FBI admits it failed to act on Florida school gunman

Parkland, February 17 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday it had failed to act on a tip warning that the man now accused of killing 17 persons at a Florida high school possessed a gun, the desire to kill and the potential to commit a school shooting.

The disclosure sparked angry disbelief from residents of the Miami suburb of Parkland still reeling from Wednesday’s massacre, the deadliest shooting ever at a US high school, and led Florida’s governor to call for the FBI chief to resign.

A person described as someone close to accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, called an FBI tip line on January 5, weeks before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to report concerns about him, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

“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,” it said.

That information should have been forwarded to the FBI’s Miami field office for further investigation, but “we have determined that these protocols were not followed,” the agency said.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

The mishandled information followed a tip to the FBI in September about a YouTube comment in which a person named Nikolas Cruz said: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI said it investigated that comment but was unable to trace its origins, closing the inquiry until Cruz surfaced in connection with Wednesday’s mass shooting.

The FBI’s lapse regarding the January 5 tip was met with anger in Florida after US President Donald Trump made remarks seeming to chastise local residents for failing to alert authorities to Cruz’s sometimes erratic and violent behaviour prior to Wednesday’s shooting rampage.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said Wray, appointed to head the FBI by Trump last year after the President fired James Comey, should step down over the agency’s blunder.  — Reuters

Anger bubbles over at funerals

As families began burying their dead, authorities questioned whether they could have prevented the attack on a South Florida high school.

At funerals and in the streets of Parkland, a suburb on the edge of the Everglades, anger bubbled over at the senselessness of the shooting and at the widespread availability of guns.

During a funeral on Friday for 18-year-old Meadow Pollack, her father looked down at his daughters plain pine coffin and screamed in anguish as Governor Rick Scott and 1,000 others sat in Temple Kol Tikvah. “You killed my kid!” Andrew Pollack yelled, referring to Nikolas Cruz, who is accused of gunning down Meadow and 16 others. “My kid is dead. It goes through my head all day and all night. I keep hearing it. This is just unimaginable that I will never see my princess again.” He briefly paused as mourners, punched by the rawness of his words, began to wail.

“I wasn’t able to do anything about it. I have always been able to protect my family,” he said. “Our kids should be safe.” AP