The country was shocked that the FBI had been warned about Nikolas Cruz contemplating shooting up a school back in September, but now face even more criticism after it was discovered they were warned about him a second time just one short month ago in January. On January 5th, the FBI received a report that Cruz was posting on social media and had a desire to kill. The FBI is now admitting that they totally dropped the ball on this investigation.
From The LA Times
“I’m sick to know those kids may have been alive today if somebody had done their job,” said Meredith Barry, whose 16-year-old daughter attends the school and lost one of her best friends in the shooting.
The 19-year-old suspect was no stranger to law enforcement. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference Friday that his office had responded to “approximately 20 calls for service over the last few years regarding the killer.” He did not provide details about those calls.
The tip to the FBI came through its call center, a facility in West Virginia that handles roughly 2,100 calls a day, according to a law enforcement official who spoke about the shooting investigation on the condition that he not be named.
The caller said Cruz had recently purchased firearms, threatened a family member and displayed erratic behavior, the official said.
The tipster called the FBI and spoke with an employee detailing the odd and dangerous behavior Cruz was displaying. The normal protocol was for the employee to write out a report and to send it to the Miami office for investigation, but that was never done and as a result Cruz was able to kill seventeen people. The case was mishandled so badly that Gov Rick Scott of Florida is calling on Christopher Wray, the FBI director to resign.
The tipster gave the FBI Cruz’s name and address, so checking the story out would have been so simple.
