Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz: Guns, depression and

[Ghost]

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vt-teen-accused-of-plotting-mass-school-shooting-474253573.html

FAIR HAVEN, Vt. (WCAX) A Poultney teenager is behind bars after police say he threatened to shoot up a local high school.

Jack Sawyer, 18, will appear before a judge in the Rutland County Courthouse Friday.

He was arrested Thursday after police say he threatened a mass school shooting at the Fair Haven High School.

He is being charged with attempted aggravated murder, attempted first-degree murder and attempted aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Police haven't released many details about the threat but say they're collecting evidence and conducting interviews.

Anyone who has recently talked to Sawyer is asked to call police.

He is being held without bail.

[Ghost]

[Ghost]

https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/brother-of-parkland-shooter-baker-acted-sources-say

The brother of the accused Parkland shooter has been Baker Acted, sources tell WPTV.

Nikolas Cruz’s brother was involuntarily committed to a mental institution, under Florida's Baker Act.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detained Cruz Friday afternoon, according to sources. The Broward Sheriff’s Office placed the Baker Act on Cruz.

SPECIAL SECTION: Parkland school shooting

An adult can be held for an involuntary exam for up to 72 hours under the law. Anyone 17 or younger can be help for up to 12 hours.

[Bearcatrp]

Yes in deed! FBI failed at their job! Maybe they want this crap to go on until enough folks are willing to say yes, take the guns, all of them! The folks who think this don’t realize if guns are removed, they will become a victim, not if but when.

[Ghost]

https://www.local10.com/news/parkland-school-shooting/school-considered-shooting-suspect-potential-threat-year-before-massacre

School considered shooting suspect potential 'threat' year before massacre

PARKLAND, Fla. - Administrators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recommended back in January 2017 that the school board conduct a "threat assessment" on Nikolas Cruz to determine if he was a danger to the school and its students, according to documents exclusively obtained by Local 10 News.

A copy of Cruz's discipline summary shows that Cruz was involved in an assault at the school on Jan. 19, 2017, less than three weeks before he was transferred out of the school. It was on that date that the school put in a referral for the threat assessment on Cruz, who now faces 17 counts of premeditated murder for firing an AR-15 rifle at the high school on Valentine's Day.

It's not known at this time what the result of the assessment was, or even if the school board conducted it, as board spokeswoman Tracy Clarke said she couldn't answer those questions, citing student privacy.

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said Thursday, however, that the school board had no clue of the danger that lurked in the former student.

"We received no warning, no hints, no tips," Runcie said. "There was no warning that we saw."

Numerous students, however, have told Local 10 News they had long suspected Cruz was a walking time bomb.

"I had a lot of suspicions about him," student Guiliana Matamoros said. "He's mentioned plenty of times that he wanted to shoot people and, like, that's why he would want to go to the military."

On top of that, there were many ominous social media posts with Cruz posing with guns and knives, talking of killing animals and of buying high-powered rifles, some of them posted while he was still a student at the school.

The newly obtained records show Cruz had serious school discipline problems since at least 2012, while he was a student at Westglades Middle School.

He was hit with disciplinary action 25 times over about 16 months of classroom time -- often for insults and profane language and also for fighting and disruptive behavior that led to multiple suspensions, parent conferences and referrals for family counseling.

In early 2014, he was transferred to Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students.

Cruz began attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Jan. 13, 2016, and was withdrawn on Feb. 8, 2017, reportedly as a result of a transfer. Students have told Local 10 News that ammunition had been found in his backpack, but the discipline summary doesn't include any mention of that. It shows that Cruz was disciplined on five occasions, for insults, profane language, profanity against staff, fighting and finally the assault. Details of that alleged assault have not yet surfaced.

After leaving Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, records show he briefly attended the Off Campus Learning Center at J.P. Taravella High School before bouncing around from the Henry D. Perry Education Center, an alternative school for adults in Miramar, to the Dave Thomas Education Center in Coconut Creek, and then back to Perry, where he was enrolled at the time of the shooting.

[INOR]

Thinking about the FBI’s failure to follow through on this guy’s YouTube comments. Think about it in the context of larger social media in Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc and the ever changing social media environment. We probably do need to increase FBI budget and create a specific social media investigation group. Because this is one incident out of probably thousands and thousands occurring every month nationwide where someone says something that could be deemed to be a threat or could be just somebody being snarky and mouthing off on social media. Think about it. Ever seen anybody on social media that said something that could be considered a threat or on the bubble to being a threat? We can all get incensed over the FBI’s lack of follow through but they see a ****-ton of reports that end up being some douchebag that is mouthing off on social media and doesn’t have true bad intent. Not just the FBI, but also secret service. They get tasked with investigating a ton of threats and probably .005% of them are truly credible.


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[Ghost]

Thinking about the FBI’s failure to follow through on this guy’s YouTube comments. Think about it in the context of larger social media in Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc and the ever changing social media environment. We probably do need to increase FBI budget and create a specific social media investigation group. Because this is one incident out of probably thousands and thousands occurring every month nationwide where someone says something that could be deemed to be a threat or could be just somebody being snarky and mouthing off on social media. Think about it. Ever seen anybody on social media that said something that could be considered a threat or on the bubble to being a threat? We can all get incensed over the FBI’s lack of follow through but they see a ****-ton of reports that end up being some douchebag that is mouthing off on social media and doesn’t have true bad intent. Not just the FBI, but also secret service. They get tasked with investigating a ton of threats and probably .005% of them are truly credible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's reasonable. However, we only know that some guy reported that name last year. We don't know what alarms went off on the the FBI's end, they may already have known about it when it was reported.

Further, the same name was reported again in January of this year. It would seem that they should have a way of cross-referencing previous tips. But alas, they did nothing.

[INOR]

Totally agree. Just pointing out that social media is a juggernaut and people say all kinds of stuff they don’t really mean so a lot of what they investigate is meritless.


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[Ghost]

Totally agree. Just pointing out that social media is a juggernaut and people say all kinds of stuff they don’t really mean so a lot of what they investigate is meritless.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sure, I have no doubt most are empty threats. But the stars aligned on this kid. The police were sent to his house 39 timesl. Expelled from school. Known mental issues.... Seems almost text book for prevention/intervention.

[BigBlue]

Totally agree. Just pointing out that social media is a juggernaut and people say all kinds of stuff they don’t really mean so a lot of what they investigate is meritless.

This is true. A huge, huge percentage of what is out there is not actually a risk of a real, credible threat. So as a society we have to ask whether we want to build up an investigative body that looks at everything and spends the massive time and money to dig into it all just to avoid that needle in the haystack threat or not. But once it is built up just remember that someone, somewhere will see the potential in it to use it for something else. Might start out closely linked to the original goal but eventually it will drift into something that we maybe didn't expect or didn't want.

There is nothing that can be done to completely prevent every act of violence or evil. What can be done is to initiate a long-term sea change in society that eventually reduces the volume of people who have those thoughts in the first place. You can build up to Big Brother, 1984 and Minority Report to intercept threats or you can reduce the threats. One of those has a lot more potential for bad things to happen than the other.

BB

[Jack's My dog]

[/quote]You can build up to Big Brother, 1984 and Minority Report to intercept threats or you can reduce the threats. One of those has a lot more potential for bad things to happen than the other.

BB[/quote]

Agreed. In the mean time, we can choose as a country to let law abiding citizens carry firearms for self defense, should they so choose, while we work out our societal problems.

[Jack's My dog]

These last few events reminded me of a couple things I ponder from time to time.

1-While I fully understand that people wish to live in a non-violent way, as I do my self,I cannot for the life of me figure out how so many have come to the position leaving innocents defenseless is a morally superior position? How is it morally superior to not be able to/or choose not to protect innocent life with immediate and expedient action?

2-I do not see how the gun control advocates math works out that the pro 2A side is the side of Fear. I have the fear/concern (insert which ever emotion fits your semantics demand) that there is a possibility one or a small handful of people that could potentially be a threat to my life and while statistically the threat is limited, I feel it is prudent to guard against said limited threat.

The pro control side belief is literally everyone is a threat once they have a gun or at least a specific type of gun, or magazine of a certain capacity. It seems to me that my belief that my fellow law abiding citizens should be able to own firearms, demonstrates more faith in the overall goodness of humanity.

[yukonjasper]

The Liberals are coming hard on the heels of this one. They are even getting help from "conservatives". Kasich is on record now with an anti "scary black gun" rant. Quite the flip.

[Holland&Holland]

The Liberals are coming hard on the heels of this one. They are even getting help from "conservatives". Kasich is on record now with an anti "scary black gun" rant. Quite the flip.

Kasich is a weasel of a politician and will take the side opposite of Trump anytime it gets him points with anyone.

[Ghost]

"Feb. 5, 2016: a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy is told by an anonymous caller that Nikolas Cruz, then 17, had threatened on Instagram to shoot up his school and posted a photo of himself with guns," miamiherald.com reports. "The information is forwarded to BSO Deputy Scot Peterson, a school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School." Yes, you read right . . .

the same Scot Peterson who stood outside the school for four minutes while Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 students and wounded 14 others knew Cruz's intentions to commit a spree killing almost two years to the day Cruz launched his attack.

In November 2017, "a caller from Massachusetts calls BSO to report that Cruz is collecting guns and knives and could be a 'school shooter in the making.'" The Herald reports that an unidentified Broward Sheriff's Office Deputy "advises the caller to contact the Palm Beach sheriff." And . . . that's it.

The fresh revelations add fuel to the pyre of the FBI, the federal agency that failed to act on specific, credible information warning them that Nikolas Cruz planned on attacking Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School.

In fact, the deadly shooting was the end result of a cascade of government failure. The Herald compiled a timeline of the missed opportunities to intercept the spree killer and remove him from society. That is, the ones we know about so far . . .

Feb. 5, 2016: A Broward Sheriff's Office deputy is told by an anonymous caller that Nikolas Cruz, then 17, had threatened on Instagram to shoot up his school and posted a photo of himself with guns. The information is forwarded to BSO Deputy Scot Peterson (the same officer that failed to act during the shooting), a school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Sept. 23, 2016: A "peer counselor" reports to Peterson that Cruz had possibly ingested gasoline in a suicide attempt, was cutting himself and wanted to buy a gun. A mental health counselor advises against involuntary committing Cruz. The high school says it will conduct a threat assessment.

Sept. 28, 2016: An investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families rules Cruz is stable, despite "fresh cuts" on his arms. His mother, Lynda Cruz, says in the past he wrote a racial slur against African Americans on his book bag and had recently talked of buying firearms.

Sept. 24, 2017: A YouTube user named "nikolas cruz" posts a comment stating he wants to become a "professional school shooter." The comment is reported to the FBI in Mississippi, which fails to make the connection to Cruz in South Florida.

Nov. 1, 2017: Katherine Blaine, Lynda Cruz's cousin, calls BSO to report that Nikolas Cruz had weapons and asks that police recover them. A "close family friend" agrees to take the firearms, according to BSO.

Nov. 29, 2017: The Palm Beach County family that took in Cruz after the death of his mother calls the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office to report a fight between him and their son, 22. A member of the family says Cruz had threatened to "get his gun and come back" and that he has "put the gun to others' heads in the past." The family does not want him arrested once he calms down.

Nov. 30, 2017: A caller from Massachusetts calls BSO to report that Cruz is collecting guns and knives and could be a "school shooter in the making." A BSO deputy advises the caller to contact the Palm Beach sheriff.

Jan. 5, 2018: A caller to the FBI's tip line reports that Cruz has "a desire to kill people" and could potentially conduct a school shooting. The information is never passed on to the FBI's office in Miami.

Feb. 14, 2018: Nikolas Cruz attacks Stoneman Douglas High. Peterson, the school's resource officer, draws his gun outside the building where Cruz is shooting students and staff. He does not enter.
During the CNN gun Control Debate, Sheriff Israel told Dana Loesch of the NRA, "I understand you're standing up for the NRA and I understand that's what you're supposed to do. But you just told this group of people that you are standing up for them. You're not standing up for them until you say, 'I want less weapons.'" The crowd cheered.