PARKLAND - The Federal Bureau of
Investigation on Friday acknowledged that it mishandled a
January tip that the 19-year-old man accused of killing 17
people at a Florida high school had guns and the desire to kill.
A person close accused gunman Nikolas Cruz called an FBI tip
line on Jan. 5 to warn that he owned guns, had made disturbing
social media posts and had the potential to conduct a school
shooting, but its protocols were not followed, the FBI said in a
statement.
This tip appears unrelated to the previously reported
YouTube comment in which a person named Nikolas Cruz said "I'm
going to be a professional school shooter." The FBI has
acknowledged getting that tip as well but failing to connect it
to the accused gunman.
"Under established protocols, the information provided by
the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to
life," the FBI said in its statement on Friday. "The information
then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office,
where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken. We
have determined that these protocols were not followed."
The second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S.
history also raised concerns about potential failures in school
security and stirred the ongoing U.S. debate about gun rights,
which are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
"We are still investigating the facts," FBI Director
Christopher Wray said in the statement. "We have spoken with
victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this
causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy."
Leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump have linked
mental illness to Wednesday's violence, suggesting that it was
the public's responsibility to warn officials of such dangers.
"So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally
disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic
behavior," Trump said in a Thursday tweet. "Neighbors and
classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such
instances to authorities, again and again!"
Cruz, who had been expelled from the school where he
allegedly staged his attack for undisclosed disciplinary
reasons, made a brief court appearance on Thursday and was
ordered held without bond.
"He's a broken human being," his lawyer, public defender
Melissa McNeill, told reporters. "He's sad, he's mournful, he's
remorseful."
Wednesday's shooting ranks as the greatest loss of life from
school gun violence since the 2012 shooting rampage at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20
first-graders and six adult educators dead.
News of the FBI's mishandling of the last month's tip about
Cruz came as families of the 17 victims began to bury their
dead. The first two funerals were for Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, a
high school athlete and Meadow Pollack, an 18-year-old senior
who had been headed to Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Brian Gately, a friend of the Alhadeff family, said he
attended Alyssa's funeral and that the synagogue was so packed
he had to stand in the rear.
"There was just really a lot of sadness in there," Gately, a
51-year-old financial adviser who lives in Parkland said. The
burial became more emotional, he added, saying, "People were
yelling, 'No, no.' Kids were yelling, 'No, no.'"