Warning signs were missed
FBI was told of disturbing YouTube post, but agents didn’t visit teen
PARKLAND, FLA.» Months before authorities say that 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.
“Im going to be a professional school shooter,” a YouTube user with the screen name Nikolas Cruz posted in September.
Cruz told investigators Thursday that he shot students in the hallways and on the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 19-year-old was expelled last year for undisclosed disciplinary reasons. And less than a year ago, the former Junior ROTC cadet bought a military-style AR15 rifle legally.
As investigators tried to establish the motive for Wednesday’s shooting rampage, students and neighbors portrayed Cruz as a strange and hostile figure who threatened others, talked about killing animals and posed with guns in disturbing photographs on social media.
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 spokesman 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.
Student Victoria Olvera, 17, said Cruz had been abusive to his ex-girlfriend and that his expulsion was over a fight with her new boy- friend. Cruz had been attending another school in Broward County since the expulsion, officials said.
Cruz had on a maroon polo shirt bearing an ROTC insignia and the school’s eagle mascot when he was arrested off school grounds about an hour after the attack. Investigators said he slipped away during the chaos by mixing in with the other students.
Cruz was an orphan — his mother, Lynda, died of pneumonia Nov. 1, and her husband died of a heart attack years ago. The couple had adopted Nikolas and his biological brother.
Around Thanksgiving, Nikolas Cruz moved in with a friend’s family. According to lawyer Jim Lewis, who represents but did not identify the family, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet and never saw him go to a shooting range with it. He did, however, have the key.