Nikolas Cruz Make American Great Again Hat
Broward Sheriff/Instagram Nikolas Jacob Cruz.
A nineteen-year-one-time former student with a fixation on weaponry and a trail of agonizing social media posts has been identified as the suspect in the shooting at a Florida high schoolhouse that left 17 people dead and fifteen others wounded. It was the third deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, afterwards Virginia Tech and Sandy Claw.
Nikolas Cruz, who a instructor says was previously identified as a threat to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoolhouse, was arrested afterward the shooting and has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, authorities said. The dollar store worker was expelled from the Parkland school for disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a press conference. You tin read the courtroom documents here.
Prosecutors announced on March 13 that they volition seek the death penalty against Cruz, maxim the offense "was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner" that was "particularly heinous, atrocious or cruel." Cruz appeared in court March xiv where the victims' emotional families saw him for the first time; his defense attorney indicated he was willing to plead guilty in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, and a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Fred Guttenberg watches every bit Nikolas Cruz enters the courtroom for his arraignment at the Broward Canton Courthouse March fourteen, 2018 in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Guttenberg's daughter died in the attack.
CNN gained access to an Instagram group in which the network claims Cruz wrote racist posts. Cruz allegedly "repeatedly espoused racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views and displayed an obsession with violence and guns," reported CNN, including writing that he hated "jews, ni**ers, immigrants" and talking "most killing Mexicans, keeping black people in chains and cutting their necks." Co-ordinate to CNN, he as well wrote that he had written a alphabetic character to President Donald Trump and proclaimed: "I think I am going to impale people." It was discovered that he had allegedly etched swastikas on weapon magazines and unsuccessful tried to create a "sniper'south perch" in the school to shoot students.
Nikolas Cruz is escorted into the courtroom for his arraignment at the Broward County Courthouse March 14, 2018 in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In the days after the mass shooting, law enforcement agencies and officers have fallen under scrutiny subsequently it emerged that there was a series of other red flags about Cruz. The school'due south resources officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended and resigned after the sheriff revealed he never went in the school building to confront the shooter despite beingness on school property and beingness armed. The New York Times reported that a woman called the FBI a month before the shooting spree to warn government near Cruz.
"If you go onto his Instagram page, you'll see all the guns he – he'due south and so into ISIS and, um, I-I'm agape this is so-something's gonna happen. Considering he's, he doesn't have the mental chapters," the tipster said, co-ordinate to an FBI transcript of the call published by The Times.
The caller told the FBI that Cruz'due south Instagram page said, "I want to kill people," adding, "And and then uh you know wanting to kill all these animals and uh he wants to um uh do something in Arabic and uh he dresses up like a ninja or a or a-a-a ISIS guy. And he has pictures of all the rifles and everything on the Instagram, on one of these accounts." The tipster said Cruz also wanted to join the Army.
Cruz is defendant of taking an Uber to the school correct before classes ended, so pulling a fire alarm and gunning downwards students and staff members inside as they ran through the brume from fume grenades he lobbed in the hallway. Cruz appeared in court on February fifteen, standing silently in an orangish one-piece with his head tilted downwards. The defense made no arguments on his behalf, and he was held without bail. Later, his public defender, Melisa McNeill, told the media: "He's sorry. He'southward mournful. He's remorseful. He is fully aware of what is going on, and he's only a broken human being." The public defender's office is now request for an indigency determination after reports that Cruz might have inherited $800,000 when his mother died.
Gordon Weeks, another attorney representing Cruz, added, "When your brain is not fully developed, you don't know how to bargain with these things. That's the child I'm sitting across from. The child is deeply troubled and he has endured significant trauma that stems from the loss of his mother." ABC News is reporting that the suspect told investigators "that he heard voices in his head, giving him instructions on what to practice to conduct the attack," describing them as "demons."
Israel, the sheriff, said that authorities are examining "very, very agonizing" social media posts investigators have uncovered. Some of those posts, confirmed by Heavy, show Cruz holding weapons and talking near shooting targets as therapy. Students say that Cruz, whose adoptive mother died in Nov, ofttimes talked about guns. Cruz was currently enrolled in the Broward County school commune. Concerns have also emerged almost whether the FBI could have done more to investigate an before YouTube comment left in the suspect's name on a man's video; it spoke of condign a "professional school shooter."
The Anti-Defamation League wrote on its website that it has information that Nikolas Cruz might have been involved in a white supremacist militia group called Republic of Florida, even participating in its training exercises.
An ROF leader subsequently told the Associated Press and Daily Beast that Cruz was a fellow member and claims Cruz received a burglarize from another person affiliated with the militia. The ROF has been described as a "white nationalist group that encourages militia grooming" with a similar mission to the Ku Klux Klan. However, local authorities in Tallahassee, where the group is based, at present say they can discover no link between Nikolas Cruz and the ROF militia group, according to Tallahassee.com. The ROF leader who fabricated the claim to the media at present appears to accept backed downwardly from the contention.
A representative of the ATF said the firearm was purchased lawfully just curt of a year ago in the State of Florida. According to the sheriff, the shooter bought the gun at a dealer in Coral Springs, Florida called Sunrise Tactical.
Facebook/Douglas SportsJaime Guttenberg and Aaron Feis died in the massacre..
Israel said the victims were killed inside the school, just outside and on a road nearby, with two victims dying at the hospital. The victims included students and adults. They included a geography teacher who was shot afterward he opened his classroom door to save fleeing students; the schoolhouse's able-bodied director; an assistant coach chosen a hero for taking bullets for students; a pupil who was an immigrant from Venezuela who recently became a citizen; a senior who was already awarded a swimming scholarship, and many others whose family and friends shared their grief on social media. You can read well-nigh the victims here.
The motive for the Valentine's Day shooting is not yet known. Cruz was initially identified by the media as Nicolas de Jesus Cruz and Nicolas Cruz and also goes by Nick Cruz. But the sheriff'southward part clarified the correct spelling is Nikolas Cruz and records show his full name is Nikolas Jacob Cruz.
According to CNN, an AR-15-fashion rifle was recovered by police. CNN reports that Cruz purchased the gun himself in the past year and passed a background bank check.
The sheriff said Cruz had multiple magazines with him.
"It was toward the end of the day, information technology was fourth period," an eighteen-year-onetime student at the high schoolhouse told Heavy. "I started to put my head downwards in form and next matter yous know I heard nigh 6 to seven shots in the classroom correct next to me on the beginning floor of the freshman building. We all merely decided to pile in one corner, we all decided to just stay put, considering we didn't know what was happening. We didn't know if it was real or imitation. We all kept quiet, the side by side affair nosotros know the school shooter shot the window, glass went everywhere. We all put our heads down, he put the gun within the window, turned his gun and shot three or 4 bullets, I heard a kid in my grade with his knee joint shot and some other school got shot and she was but bleeding everywhere. It was horrifying."
The pupil said he grabbed a towel and gave information technology to a teacher who tied it around the wounded educatee'southward leg. SWAT officers came near xv minutes later on to go the students out of the classroom.
Anyone with information well-nigh the shooting or the shooter is asked to call one-800-CALL-FBI. Videos and images of the shooting and any other information about it or the gunman can exist uploaded through the FBI website hither.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, "Only finished update from fed authorities on #FloridaSchoolShooting. It is clear attack was designed & executed to maximize loss of life. In days ahead (it) will go increasingly evident that killer in today's #FloridaSchoolShooting gave plenty of indications of what was to come."
President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday, "And so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic beliefs. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a large trouble. Must always study such instances to authorities, again and once again!"
A GoFundMe account has been prepare for donations for the families of the victims killed and the survivors. You tin can make a donation here.
Here's what yous demand to know about Nikolas Cruz:
1. Cruz Told a Friend 'I Don't Get to School on Valentine's Day' & Went to Subway & McDonalds After He Managed to Blend in With Fleeing Students
The sheriff and a probable crusade affidavit filed in court provided a timeline of the mass shooting. Cruz was living with a friend'due south family after his adoptive mother died. An chaser representing that family unit told the Miami Herald that Cruz slept in Wednesday forenoon and didn't go to schoolhouse, telling his friend, "'Information technology'southward Valentine's Day and I don't go to schoolhouse on Valentine's Twenty-four hour period,'" the lawyer said.
Instead, he ordered an Uber and headed to Stoneman Douglas High School. A witness told authorities that "he observed Cruz, who he recognized as a quondam troubled student, arrive at the schoolhouse in a small goldish colored vehicle," the affidavit says.
Cruz was wearing a maroon shirt, blackness pants and a black hat and was conveying a blackness duffel bag and wearing a black backpack. The man, whose name was redacted, said he radioed his co-worker to "alert him that Cruz was walking purposefully toward the 1200 edifice." Within a infinitesimal, he heard gunshots and chosen a Lawmaking Cherry to bespeak an emergency on campus. Cruz was found an hour later on, and the witness positively identified him. Authorities also spoke to an Uber commuter who said she drove Cruz to the high school and dropped him off in that location. Cruz was currently living in Pompano Beach with a local family.
The sheriff described what happened afterwards Cruz arrived at the school this way: At 2:19 p.one thousand. on February 14, the suspect entered the east stairwell of the loftier school with a rifle inside a black, soft case. He pulled the rifle out of the example. At 2:21 p.m., he began shooting into 3 rooms and and so circled back on some of them to shoot more than.
The suspect then took the w stairwell to the second flooring and shot a victim on the second floor. He so took the e stairwell to the third floor. Shortly thereafter, he dropped his rifle and ran down the stairs. There was an armed officer on campus during the shooting, but he never saw Cruz, according to AP.
Cruz managed to escape in the ensuing chaos; He ran, mixed in, with a group of students fleeing the schoolhouse. As the students began to flee, he decided to discard the weapon and a vest he was also wearing so he could blend into the crowd. The shootings were "done with a premeditated design," alleges the certificate. He went to a Walmart shop and bought a drinkable at the Subway and and then left the Walmart on foot. He went to McDonald'south and sat downward for a short period of time and so also left that institution on human foot. At 3:41 p.m., he was detained, the sheriff said.
The sheriff'south office said Cruz was arrested by the Coconut Creek Law Department in a neighborhood in Coral Springs. Nick Cruz was taken into custody at a Parkland abode non far from the school. According to police scanner transmissions, officers were tracking the doubtable's movements in the school through security cameras and had a description of the wearable he was wearing. They later had witnesses place him as the shooter after he was taken into custody.
Nikolas Cruz booking written report information.
Video showed Cruz on the ground beingness handcuffed and and then being led into a Broward County Sheriff'southward Office vehicle. Every bit reports of the shooting came in, police were given data virtually what Cruz was wearing through radio dispatch and one officer started traveling through residential areas near the schoolhouse. He discovered Cruz walking on the sidewalk. "He looked like a typical high school pupil," the officer said in a news briefing. "For a quick moment, I thought, 'Could this be the person? Is this who I need to stop?'" He pulled over and engaged Cruz, who complied with his commands and was taken into custody without issue.
According to the likely cause affidavit filed in court, Cruz initially "blended in with fleeing students and was able to elude arriving officers."
"Cruz exhibited labored animate. He was transported to a local hospital every bit a precaution for medical clearance," the sheriff's office said. He was later seen being transported to jail.
You can mind to constabulary scanner audio from the shooting below:
An assault rifle was abandoned at the scene, co-ordinate to the probable cause affirmation. An ATF gun trace was performed and records showed that Cruz purchased the burglarize in Feb 2017. The lawyer for the family that took Cruz in, Jim Lewis, told the Sun-Sentry that Cruz already owned the AR-xv used in the shooting before he moved in with the family unit.
"It was his gun," Lewis told the newspaper. "The family unit made him go along it in a locked gun cabinet in the business firm but he had a cardinal."
The affidavit alleges that Cruz confessed. Cruz told regime that "he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-xv and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds. Cruz stated that he brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a back pack until he got on campus to begin his set on," the affidavit alleges.
Broward Sheriff Scott State of israel told reporters that "the shooter was non a current student." He added, "It'south catastrophic. There really are no words. I don't know why he left," the schoolhouse. He afterward read each victim's name out loud at a printing conference to pay homage to those lost.
The sheriff says authorities interviewed 2,000 people in the first day after the shooting alone as they attempted to piece together a motion-picture show of the shooter and his motives. The supposed militia angle acquired a stir after a Republic of Florida leader, Hashemite kingdom of jordan Jereb, told several media outlets that Cruz was a member. Lt. Grady Jordan told the Tallahassee Democrat, yet, that investigators have non been able to find an actual link between Cruz and the militia.
"We are still doing some work simply we accept no known ties between the ROF, Jordan Jereb or the Broward shooter," Jordan said to the paper. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said on the evening of February 15 just that the merits was unconfirmed and being looked into, only he did not provide further comment on that point.
The Anti-Defamation League wrote on its website that "a spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, Feb xv, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day'south deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group."
According to ADL's argument, the group chosen the Commonwealth of Florida hotline and spoke with the fellow member who identified himself as Jordan Jereb "afterward self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum 4chan that Cruz had besides been a fellow member."
"Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. In 2016, he was arrested on charges of threatening a staffer in the role of Florida Governor Rick Scott because he was allegedly angry at the staffer's son," noted ADL. Co-ordinate to ADL, "Jereb said that Cruz was associated with ROF, having been 'brought upwardly' past another member. Jereb added that Cruz had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from southward Florida."
ROF has members throughout Florida, ADL reports. "The alt right white supremacist group borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement (non itself a white supremacist motility)," according to ADL. The Republic of Florida's website reads, "Republic of Florida is a white civil rights system fighting for white Identitarian politics…" The hotline now goes only to voicemail.
Hashemite kingdom of jordan Jereb's Twitter profile picture.
Jereb also told the Associated Press and Daily Beast that Cruz was a member of the ROF. Jereb is a convicted felon. Co-ordinate to the Southern Poverty Law Middle, Jereb once "professed his love for Molotov cocktails and shared a video that details an argument for when it's okay to shoot a constabulary officer."
Withal, a reporter for Reveal says that Jereb has since posted an curse-laden tweet calling the matter "a legit misunderstanding because we have multiple people named Nicholas in ROF." Jereb's Twitter page has now been suspended.
2. Cruz Was Expelled After a Fight, Was Abusive Toward His Ex-Girlfriend & Was Accounted to Be a Threat to Other Students, a Teacher & a Classmate Say
WSVN/ScreengrabThe doubtable is taken into custody exterior of a home.
Nick Cruz was a known person at the school whose ain time in that location was troubled. He was reported for making threats to students in the by, the Miami Herald reports.
"We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," Jim Gard, a math teacher who had the suspected shooter in his course concluding year, told the newspaper. "There were problems with him concluding year threatening students, and I estimate he was asked to go out campus."
CNN obtained a video the network said was of the shooter undertaking target practice while wearing a MAGA hat.
Gard said the school administration sent out an email warning teachers that the student had fabricated threats against others in the past and should not exist allowed on the campus with a backpack.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said that Cruz was expelled from Douglas High School at some point for disciplinary bug. He possibly later attended another local high school, J.P. Taravella High Schoolhouse, simply the sheriff said they are even so not clear how long he was at that place. Israel did not provide details near Cruz'south expulsion.
According to The Associated Press, Cruz was expelled afterwards a fight with his ex-girlfriend'southward new young man. Victoria Olvera told the AP that Cruz was abusive toward his ex-girlfriend.
Gard told the New York Times, Cruz was obsessed with a girl at the school, "to the betoken of stalking her."
Israel told the public, "If you lot see something, say something. If anybody has whatsoever indicator that someone'due south going through a behavioral change, or on their social media that at that place are disturbing photos, perhaps bombs or firearms or just videos or pictures that are just not correct, that there'due south something off, delight make sure law enforcement knows about information technology."
When asked if there were signs with the suspect, he said, "I believe at that place volition" be indicators uncovered once investigators have completed examining the suspect's social media and interviewing him and those who know him. "Our investigators certainly began dissecting social media."
School officials have not released any information well-nigh possible threats made by the suspect, and the district'due south superintendent told reporters that at that place was no warning it was going to happen.
"It's a day that you lot pray every day when you go up that you will never take to see. It is in front of u.s.," Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie said at a press conference. "I inquire the community for prayers and their support for the children and their families. We received no warning… Potentially there could accept been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made."
Broward Mayor Axle Furr told CNN that Cruz was a client at a mental wellness clinic and had been "dealing with mental health issues." He had been undergoing some treatment, Furr said, but he did not go into detail about that.
"I don't know if he was exactly on law enforcement radar, but information technology wasn't like there wasn't concerns for him. He had non been dorsum to the clinic for over a twelvemonth. So at that place's been a time he was receiving treatment and so stopped," Furr said.
CNN is reporting that Cruz bought the AR-15 rifle used in the shooting himself and passed a background check. At a press briefing, Sheriff Israel said he thinks people undergoing treatment for mental illness should non be able to buy or bear handguns.
"While people who are the victim of mental health illnesses are being treated, in the opinion of this sheriff, they should non be able to purchase, surround themselves, purchase or bear a handgun," he said. "Those 2 things don't mix."
3. He Posted Photos of Guns & Knives on Instagram, Called His Weapons an 'Arsenal,' & Appears to Have Left Threatening YouTube Comments
A photo posted on Instagram past the suspect.
In one of the several alarm signs the system had before the shooting, Nikolas Cruz "cutting his arms on Snapchat and said he wanted to purchase a gun in September 2016," according to The Dominicus Sentinel. The newspaper reported that sheriff's deputies and "adult welfare investigators from the Department of Children & Family Services" investigated merely determined that Cruz's "last level of risk is low as [he] resides with his female parent, attends school and receives counseling…"
CNN is also reporting that "the host family who had taken him in immediately later on his mother's death warned local law enforcement that the 19-year-old had 'used a gun against people earlier' and 'has put the gun to others' heads in the by.'" One 911 call from the family's son reported that Cruz might take hidden a firearm in the backyard, CNN reported. In some other report obtained past CNN, the host female parent, Rocxanne Deschamps, who took in Cruz and his blood brother when their mother died, called 911 to criminate of Cruz that "he was going to get his gun and come dorsum."
Using the proper name Nikolas Cruz, the suspect posted several photos in 2016 and 2015 on his Instagram page of weapons and made statements about wanting to purchase guns. The page has since been deleted, but Heavy confirmed with sources who know Cruz that the page belonged to him, @cruz_nikolas. The Miami Herald has also verified the page belonged to Cruz.
Instagram often takes downwards pages of shooting suspects from public view at the asking of police force enforcement.
A screengrab of Cruz's now-deleted Instagram folio.
In 2016, he posted a photograph of a shotgun he said he wanted to buy.
"I plan on getting this but I demand more information on information technology so if someone could give advice on how much I'm spending and background cheeks please to god let me know," he wrote in 2016.
A photo posted by Nikolas Cruz in 2016.
He also posted multiple photos in Jan 2016 of himself belongings knives.
Nikolas Cruz.
Nikolas Cruz
In 2015, he posted a screenshot of a Google search for the phrase, "what does allahu akbar." He then wrote a caption that included an anti-Muslim slur, "Well at least we now know what it means when a sand durka says "allahu Akbar" ??????" While some have been using that postal service to claim that he was pro-ISIS or supporter of Islamic terrorism, comments he made on the Instagram post indicated he wanted to kill terrorists and made jokes near terrorism.
"Durka durka Mohamed jihad .. how do I piece of work this oh oh I mess upwards cooo booom!!" he wrote. He then added, "durka durka … bam boom explosions," with a serial of flop smilies.
InstagramA photo posted by Cruz.
Body of water Parodie, a 17-year-one-time student at Broward County school, told The Daily Fauna, "I knew him to be passive aggressive but not violent. He was rude to people. He had an deed upward similar he was tough. He never got into, like, physical fights with anyone, simply he did go into verbal arguments. I just thought he dropped out of school, I didn't think he would exercise anything. He e'er kept a depression profile."
Parodie added, "He was definitely not accepted at our school socially. People saw him as someone who was dissimilar than the normal people at our schoolhouse." She said he wore "patriotic" shirts that "seemed really extreme, like hating on" Islam, making offensive jokes and deriding Muslims equally "terrorists and bombers." She added that she had seen him wearing a Trump lid.
As well in 2015, he posted a meme of a target with bullet holes in it with the words "Grouping therapy, sometimes it works." He added in the caption, "Information technology really does f*cking work give information technology a try ;)."
A photograph posted by Nikolas Cruz.
Cruz began using a new Instagram page in 2017, which has besides been deleted, only has been confirmed to belong to him by Heavy. The New York Times also verified the page. In that page, @nikolascruzmakarov, he is wearing a Donald Trump entrada "Brand America Great Again" hat. Makarov is the proper name of a Russian-made pistol.
Instagram released a statement on the account with the MAGA hat.
"This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the people who have been affected. In that location is absolutely no place on our platforms for people who commit such horrendous acts. We have found and immediately deleted the shooter's accounts on Facebook and Instagram," the social media network's statement said.
Nikolas Cruz'southward second Instagram profile.
Nikolas Cruz had this photo as his Instagram profile picture show.
In 1 photo, which yous can run into below, he displayed various guns on a bed, along with body armor and wrote in the caption, "arsenal."
Cruz captioned this photo, posted in 201, "Arsenal."
Y'all can see some of the photos of his weapons below:
A photo posted by Cruz in 2017.
He captioned this photo, "30-06."
He captioned this photo, "I love this holographic sight."
He captioned this photograph, "Cost me $30 bucks,:
InstagramA target posted by Cruz.
Cruz also posted a disturbing photo of a encarmine, dead toad. He wrote, "These things killed my dog. And then I kill them pretty much. #killingtoads." He wrote but in his Instagram profile header, "Annihilator."
CNN reports that a user named Nikolas Cruz left comments on several Youtube videos in which he talked nigh shooting people and violence.
9 months ago, the user posted on a video prune from the NatGeo show "Alaska State Troopers: Armed and Dangerous," writing, "I am going to kill constabulary enforcement one twenty-four hour period they go afterward the good people."
Six months ago, the user wrote, "Im going watch them sheep fall f*ck antifa i wish to impale as many as i can," on a Youtube video titled "Antifa Gun Club."
Too 9 months ago, Cruz commented, "I am going to practice what he did," on a video about the 1966 sniper shooting at the Academy of Texas.
CNN says the user wrote on other posts, "I whana shoot people with my AR-15 (sic)" and "I wanna die Fighting killing shit ton of people." The user likewise wrote, "Elliot rodger will not be forgotten," a reference to the 22-year-erstwhile California man who killed half dozen people and wounded 14 others near UC Santa Barbara in 2014 before killing himself.
A YouTube user named "BentheBondsman" posted a video Wednesday night saying that the FBI visited him to talk about Cruz considering a user named Nikolas Cruz commented on i of his videos recently. The YouTuber'south total proper name is Ben Bennight, and he is from Mississippi.
He said he reported the comment, "Im going to be a professional person school shooter," later seeing it in September. He submitted a written report to Youtube and it was deleted, and he submitted a tip of it to the FBI. He said 2 agents visited him in September about the post. BentheBondsman said he talked to agents again after the shooting.
Bennight told Buzzfeed News the agents first came to his part September 25.
"They came to my function the side by side forenoon and asked me if I knew anything near the person," Bennight told BuzzFeed News. "I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them."
On Wednesday, about four:xxx p.m., Bennight told Buzzfeed he received a call from a FBI agent based in Miami.
"I think we spoke with y'all in the by about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube aqueduct," the amanuensis said in the message, which Bennight provided to BuzzFeed News. "I just wanted to follow upwardly with you on that and inquire you a question with something that's come, if you wouldn't mind giving me a ring."
Ii agents came and talked to Bennight. He told Buzzfeed, "They asked me if I knew who he was. I didn't. I don't. Then they left."
The FBI has not confirmed the Youtube account belongs to the accused shooter.
"People get out pretty heinous comments on a pretty regular ground on this aqueduct and I really didn't think anything of information technology," Bennight said in his Youtube video well-nigh the comment. "Just this comment said, 'I'1000 going to be a professional school shooter' and I knew I couldn't just ignore that."
CNN reports that a second threat was reported to the FBI. CNN reports that those threats were not passed on to local constabulary enforcement.
"I saw the story kind of go across my newsfeed simply I didn't pay a whole lot of attending to it, but when the FBI said it was the same name the first thing that went through my listen was, 'Wow, I hope you lot were at least watching this guy that I alerted you to months agone,'" Bennight told CNN.
FBI Special Amanuensis Robert Lasky, who runs the agency's Miami office, said Thursday at a printing briefing that in 2017 the FBI received a tip about a comment made on a YouTube channel that said, "I want to be a professional schoolhouse shooter." Lasky said there was no information about a possible time connected to the threat or any identifying information other than the name of the user. Lasky said agents investigated, but were unable to further identify who made the comment.
4. A Pupil Says 'Everyone Predicted' the Suspect Would Be the Shooter
Nick Cruz.
In 2015, Nikolas Cruz posted a photograph of himself giving the middle finger with the caption, "F*ck youuuuuuuuuuuu allllll."
A educatee at the school told WJXT-Television set'south Vic Micolucci that students thought Cruz would exist the doubtable.
"Honestly a lot of people were saying it was going to exist him," the student said. "A lot of kids threw jokes effectually similar that, proverb that he's the ane to shoot up the school, only it turns out, you know, everyone predicted information technology. That'southward crazy. He was on the third flooring, he knows the school layout. He knows where everyone would exist at. He's been in burn drills, he'south prepared for this stuff."
Co-ordinate to CNN, Broward Sheriff's deputies "were called to school shooter Nikolas Cruz's family unit home 39 times since 2010" for calls that included everything from "mentally sick person" to "domestic disturbance."
Students have said that fire alarms went off before the shooting and they initially thought it was a drill. It is not clear if a drill was planned or if someone pulled the alarm.
The pupil told WFOR that Cruz had showed him his guns afterward he got kicked out of schoolhouse.
Matthew Walker, a 17-yr-old inferior told WFOR-Tv, "He was going class to form just shooting at random kids. Everything he posts (on social media) is well-nigh weapons. Information technology's sick."
A student who knows Cruz told the news station, "He always had guns on him and stuff like that. He was a little bit of a troubled kid."
Nikolas Cruz is seen in a yearbook photo.
Cruz was at 1 signal role of the U.Due south. Army JROTC program at Douglas High School, a fellow member of the programme, Giovanni Watford, told Buzzfeed News. He called Cruz a "sketchy kid," adding that he "was off" and "was super stressed-out all the time and talked almost guns a lot and tried to hibernate his face."
Watford said Cruz "talked near guns a lot." He likewise said Cruz complained oftentimes virtually bullying and said Cruz "had beef with 1 kid." Watford's brother Mike, told Buzzfeed News, that Cruz talked about "how tired he was of everyone picking on him and the staff doing nix about information technology," and said, "something definitely pushed him."
Cruz was adopted by his parents, Roger and Lynda Cruz, every bit a young kid, a family member told ABC News. Both of his adopted parents are expressionless. Lynda Cruz died terminal year, ABC News reports. An obituary shows she died in November. She is pictured on that obituary page holding her young son.
Legacy.comNikolas Cruz is held by his mother, Lynda Cruz, in a photo from her obituary
A family fellow member told the Lord's day-Lookout man that Cruz and his biological younger brother were adopted by Lydia and Roger Cruz while they were living in Long Island. The couple and the two children then moved to Florida. When Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia in Nov, Nikolas and his brother were left in the care of a family member, the newspaper reports.
"I know she had been having some issues with them, especially the older one. He was being a problem. I know he did accept some issues and he may have been taking medication. [He] did have some kind of emotional or difficulties," Barbara Kumbatovich, Lynda'south sis-in-police, told the newspaper. "[Lynda] kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far every bit I know, just things teenagers practice like not coming home on time, possibly beingness disrespectful."
Another family member, who was non identified, told the newspaper that Nikolas' adoptive father died of a heart attack when Nikolas was immature. The family member said Nikolas Cruz had been diagnosed with autism and Lynda had sought counseling for him from a young historic period.
"She did her best getting him whatever help he needed," the family unit member told the newspaper.
Cruz eventually moved in with a classmate's family after he was unhappy with where he was living later his mother's death.
"The family is devastated, they didn't see this coming. They took him in and it'southward a classic case of no good human activity goes unpunished," Jim Lewis, an chaser representing the family unit who took Cruz in told the newspaper. "He was a picayune quirky and he was depressed about his mom's death, just who wouldn't be?"
Neighbors told the Sunday-Picket that Cruz would harass neighbors and become into trouble while he was growing upwards and that police came to his dwelling multiple times. Neighbors said constabulary "were called to the Cruz firm several times" and ane woman alleged that "she defenseless Nikolas Cruz peeking in her window once. She likewise told the newspaper that he banged his caput confronting a brick wall when he didn't want to become to schoolhouse."
A person who knew Cruz, Nicholas Coke, told the Miami Herald that Cruz was a loner who left school and moved to North Florida later on his mother died. "He had a lot of problems in middle schoolhouse. Yous never think anyone you know is going to practice something like this," Coke told the paper.
"He was psycho, for sure," a student who knew Cruz told WPLG-Telly. "He was crazy because he liked to kill small things, like piffling animals — frogs and other animals similar that and he just had a crazy listen. He was racist and he was just crazy."
Law received a tip that the suspect was possibly watching videos on Youtube nigh how to brand bombs, according to police force scanner transmissions. Police were searching the edifice every bit a precaution after learning about that information, but information technology is non known if there were any bombs left in the schoolhouse.
The person who gave police the tip also had letters exchanged with the suspect.
Police were at the suspect's domicile searching for more information about him. He lives in the 11000 block of NW 47th Drive in Parkland. They were also at another location where he previously lived.
Cruz had been working as a cashier at a Dollar Tree shop afterward leaving loftier school, according to the New York Times.
While some on social media accept been spreading claims that Cruz is a registered Democrat, a search of the Florida voter database with his birthdate, September 24, 1998, shows that he is non a registered voter.
Other social media users accept claimed that Cruz can exist seen wearing an "Antifa" shirt, but the photo beingness circulated via a false Antifa account is another homo named Marcel Fontaine, according to Buzzfeed News, which has rounded up details on several hoaxes and fake stories related to the shooting.
Alicia Blonde told MSNBC that Cruz was her student and that he "often wore his JROTC compatible, but was an undisciplined pupil, Blonde said. Cruz as well was reluctant to speak in Spanish, despite his Hispanic background."
"I recall there was some pride bug there. He didn't feel comfortable in his own skin and civilization," Blonde said to the network.
5. Horrific Videos Captured the Moment Panicked Students Hid in Classrooms as Gunshots Rang Out During the 18th Shooting at a School in 2018
TwitterA photograph tweeted past a student from inside Douglas High Schoolhouse.
A student who is inside the school told CBS Miami through text message, "Suddenly there was a actually loud noise…..people are crying" and hiding in "the closet."
A video recorded by a educatee captured the gunshots:
Michael Katz told ABC News, "It was actually loud. Then I heard information technology once again. Then I heard frantic screaming. I've never heard such loud screams in my life. Then we realized there was a shooting at my school."
Students took to Twitter to provide updates almost the situation, saying they've heard several shots and are hiding in the schoolhouse.
Jay Golden, of Parkland, whose daughter, Rachel is a senior at the loftier school. She is still within the schoolhouse, Golden told the Sun-Spotter.
"She was crying, she's scared. She's been texting back and forth. She'south OK at the moment," he told the newspaper. "I'm freaking out. This is crazy, this stuff shouldn't be going on in these schools. People are crazy. I don't know what goes on through these people's minds these days, it's a scary thing. Information technology'southward one of those things – you don't desire to put a metal protector and care for them like prisoners but they take to figure something out. You put your kids in school and information technology's supposed to be a safe place and this stuff happens all the time."
Federal authorities responded to the scene, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is typical in agile shooter incidents.
"ATF agents from the Miami Field Sectionalisation are responding to reports of a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Loftier School in Parkland, Fla. The investigation is ongoing and active," the ATF tweeted.
Well-nigh ii,900 students are enrolled at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to its website. Police were still searching the building Wednesday dark.
The school is part of the Broward County Public Schools organization.
President Donald Trump was fabricated aware of the situation, the White House says.
"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever experience unsafe in an American school," Trump tweeted. "Only spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with constabulary enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting."
There have been 17 other shootings on school campuses around the country already this year. Everytown for Gun Safe defines those shootings every bit "any time a firearm discharges a alive round inside a schoolhouse building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented past the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials."
The shooting at Sal Marcos Middle School in California earlier this month was the 12th to occur on schoolhouse property in the United States in 2018, according to the New York Times.
Included in that total is a shooting that occurred in Benton, Kentucky, on January 23. A 15-year-old student opened burn on classmates, killing 2 other 15-year-olds and injuring 18 other people. Simply a day earlier, on January 22, a xv-year-quondam girl was shot past another student at a high school in Italy, Texas. She survived the shooting and the gunman was arrested.
The other shootings accept not been as high-profile, according to NPR, which compiled a listing of the incidents.
According to Everytown for Gun Rubber, there were multiple shootings in February. On Feb 8, a gun was fired at The Metropolitan High School in New York City.
"A 17 year-old male student fired a gun, hit the flooring of a classrom. No injuries were reported, and constabulary took the educatee in custody for questioning," co-ordinate to Everytown.
On Feb 5, a gun was fired only no one was injured at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, Wisconsin.
"A school liaison officer was sitting on a demote talking with some students when a 3rd-grader pressed the trigger on the officer's holstered weapon, causing it to burn down and strike the floor. The holster was equipped with a trigger guard designed to prevent such accidental discharges, so the department is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the event," Everytown writes.
Likewise on February 5, a 17-twelvemonth-old educatee was shot in the chest at Oxon Hill High Schoolhouse in Oxon Colina, Maryland, NBC Washington reports.
On January 31, a shot was fired during a basketball game at Lincoln Loftier School in Philadelphia. A human being was shot twice in the leg, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
On the same twenty-four hour period as the Texas shooting, a student was wounded in the parking lot of a New Orleans lease school. On Jan 26, a gun was fired during an altercation at Dearborn High School in Michigan, simply no one was injured. A solar day earlier, on January 25, a gun was fired at Irish potato High Schoolhouse in Mobile, Alabama, during a disagreement between two students.
"A disagreement betwixt 2 16-year-old students escalated when Jonah Neal pulled out a handgun. School administrators noticed the weapon and tried to calm him; Neal then fled across campus. He was pursued past staff until he fired the gun four or five times into the air. Nobody was injured. Neal was taken into custody and charged for multiple offenses, including possession of a weapon on school property," according to Everytown.
On January 20, a man was shot and killed on the campus of Wake Forest University. The victim was a educatee at Winston-Salem State University and was attending a sorority party.
On January xv, a bullet was fired into a dorm room in Marshall, Texas, on the campus of Wiley College.
On January x, in that location were three shootings on the aforementioned day. The start was a suicide at Coronado Elementary School in Arizona. Then a educatee fired a shot in a classroom at Grayson Higher in Texas, just nobody was hit. Police say it was an accidental discharge during a criminal justice class. And a shot was fired at a building on the campus of Cal State San Bernardino. No one was injured there.
On January 6, a shot was fired at a school bus carrying students in Iowa, shattering a window, just not causing injuries. On January 4, two shots were fired into a Seattle loftier school classroom. And on that same mean solar day a man shot himself in the parking lot of an empty elementary school in Michigan.
"We have absolutely go numb to these kinds of shootings, and I call back that will keep," said Katherine West. Schweit, a sometime FBI official who co-authore a study on active shooting incidents, told the Times.
Source: https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/nikolas-cruz/
0 Response to "Nikolas Cruz Make American Great Again Hat"
Post a Comment