he would practise anything. He always kept a low profile."
Parodie added, "He was definitely not accepted at our school socially. People saw him every bit someone who was dissimilar than the normal people at our schoolhouse." She said he wore "patriotic" shirts that "seemed actually extreme, similar hating on" Islam, making offensive jokes and deriding Muslims as "terrorists and bombers." She added that she had seen him wearing a Trump hat.
Likewise in 2015, he posted a meme of a target with bullet holes in it with the words "Group therapy, sometimes it works." He added in the caption, "It really does f*cking work requite information technology a effort ;)."
A photograph posted by Nikolas Cruz.
Cruz began using a new Instagram page in 2017, which has also been deleted, but has been confirmed to belong to him by Heavy. The New York Times also verified the page. In that page, @nikolascruzmakarov, he is wearing a Donald Trump campaign "Make America Dandy Again" hat. Makarov is the proper noun of a Russian-fabricated pistol.
Instagram released a statement on the account with the MAGA hat.
"This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts exit to the people who have been affected. There is absolutely no identify on our platforms for people who commit such horrendous acts. We have found and immediately deleted the shooter'due south accounts on Facebook and Instagram," the social media network's statement said.
Nikolas Cruz's second Instagram profile.
Nikolas Cruz had this photo as his Instagram contour pic.
In one photo, which you can meet beneath, he displayed various guns on a bed, forth with body armor and wrote in the caption, "arsenal."
Cruz captioned this photograph, posted in 201, "Arsenal."
Y'all can see some of the photos of his weapons below:
A photo posted by Cruz in 2017.
He captioned this photo, "thirty-06."
He captioned this photo, "I love this holographic sight."
He captioned this photo, "Cost me $30 bucks,:
InstagramA target posted by Cruz.
Cruz also posted a agonizing photo of a bloody, dead toad. He wrote, "These things killed my canis familiaris. So I kill them pretty much. #killingtoads." He wrote simply in his Instagram contour header, "Annihilator."
CNN reports that a user named Nikolas Cruz left comments on several Youtube videos in which he talked about shooting people and violence.
9 months ago, the user posted on a video clip from the NatGeo show "Alaska Land Troopers: Armed and Dangerous," writing, "I am going to impale police enforcement ane day they go after the expert people."
Six months ago, the user wrote, "Im going picket them sheep autumn f*ck antifa i wish to impale equally many equally i can," on a Youtube video titled "Antifa Gun Guild."
Also nine months ago, Cruz commented, "I am going to do what he did," on a video about the 1966 sniper shooting at the Academy of Texas.
CNN says the user wrote on other posts, "I whana shoot people with my AR-15 (sic)" and "I wanna dice Fighting killing shit ton of people." The user too wrote, "Elliot rodger volition non be forgotten," a reference to the 22-twelvemonth-onetime California man who killed six people and wounded 14 others nearly UC Santa Barbara in 2014 before killing himself.
A YouTube user named "BentheBondsman" posted a video Wed dark maxim that the FBI visited him to talk most Cruz considering a user named Nikolas Cruz commented on ane of his videos recently. The YouTuber's full proper name is Ben Bennight, and he is from Mississippi.
He said he reported the comment, "Im going to be a professional school shooter," after seeing it in September. He submitted a report to Youtube and information technology was deleted, and he submitted a tip of it to the FBI. He said ii agents visited him in September nearly the mail service. BentheBondsman said he talked to agents again later the shooting.
Bennight told Buzzfeed News the agents start came to his office September 25.
"They came to my office the adjacent morning and asked me if I knew anything well-nigh the person," Bennight told BuzzFeed News. "I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the terminal I heard from them."
On Wednesday, nearly 4:30 p.m., Bennight told Buzzfeed he received a call from a FBI agent based in Miami.
"I recall nosotros spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel," the agent said in the message, which Bennight provided to BuzzFeed News. "I only wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that's come up, if you wouldn't heed giving me a ring."
Ii agents came and talked to Bennight. He told Buzzfeed, "They asked me if I knew who he was. I didn't. I don't. So they left."
The FBI has non confirmed the Youtube account belongs to the defendant shooter.
"People leave pretty heinous comments on a pretty regular basis on this channel and I really didn't think anything of it," Bennight said in his Youtube video about the annotate. "Merely this comment said, 'I'm going to be a professional schoolhouse shooter' and I knew I couldn't just ignore that."
CNN reports that a second threat was reported to the FBI. CNN reports that those threats were not passed on to local law enforcement.
"I saw the story kind of go across my newsfeed but I didn't pay a whole lot of attending to it, but when the FBI said information technology was the aforementioned proper noun the first thing that went through my mind was, 'Wow, I hope you were at to the lowest degree watching this guy that I alerted y'all to months ago,'" Bennight told CNN.
FBI Special Agent Robert Lasky, who runs the agency's Miami function, said Thursday at a press conference that in 2017 the FBI received a tip well-nigh a annotate made on a YouTube aqueduct that said, "I want to be a professional school shooter." Lasky said there was no information about a possible time continued to the threat or whatever identifying information other than the proper noun of the user. Lasky said agents investigated, but were unable to further identify who made the comment.
4. A Student Says 'Everyone Predicted' the Suspect Would Be the Shooter
Nick Cruz.
In 2015, Nikolas Cruz posted a photo of himself giving the middle finger with the caption, "F*ck youuuuuuuuuuuu allllll."
A student at the school told WJXT-TV's Vic Micolucci that students thought Cruz would exist the doubtable.
"Honestly a lot of people were saying it was going to be him," the educatee said. "A lot of kids threw jokes around like that, saying that he'due south the ane to shoot up the school, only it turns out, you know, anybody predicted it. That'due south crazy. He was on the third floor, he knows the schoolhouse layout. He knows where anybody would be at. He'south been in burn drills, he's prepared for this stuff."
According to CNN, Broward Sheriff'south deputies "were called to school shooter Nikolas Cruz's family abode 39 times since 2010" for calls that included everything from "mentally sick person" to "domestic disturbance."
Students have said that fire alarms went off before the shooting and they initially thought it was a drill. It is not clear if a drill was planned or if someone pulled the alarm.
The pupil told WFOR that Cruz had showed him his guns afterwards he got kicked out of school.
Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old junior told WFOR-TV, "He was going form to class just shooting at random kids. Everything he posts (on social media) is about weapons. It's ill."
A student who knows Cruz told the news station, "He always had guns on him and stuff similar that. He was a niggling fleck of a troubled kid."
Nikolas Cruz is seen in a yearbook photo.
Cruz was at ane point part of the U.S. Army JROTC program at Douglas Loftier School, a swain fellow member of the program, Giovanni Watford, told Buzzfeed News. He chosen Cruz a "sketchy kid," adding that he "was off" and "was super stressed-out all the fourth dimension and talked about guns a lot and tried to hide his face."
Watford said Cruz "talked about guns a lot." He besides said Cruz complained oft about bullying and said Cruz "had beefiness with one kid." Watford's brother Mike, told Buzzfeed News, that Cruz talked about "how tired he was of everyone picking on him and the staff doing goose egg about information technology," and said, "something definitely pushed him."
Cruz was adopted by his parents, Roger and Lynda Cruz, as a immature child, a family unit fellow member told ABC News. Both of his adopted parents are expressionless. Lynda Cruz died last year, ABC News reports. An obituary shows she died in Nov. She is pictured on that obituary page holding her immature son.
Legacy.comNikolas Cruz is held by his mother, Lynda Cruz, in a photo from her obituary
A family member told the Dominicus-Watch that Cruz and his biological younger blood brother were adopted by Lydia and Roger Cruz while they were living in Long Island. The couple and the 2 children then moved to Florida. When Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia in November, Nikolas and his brother were left in the care of a family member, the newspaper reports.
"I know she had been having some issues with them, specially the older 1. He was beingness a problem. I know he did have some issues and he may have been taking medication. [He] did have some kind of emotional or difficulties," Barbara Kumbatovich, Lynda'south sister-in-law, told the paper. "[Lynda] kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far as I know, just things teenagers do like non coming home on time, peradventure being disrespectful."
Another family unit member, who was not identified, told the newspaper that Nikolas' adoptive father died of a centre set on when Nikolas was young. The family unit member said Nikolas Cruz had been diagnosed with autism and Lynda had sought counseling for him from a young historic period.
"She did her best getting him any help he needed," the family member told the newspaper.
Cruz eventually moved in with a classmate's family afterwards he was unhappy with where he was living after his mother's death.
"The family is devastated, they didn't run into this coming. They took him in and it'south a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished," Jim Lewis, an chaser representing the family who took Cruz in told the newspaper. "He was a little quirky and he was depressed almost his mom's death, but who wouldn't exist?"
Neighbors told the Sun-Sentinel that Cruz would harass neighbors and get into trouble while he was growing upward and that police came to his home multiple times. Neighbors said police "were called to the Cruz house several times" and 1 woman alleged that "she defenseless Nikolas Cruz peeking in her window once. She too told the paper that he banged his head against a brick wall when he didn't want to go to school."
A person who knew Cruz, Nicholas Coke, told the Miami Herald that Cruz was a loner who left school and moved to North Florida after his mother died. "He had a lot of problems in centre school. Yous never recollect anyone yous know is going to do something like this," Coke told the newspaper.
"He was psycho, for sure," a educatee who knew Cruz told WPLG-TV. "He was crazy because he liked to kill small things, similar petty animals — frogs and other animals similar that and he simply had a crazy heed. He was racist and he was simply crazy."
Police received a tip that the doubtable was perhaps watching videos on Youtube about how to brand bombs, according to police scanner transmissions. Law were searching the building as a precaution after learning about that information, only information technology is non known if at that place were any bombs left in the school.
The person who gave police the tip also had messages exchanged with the suspect.
Police were at the suspect'south home searching for more information well-nigh him. He lives in the 11000 block of NW 47th Drive in Parkland. They were also at another location where he previously lived.
Cruz had been working every bit a cashier at a Dollar Tree shop after leaving high school, according to the New York Times.
While some on social media have been spreading claims that Cruz is a registered Democrat, a search of the Florida voter database with his birthdate, September 24, 1998, shows that he is non a registered voter.
Other social media users have claimed that Cruz tin exist seen wearing an "Antifa" shirt, merely the photo being circulated via a fake Antifa account is another human being named Marcel Fontaine, according to Buzzfeed News, which has rounded up details on several hoaxes and fake stories related to the shooting.
Alicia Blonde told MSNBC that Cruz was her educatee and that he "often wore his JROTC uniform, but was an undisciplined pupil, Blonde said. Cruz also was reluctant to speak in Spanish, despite his Hispanic background."
"I think at that place was some pride issues at that place. He didn't feel comfortable in his own peel and culture," Blonde said to the network.
5. Horrific Videos Captured the Moment Panicked Students Hid in Classrooms every bit Gunshots Rang Out During the 18th Shooting at a Schoolhouse in 2018
TwitterA photograph tweeted past a student from inside Douglas Loftier Schoolhouse.
A student who is inside the school told CBS Miami through text bulletin, "All all of a sudden there was a really loud noise…..people are crying" and hiding in "the closet."
A video recorded by a educatee captured the gunshots:
Michael Katz told ABC News, "It was really loud. Then I heard information technology once more. So I heard frantic screaming. I've never heard such loud screams in my life. Then nosotros realized there was a shooting at my school."
Students took to Twitter to provide updates about the situation, saying they've heard several shots and are hiding in the school.
Jay Aureate, of Parkland, whose daughter, Rachel is a senior at the high school. She is notwithstanding inside the schoolhouse, Golden told the Sun-Sentinel.
"She was crying, she's scared. She'southward been texting back and forth. She'due south OK at the moment," he told the newspaper. "I'm freaking out. This is crazy, this stuff shouldn't exist going on in these schools. People are crazy. I don't know what goes on through these people's minds these days, it'south a scary thing. It's ane of those things – you don't want to put a metal protector and treat them like prisoners just they have to figure something out. Yous put your kids in school and it's supposed to exist a safe place and this stuff happens all the fourth dimension."
Federal authorities responded to the scene, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is typical in active shooter incidents.
"ATF agents from the Miami Field Sectionalisation are responding to reports of a schoolhouse shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Loftier School in Parkland, Fla. The investigation is ongoing and active," the ATF tweeted.
Virtually 2,900 students are enrolled at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to its website. Police were withal searching the edifice Wednesday dark.
The schoolhouse is part of the Broward County Public Schools organisation.
President Donald Trump was made enlightened of the situation, the White House says.
"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever experience unsafe in an American school," Trump tweeted. "But spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with police force enforcement on the terrible Florida schoolhouse shooting."
There take been 17 other shootings on school campuses around the country already this year. Everytown for Gun Safety defines those shootings as "any time a firearm discharges a live circular inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, every bit documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials."
The shooting at Sal Marcos Middle Schoolhouse in California earlier this month was the 12th to occur on school property in the United States in 2018, co-ordinate to the New York Times.
Included in that total is a shooting that occurred in Benton, Kentucky, on January 23. A 15-year-old student opened fire on classmates, killing two other 15-year-olds and injuring 18 other people. But a day earlier, on January 22, a xv-yr-old girl was shot by some other student at a high schoolhouse in Italia, Texas. She survived the shooting and the gunman was arrested.
The other shootings accept not been as high-profile, according to NPR, which compiled a list of the incidents.
Co-ordinate to Everytown for Gun Rubber, there were multiple shootings in February. On Feb eight, a gun was fired at The Metropolitan High School in New York City.
"A 17 year-old male person pupil fired a gun, hitting the flooring of a classrom. No injuries were reported, and police took the student in custody for questioning," according to Everytown.
On February 5, a gun was fired but no one was injured at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, Wisconsin.
"A schoolhouse liaison officer was sitting on a demote talking with some students when a third-grader pressed the trigger on the officer'due south holstered weapon, causing it to fire and strike the floor. The holster was equipped with a trigger guard designed to foreclose such adventitious discharges, so the department is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the result," Everytown writes.
Also on February 5, a 17-twelvemonth-sometime student was shot in the chest at Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, NBC Washington reports.
On Jan 31, a shot was fired during a basketball at Lincoln High School in Philadelphia. A man was shot twice in the leg, co-ordinate to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
On the same twenty-four hours as the Texas shooting, a student was wounded in the parking lot of a New Orleans charter school. On January 26, a gun was fired during an altercation at Dearborn High School in Michigan, but no ane was injured. A day earlier, on January 25, a gun was fired at Irish potato High School in Mobile, Alabama, during a disagreement betwixt two students.
"A disagreement between 2 16-yr-old students escalated when Jonah Neal pulled out a handgun. Schoolhouse administrators noticed the weapon and tried to at-home him; Neal so fled beyond campus. He was pursued by staff until he fired the gun 4 or five times into the air. Nobody was injured. Neal was taken into custody and charged for multiple offenses, including possession of a weapon on school belongings," according to Everytown.
On January xx, a human was shot and killed on the campus of Wake Forest University. The victim was a educatee at Winston-Salem State University and was attending a sorority party.
On Jan 15, a bullet was fired into a dorm room in Marshall, Texas, on the campus of Wiley Higher.
On Jan 10, there were three shootings on the same day. The outset was a suicide at Coronado Elementary School in Arizona. And so a student fired a shot in a classroom at Grayson College in Texas, but nobody was hit. Constabulary say information technology was an accidental discharge during a criminal justice form. And a shot was fired at a edifice on the campus of Cal State San Bernardino. No one was injured there.
On January half dozen, a shot was fired at a schoolhouse motorbus carrying students in Iowa, shattering a window, merely non causing injuries. On January 4, two shots were fired into a Seattle loftier school classroom. And on that same twenty-four hours a man shot himself in the parking lot of an empty elementary schoolhouse in Michigan.
"We have absolutely become numb to these kinds of shootings, and I think that volition continue," said Katherine W. Schweit, a erstwhile FBI official who co-authore a study on active shooting incidents, told the Times.
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Source: https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/nikolas-cruz/
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