White Supremacist Says Florida Shooter was Group Member

A troubled teenager accused of murdering 17 people at his former high school in Florida had white supremacist ties, it emerged Thursday, as the FBI admitted it received a tip-off about the 19-year-old gunman, yet failed to stop him, AFP reported.

As Americans reeled from the country’s worst school massacre since the horror at Sandy Hook six years ago, President Donald Trump suggested the root cause of the violence was a crisis of mental health -- and defied calls to address gun control.

Terrified students hid in closets and under desks on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, texting for help as the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, stalked the school with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.

Charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, Cruz appeared Thursday afternoon before a judge who ordered him held without bond.

In a somber televised address to the nation in response to the 18th school shooting so far this year, Trump announced plans to travel to Florida to meet the shocked community, located north of Miami.

He vowed to make mental health a priority -- after tweeting about the“many signs”that the shooter was “mentally disturbed” -- but avoided any talk of gun curbs to stem the bloodshed.

“My fellow Americans, today I speak to a nation in grief,” said Trump, calling on his fellow citizens to “come together as one nation” and “answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness.”