FBI made a stunning public admission two days after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and injured 14 others at a Florida school, acknowledging that they had been tipped about the suspect’s “desire to kill” but failed to take it seriously, reports the New York Times .
The FBI was approached by an unidentified tipster — someone close to Cruz — about the teenager’s disturbing desire to inflict violence on other people back in January. The tipster informed FBI that Cruz owned a gun and might carry out a school shooting.
“The tipster said Mr. Cruz had a ‘desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts’ and advised the FBI of ‘the potential of him conducting a school shooting,’” the agency told NYT in a statement.
The protocol dictates that any tips of such kinds have to be forwarded to the FBI’s state field office — in this case — to FBI’s field office in Miami. However, the agency admitted that this basic protocol was not followed, meaning no further investigation was conducted at the time.
This admission of FBI’s inability to act when the agency could have possibly prevented the Valentine’s Day massacre appears even more disturbing in light of the fact that it was not the only time when the agency was approached regarding Cruz’s disturbing behavior. As BuzzFeed reported Thursday, a YouTube vlogger named Ben Bennight had also alerted the FBI last year after a user by the name of Nikolas Cruz had written an ominous comment on one of his videos.
“I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”
Breaking News: The F.B.I. admitted it failed to act on a tip in January about the Florida suspect. The tipster said Nikolas Cruz had a “desire to kill.” https://t.co/HKiAZzUx2E
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 16, 2018
This revelation is staggering as it comes in the midst of repeated attacks by Donald Trump against America’s prime domestic intelligence agency. In December, Trump had tweeted that the reputation of FBI was “in tatters” and that it was at the worst phase in its illustrious history, a statement which was widely criticized for lacking presidential decorum when discussing the country’s foremost investigative agency. There is little doubt that this recent admission by the agency claiming that they failed to act on the tipster’s warning regarding Cruz will only add fuel to the fire.
It is already being read as an admission of indifference by the FBI, which has found itself increasingly embroiled in the expansive investigation into whether Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential elections by colluding with the Trump campaign.
After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017
