The FBI received information from an individual who knew Nikolas Cruz in early January warning the agency that the boy might stage an attack.
‘The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,’ said the FBI in a statement on Friday.
The agency went on to state that this information, which came in over their Public Access Line, should have been classified as ‘a potential threat to life’ and the Miami field office notified about the information.
Those protocols were not followed however for reasons that are still not clear, and on Wednesday Cruz shot dead 17 people.
‘We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly,’ said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
‘We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.’
Trouble: The FBI released a statement on Friday revelaing that a call came in alerting the agency about Nikolas Cruz being a possible threat in early January
The first tip came back in September when they were alerted to comment made by YouTube user ‘Nikolas Cruz’ proclaiming his desire to be a ‘professional school shooter.’
At the same time he was posting photos to his public social media account which showed off an arsenal of weapons, including multiple semi-automatic guns.
And he had not only joined the white nationalist group Republic of Florida but also begun participating in paramilitary training exercises with the organization.
All this, along with the fact that he had know mental health struggles and three school expulsions, was not enough to land Cruz on the FBI’s radar.
YouTube vlogger Ben Bennight alerted the FBI to a comment shared by Cruz on one of his videos back in September, when the boy wrote: ‘I’m going to be a professional school shooter.’
Bennight revealed that the FBI was quick to respond to the concerning statement, arriving at his office the very next day to find out if he knew anything about the young man.
That was after he called a local field agent, revealing that his initial attempts to send in a screengrab of the comment failed when the email address he found listed on the federal agency’s website came back with a domain error saying that it did not exist.
He finally heard back from the FBI on Wednesday, when they called with some additional questions after 17 people were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
FBI STATEMENT ON NIKOLAS CRUZ TIP IGNORED BY AGENCY
On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.
Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. 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 for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.
‘We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes,’ said FBI Director Wray (above on Wednesday testifying in front of the SIC)
FBI Director Christopher Wray said:
‘We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.
‘We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.’
On Thursday, Special Agent Rob Laskey revealed that the the agency was unable to learn anything about the person who posted the comment.
‘No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location, or the true identity of the person who made the comment,’ said Laskey.
‘The FBI conducted data reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment.’
‘The FBI just left my house in regards to this situation and let me give you a little bit of backstory back in September or 2017 ,matter of fact on September 24, I sent a screenshot of a comment on one of my videos,’ said Bennight in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Wedensday.
‘Now people keep asking me which video was it, I don’t know … I screenshoted the comment I hit the report button and reported it to YouTube.’
Bennight stated that YouTube quickly removed the comment, though Cruz’s account on the Google-owned, video-sharing website remained active through Wednesday night.
The problems began when he tried to reach out to the FBI.
‘I found an email address tips at fbi.gov, sent it to that email address, I immediately got back a domain error basically that email address didn’t exist,’ revealed Bennight.
‘So I looked up the number for our local field office and called him and left a message.’
Bennight continued: ‘Well the next day I had two FBI agents standing in my office taking down the information, taking down taking copies of the screenshot and asking me questions that of course I couldn’t answer.’
He went on to discuss how people leave upsetting ajnd angry and ‘heinous’ comments on his page all the time, but this was a different situtation.
‘What I did think was, you know, this comment said “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” and I knew that I couldn’t just ignore that so a screenshot of the comment.’
The FBI was then back in touch again on Wednesday.
‘I think we spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel,’ said an FBI agent who identified himself as Ryan Furr in a voicemail received by Bennight on Wednesday.
‘I just wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that’s come up, if you wouldn’t mind giving me a ring.’
Bennight said that FBI agents were at his home by 5pm, while lamenting the fact that he could not offer more information to help with the investigation.
He also said that he believes the FBI and YouTube handled the situation as best they possibly could at the time.
‘I’m not sure that there’s really anything the FBI could have done with that information other than keep an eye on somebody,’ said Bennight.
‘So I don’t know, I’m not here to judge, I’m just here to share my experience. And I hope that everybody involved can start the healing process soon.’
Bennight then closed out his video by stating: ‘You never really heal from these kind of wounds, but anyway I’m gonna end that here. That’s all for now. Ben the Bondsman signing out.’
Students who knew Cruz have also been speaking out, including one young man who wrote: ‘Nick attacked one of my friends once. He brought shotgun shells to school and made many threats against others. He had an insta full of pictures of dead animals that he killed.’
The teen, who wrote that his parents had prohibited him from giving interviews, added: ‘Mental illness needs to be recognized or things like this happen. People i know are f***ing dead.’
Cruz has not be attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the massacre, having been expelled for disciplinary reasons during the 2016-17 school year.
It was at least the third time that Cruz had been forced to leave a learning institution, and came at a particularly difficult time in his life.
Cruz, who has a younger brother Zachary, lost his mother Lynda back in November as a result of complications from the flu.
The 68-year-old mother-of-two developed a case of pneumonia shortly after checking herself in to receive treatment for the seasonal sickness.
On Instagram, Cruz could be seen holding firearms, ammunition and the semiautomatic AR-15 rifle he likely used in bthe attack.
That weapon was legally obtained and the family’s lawyer Jim ledws
One photo shows several guns, including rifles with scopes, laying on a bed. Another appears to show a frog that had been killed.
His father Roger died of a heart attack back in 2005, just a few years after he and wife Lynda adopted Nikolas and his brother Zachary.