PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - A
teenager accused of fatally shooting 17 people at a Florida high school
was investigated by police and state officials as far back as 2016 after
slashing his arm in a social media video, and saying he wanted to buy a
gun, but authorities determined he was receiving sufficient support,
newspapers said on Saturday.
Nikolas
Cruz, 19, is charged with committing multiple murders on Wednesday at
the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. More than a dozen
people also were wounded in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. high
school.
The charges can bring the death penalty, but
prosecutors have not yet said if they will seek capital punishment. Days
after the killings, a somber series of vigils and funerals were being
held in and around Parkland, a Fort Lauderdale suburb of about 32,000
people.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel first reported
that a video of Cruz cutting his arm posted to the social media network
Snapchat in September 2016 raised concerns among law enforcement and at
the Florida Department of Children and Families.
“Mr.
Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is
buying the gun for,” said a report written by department officials after
investigators interviewed the teenager, the Sun Sentinel said.
The
newspaper reported investigators ultimately decided that Cruz, then 18,
was receiving enough support from mental health professionals and from
his school, and any risk in his case was low.
The
Department of Children and Families (DCF) has asked a court to release
the records for transparency, adding it has reviewed the circumstances
surrounding the 2016 case.
“Mental health services and
supports were in place when this investigation closed,” DCF Secretary
Mike Carroll said in a statement.
The long-simmering U.S. debate about gun rights played out on Saturday at events in the area.
Hundreds
of people attended a rally in Fort Lauderdale where students from the
school demanded new gun control measures to tighten what they saw as
easy access to firearms in the state. They also accused some politicians
of being more concerned about protecting the firearms lobby than
children.
“Because of these (current) gun laws, people
that I know, people that I love, have died,” Delaney Tarr, a senior at
the school, told the rally.
At a nearby gunshow,
attendees said new laws would not have prevented the massacre, adding
gun rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
TRUMP CRITICIZES FBI
In
a tweet on Saturday night President Donald Trump criticized the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for its handling of the case.
“Very sad
that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida
school shooter. This is not acceptable,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
He accused the FBI of “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the (2016) Trump campaign.” [L2N1Q61CL]
The FBI admitted on Friday that it failed to investigate a warning that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill.
A
person described as close to Cruz called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5 to
report concerns about him, according to the FBI. That information was
not forwarded to the FBI’s Miami office, in what agency officials called
a breakdown in protocol.
The
disclosure spread angry disbelief among Parkland residents and prompted
Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott to call for FBI Director
Christopher Wray to resign.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting,
in which 14 students and three school staff members died.
PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - A
teenager accused of fatally shooting 17 people at a Florida high school
was investigated by police and state officials as far back as 2016 after
slashing his arm in a social media video, and saying he wanted to buy a
gun, but authorities determined he was receiving sufficient support,
newspapers said on Saturday.
Nikolas
Cruz, 19, is charged with committing multiple murders on Wednesday at
the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. More than a dozen
people also were wounded in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. high
school.
The charges can bring the death penalty, but
prosecutors have not yet said if they will seek capital punishment. Days
after the killings, a somber series of vigils and funerals were being
held in and around Parkland, a Fort Lauderdale suburb of about 32,000
people.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel first reported
that a video of Cruz cutting his arm posted to the social media network
Snapchat in September 2016 raised concerns among law enforcement and at
the Florida Department of Children and Families.
“Mr.
Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is
buying the gun for,” said a report written by department officials after
investigators interviewed the teenager, the Sun Sentinel said.
The
newspaper reported investigators ultimately decided that Cruz, then 18,
was receiving enough support from mental health professionals and from
his school, and any risk in his case was low.
The
Department of Children and Families (DCF) has asked a court to release
the records for transparency, adding it has reviewed the circumstances
surrounding the 2016 case.
“Mental health services and
supports were in place when this investigation closed,” DCF Secretary
Mike Carroll said in a statement.
The long-simmering U.S. debate about gun rights played out on Saturday at events in the area.
Hundreds
of people attended a rally in Fort Lauderdale where students from the
school demanded new gun control measures to tighten what they saw as
easy access to firearms in the state. They also accused some politicians
of being more concerned about protecting the firearms lobby than
children.
“Because of these (current) gun laws, people
that I know, people that I love, have died,” Delaney Tarr, a senior at
the school, told the rally.
At a nearby gunshow,
attendees said new laws would not have prevented the massacre, adding
gun rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
TRUMP CRITICIZES FBI
In
a tweet on Saturday night President Donald Trump criticized the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for its handling of the case.
“Very sad
that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida
school shooter. This is not acceptable,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
He accused the FBI of “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the (2016) Trump campaign.” [L2N1Q61CL]
The FBI admitted on Friday that it failed to investigate a warning that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill.
A
person described as close to Cruz called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5 to
report concerns about him, according to the FBI. That information was
not forwarded to the FBI’s Miami office, in what agency officials called
a breakdown in protocol.
The
disclosure spread angry disbelief among Parkland residents and prompted
Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott to call for FBI Director
Christopher Wray to resign.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting,
in which 14 students and three school staff members died.
Trump
called local politicians and the school’s principal from his
Mar-a-Lago, Florida, resort on Saturday to express condolences, offer
support and receive updates, a White House spokeswoman said. On Friday,
he visited shooting survivors and first responders.
He
and some other Republican political leaders have said mental illness
prompted the massacre. Cruz had been expelled from the high school for
undisclosed disciplinary reasons and former classmates described him as
an outcast and troublemaker with a fascination for weaponry.
As
more details emerged on the suspect, CNN reported that Cruz posted
disparaging comments about Jews, African Americans and gays in a private
chat group on the social media network Instagram.
“I
think I am going to kill people,” Cruz wrote in the group, according to
CNN, which also quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying the
suspect bought at least five guns in the past year.
Cruz’s
attorneys at the Broward County Public Defender’s Office did not return
requests for comment on that or the 2016 report by Florida’s Department
of Children and Families.
“This kid exhibited every
single known red flag, from killing animals to having a cache of weapons
to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter,” the
county’s public defender, Howard Finkelstein, told the New York Times.
The paper said it also received a copy of the report.
Speaking
on Saturday at an event in Dallas, Texas, Vice President Mike Pence
said Trump was making the safety of the nation’s schools a top priority.
“We will get to the bottom of what happened,” Pence
said, adding the administration would take “a renewed look at giving law
enforcement and local authorities the tools they need to deal with
individuals struggling with dangerous mental illness.”
Trump
called local politicians and the school’s principal from his
Mar-a-Lago, Florida, resort on Saturday to express condolences, offer
support and receive updates, a White House spokeswoman said. On Friday,
he visited shooting survivors and first responders.
He
and some other Republican political leaders have said mental illness
prompted the massacre. Cruz had been expelled from the high school for
undisclosed disciplinary reasons and former classmates described him as
an outcast and troublemaker with a fascination for weaponry.
As
more details emerged on the suspect, CNN reported that Cruz posted
disparaging comments about Jews, African Americans and gays in a private
chat group on the social media network Instagram.
“I
think I am going to kill people,” Cruz wrote in the group, according to
CNN, which also quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying the
suspect bought at least five guns in the past year.
Cruz’s
attorneys at the Broward County Public Defender’s Office did not return
requests for comment on that or the 2016 report by Florida’s Department
of Children and Families.
“This kid exhibited every
single known red flag, from killing animals to having a cache of weapons
to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter,” the
county’s public defender, Howard Finkelstein, told the New York Times.
The paper said it also received a copy of the report.
Speaking
on Saturday at an event in Dallas, Texas, Vice President Mike Pence
said Trump was making the safety of the nation’s schools a top priority.
“We will get to the bottom of what happened,” Pence
said, adding the administration would take “a renewed look at giving law
enforcement and local authorities the tools they need to deal with
individuals struggling with dangerous mental illness.”
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