FBI failed to act on tip about alleged Florida gunman
Governor calls for director’s resignation; funerals begin for 17 in school shooting
PARKLAND, Florida — The FBI received a tip last month that the accused in the Florida school shooting had a “desire to kill” and access to guns and could be plotting an attack, but agents failed to investigate, the agency said Friday. Florida Gov. Rick Scott called for the FBI’s director to resign because of the missteps.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the shooting that killed 17 people Wednesday was a “tragic consequence” of the FBI’s failure and ordered a review of the Justice Department’s processes. He said it’s clear the law-enforcement agency missed warning signs.
In more evidence that there had been signs of trouble with the accused, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a Friday news conference that his office had received more than 20 calls about Nikolas Cruz in recent years.
A person close to Cruz called the FBI’s tip line on Jan. 5 and provided information about Cruz’s weapons and his erratic behaviour, including his disturbing social media posts. The caller was concerned that Cruz could attack a school.
In a statement, the agency acknowledged that the tip should have been shared with the FBI’s Miami office and investigated, but it was not. The admission came as the agency was already facing criticism for its treatment of a tip about a YouTube comment posted last year. The comment posted by a “Nikolas Cruz” said: “Im going to be a professional school shooter.”
The FBI investigated the remark but did not determine who made it.
Cruz, 19, has been charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, north of Miami.
FBI director Christopher Wray said the agency, which received an average of 2,101 calls to the tip line each day in 2017, is reviewing its missteps on the January tip. He said he was “committed to getting to the bottom of what happened,” as well as assessing the way the FBI responds to information from the public.
“We have spoken with victims and families and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” Wray said.
Florida’s governor sharply criticized the FBI Friday, calling its failure to take action “unacceptable.”
“Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Scott said. “The families will spend a lifetime wondering how this could happen, and an apology will never give them the answers they desperately need.”
The FBI is under intense scrutiny for its actions in the early stages of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. U.S. President Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans have seized on what they see as signs of anti-Trump bias.
The president has repeatedly slammed the agency and its leaders, writing on Twitter that its reputation was in “tatters.”
Also Friday, mourners gathered for the first funeral for a shooting victim, packing the Star of David chapel to remember 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff. From outside the chapel, other mourners strained to hear the voices chanting Jewish prayers and remembering the star soccer player as having “the strongest personality.” She was also remembered as a creative writer with a memorable smile.
At a later funeral for 18-yearold Meadow Pollack, her father’s angered boiled over. With more than 1,000 mourners including Scott packed into Temple K’ol Tikvah, Andrew Pollack looked down at the plain pine coffin of his daughter and yelled, “You killed my kid!” referring to Cruz.
Authorities have not described any specific motive, except to say that Cruz had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students and serves an affluent suburb where the median home price is nearly $600,000 US. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager, whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships.