FBI neglected to follow up tipoff
The FBI received a tipoff last month that the suspect 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 has admitted.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has called for the FBI’s director to resign.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said yesterday the shooting, which killed 17 people, was a ‘‘tragic consequence’’ of the FBI’s failure, and he had ordered a review of the Justice Department’s processes. He said the nation’s premier law enforcement agency missed warning signs.
In more evidence that there had been signs of trouble with the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his office had received more than 20 calls about Cruz in the past few years.
A person close to Cruz called the FBI’s tip line on January 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.
The agency acknowledged that the tipoff should have been shared with the FBI’s Miami office and investigated, but it was not.
The startling admission came as the FBI was already facing criticism for its treatment of a tipoff 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.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency, which received an average of 2100 calls to the tip line each day in 2017, was still reviewing its missteps over the January tip. He said he was ‘‘committed to getting to the bottom of what happened’’, as well as assessing the way the FBI responded 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.
The FBI is already under intense scrutiny for its actions in the early stages of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election campaign. US President Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans have seized on what they see as signs of antiTrump bias, and the president has repeatedly slammed the agency and its leaders.
Trump met yesterday with victims of the shooting who are recovering at a Florida hospital, and praised the ‘‘incredible’’ work of the doctors, nurses and first responders who helped the victims.
Also yesterday, mourners gathered for the first funeral of a shooting victim, packing the Star of David chapel to remember 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff. Mourners remembered the star football player as having ‘‘the strongest personality’’, and being a creative writer with a memorable smile.
At a later funeral for 18-yearold Meadow Pollack, her father’s angered boiled over. 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 school. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships.