Warning signs may have been missed in school shooting case

PARKLAND, FLA. — Months before authorities say Nikolas Cruz walked into his former high school and slaughtered 17 people, the troubled teen began showing what may have been warning signs he was bent on violence.

“I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” a YouTube user with the screen name “Nikolas Cruz” posted in September.

The 19-year-old got expelled last year from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for undisclosed disciplinary reasons. And less than a year ago, the former Junior ROTC cadet bought a military-style AR-15 rifle.

As investigators tried to establish the motive for Wednesday’s shooting rampage, students and neighbours portrayed Cruz as an often strange and hostile figure who threatened others, talked about killing animals, and posed with guns in disturbing photos on social media.

“I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him,” 17year-old Dakota Mutchler said after Cruz was identified as the attacker in the nation’s deadliest school shooting in more than five years.

Benjamin Bennight, a Mississippi bail bondsman, was concerned enough after seeing the “professional school shooter” comment on his Youtube channel that he took a screenshot of it on his phone and called the FBI. Two FBI agents visited Bennight the next day. But the FBI said it never spoke to the Florida teen.

“No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location or the true identity of the person who posted the comment,” said Brett Carr, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Jackson, Miss. “The FBI conducted database reviews and other checks but was unable to further identify the person who posted the comment.”

Math teacher Jim Gard told The Miami Herald that Cruz may have been seen as a potential threat well before the rampage. Gard said he believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz shouldn’t be allowed on campus with a backpack.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus,” Gard told the newspaper.

Student Victoria Olvera, 17, said that Cruz had been abusive to his ex-girlfriend and that his expulsion was over a fight with her new boyfriend. Cruz had been attending another school in Broward County since the expulsion, school officials said.

Cruzwas arrested off school grounds about an hour after the attack.