Warning Signs May Have Been Missed in School Shooting Case
“I'm going to be a professional school shooter,” - “Nikolas Cruz” posted in September
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Months before authorities say Nikolas Cruz walked into his former high school and slaughtered 17 people, the troubled teen began showing what may have been warning signs he was bent on violence.
“I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” a YouTube user with the screen name “Nikolas Cruz” posted in September.
The 19-year-old had gotten expelled last year from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for undisclosed disciplinary reasons. A former Junior ROTC cadet, he bought a military-style AR-15 rifle. And he began to participate in paramilitary drills with a white nationalist organization, according to its leader, Jordan Jereb.
Jereb, head of the Republic of Florida, told The Associated Press on Thursday that his group seeks to create a white state. He said he didn’t know Cruz personally but was told the young man had “trouble with a girl,” and he suggested the timing of the Valentine’s Day attack wasn’t a coincidence.
However, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office in Tallahassee, where the Republic of Florida is based, said it monitors the group’s membership and has seen no ties between the organization and Cruz. Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Grady Jordan said the Republic of Florida has never had more than 10 members.
Students and neighbors, meanwhile, reported that Cruz threatened and harassed others, talked about killing animals, posed with guns in disturbing photos on social media, and bragged about target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.
In fact, schoolmates weren’t surprised when Cruz was identified as the gunman in Wednesday’s rampage, said 17-year-old Dakota Mutchler.
“I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him,” Mutchler said.
Math teacher Jim Gard told The Miami Herald that before the shooting rampage, Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat. Gard said he believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz shouldn’t be allowed on campus with a backpack.
“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus,” Gard told the newspaper.
Cruz’s attorney, Melisa McNeill, said after a court hearing Thursday on the murder charges against the young man that Cruz was sad and remorseful and “just a broken human being.” Cruz confessed to carrying out one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings and concealing extra ammunition in his backpack, according to a sheriff’s department report.
President Donald Trump struck a solemn tone Thursday after the deadly school shooting in Florida, describing a “scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil” and promising to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” but avoiding any mention of guns. “No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school,” Trump said in a statement to the press. He did not answer shouted questions about guns as he exited the room.
As the President cites mental health as the major cause of the shooting. Outcry for gun control swept the internet and “18 school shootings in 2018” became the slogan repeated by several agencies such as, MSNBC, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Time, MSN, the BBC, the New York Daily News and HuffPost. However, according to an article from the Washington Post, that number is flawed as it was tallied and propagated by “Everytown for Gun Safety,” a nonprofit group, co-founded by Michael Bloomberg.
Regardless of the politics surrounding gun control, the prevalence of gun violence remains a growing cause of child deaths in the United States.
