BuzFeed reports Three Fellow Students Reported Florida Suspect to School Before Shooting.
Three students who knew the suspected high school shooter told BuzzFeed News they reported him to school administrators for erratic behavior and threatening them after an ex-girlfriend broke up with him and began seeing another teenager.
The students who spoke to BuzzFeed News — Dana Craig, 16; her boyfriend, Matthew Rosario, 16; and Enea Sabadini, 17 — said that such a fight happened, and that it was the culmination of a jealous and angry period for Cruz because Enea began dating Cruz’s ex-girlfriend. Three other friends who asked BuzzFeed News not to use their names, for privacy reasons, confirmed their accounts.
“Im going to watch ypu bleed,” read an Instagram message sent under Cruz’s name to Enea in 2017, when students said Cruz was no longer at the school. “iam going to shoot you dead.” Another message said Enea “stole my ex.”
The FBI said it received and botched tips about Cruz’s threats of school violence. The Broward County Sheriff said his office received about 20 calls regarding Cruz over the years, and Cruz’s social media history shows an obsession with weapons and violence.
Matthew said Cruz whispered threats to him in his fifth-period engineering class. “I turned around. He would be staring, or I don’t know how to explain it, whispering threats,” Matthew said.
“It would be like: ‘I hate you,’ and ‘I’ll kill you,’ he said.
The messages to Enea said, “I am going to enjoy seeing you down on the grass,” “Im going to watch ypu bleed,” “iam going to shoot you dead,” and included a photo of guns.
Message Images
Multisystem Failure
The New York Times reports Florida Agency Investigated Nikolas Cruz After Violent Social Media Posts.
The F.B.I. admitted on Friday that it had failed to investigate a tip called into a hotline last month by a person close to Mr. Cruz identifying him as a gun owner intent on killing people, possibly at a school. The local police were called to Mr. Cruz’s house many times for disturbances over several years.
Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County public defender, whose office is representing Mr. Cruz, said the report was further evidence that Mr. Cruz needed serious help long before the shooting but did not get enough of it.
“This kid exhibited every single known red flag, from killing animals to having a cache of weapons to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter,” Mr. Finkelstein said. “If this isn’t a person who should have gotten someone’s attention, I don’t know who is. This was a multisystem failure.”
Questions Abound
- Why did the FBI fail to act?
- Why did school administrators fail to act?
- Were the administrators aware of gun threats?
- Was Cruz’s mom unaware of of his arsonal?
- Did the kids show the gun images to any authorities?
Gun Statement
I said I would stay out of the gun debate. I changed my mind. Here is a simple statement that nearly everyone should agree with.
Mentally unstable persons, those making gun threats against others, and persons convicted of violent crimes should not own guns.
Does the NRA disagree?
Assessing the Blame
In the Florida shooting tragedy, what do you blame most?
1. Guns
2. Failure of authorities to act on communication
3. Failure of administrators to communicate with kids or kids to communicate with parents
4. Parentshttps://t.co/Vy8yDqMPmw— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) February 18, 2018
Breakdowns Everywhere
Regardless of how anyone feels about the gun issue, we clearly have a huge education issue at the FBI and by educators.
The kids should have told their parents and administrators about the gun threats.
Cruz could have been locked up had anyone followed up, anywhere along the line.
Meanwhile the FBI’s top priority remains a nonsensical investigation into Russia meddling.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
bad story in this topic
link to pasutri-makassar.com
link to pasutri-makassar.com
Statistically certain prescription drugs and gun violence seem to be related. link to psychologytoday.com
“An assault is carried out by a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm.” Why was Cruz not arrested based on those texts?? Forget questioning and investigating. He committed a freaking crime with those texts. Why was that not acted upon?
True about gun control no better example is when Obama stated, as he did many times after the California Muslim husband and wife jihad murders, in countries where they have strict gun control these things don’t happen. Wow how insightful. I don’t understand what happened the following week in France where they have some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. Even many police were disarmed resulting in their unnecessary demise during the Paris attacks. Know in the fake news media happened to question this statement by Obama after that. Gun control works just ask the evil dictators of the 20th century who murdered over 200 million of their own citizens
Many of the shootings on “Mass Shootings Tracker” appear to be gang related, drug related, or suicide related. I would be interested in knowing what the comparison between countries looks like when one compares those types of homicides overall, whether a gun was used or not.
Regarding “Everytown for Gun Safety,” they state that “From 2009-2016 in the U.S., there have been 156 mass shootings.” That works out to an average of 22 per year. That’s not a good number, but not hundreds per year either. I cannot immediately find the quote of “64 school shootings in 2015…[including] occasions when a gun was fired but no-one was hurt.” I did find on Wikipedia that Michael Bloomberg is the primary sponsor of that group, and his pro-confiscation position on guns is well known.
Also, when I was in middle school many years ago one of students had a parent who was a police officer who demonstrated the difficulty with witness accurately reporting a crime by staging an incident in front of the class that involved gunfire (blanks, presumably). The incident was “an occasion when a gun was fired but no-one was hurt.” Just saying…
*Realist said: “your numbers are wrong.”* Speaking of that:
*“…a mass shooting might occur once or twice per year in other developed countries while they occur hundreds of times per year in the US.”*
I am pretty certain that is not correct. We here in the US have been experiencing fewer than a dozen mass shootings per year. 2017 was a big year with 11 mass shootings and the Las Vegas massacre was a couple orders of magnitude worse than most.
*“…throughout America’s short history, from the Wild West, the civil war, the war of 1812, presidential assassinations, and the dozens of wars America has gotten into in the last century, Americans have all grown up immersed in a culture of violence…”*
You are living in Australia, right? Correct me if I am mistaken, but wasn’t Australia founded more recently than the United States? As for the wars “America has gotten into in the last century…” for the most part I agree that US leaders have deployed US troops far too eagerly into many areas not critical to US interests. I think we would do better to lead by good example than to occupy foreign soil where it suits the interests of some policy wonks. On the other hand, I do think Australians should be just a tiny bit thankful the US entered WWII. I know it’s an old and dusty laurel to mention, but you did say the last *century*.
*“Nothing will change as long as 1. America continues its love affair with guns, 2. America continues to be a society divided by hate, 3. Americans continue to believe that violence is an acceptable solution to many problems.”*
That sounds like an emotionally worded appeal with zero practical detail. As for number 3, no one I know thinks violence is an acceptable solution to many problems. I do know people who believe that killing an active shooter quickly is a good way to stop a massacre.
You don’t have very much life experience do you? I have a friend now in Sydney and he can’t wait to come live in America. I also have friends that have lived in many other countries and all say the same thing, America is the best. so where ever you live stay there. Out of the 12k gun deaths per year only about 6k are murders. the rest are suicides. So do the math. 6k deaths by gun out of 350 million. Thats .00171 % chance of being killed by a firearm in the USA
“At the time of its writing, the 2nd amendment only applied to the federal government, not state and local governements.” ~Jon
I’m confused; if the Constitution did not apply to the states, then where did it apply?
My biggest problem is access to the school. He was expelled and allowed to get in again to commit this heinous crime. Our schools have controlled access and metal detectors. Our teachers may conceal carry as long as they have attended the correct enhanced classes. We have never lived in a world without violence and never will. People need to wake up to the FBI not doing its job. They knew about this and still the parents point the finger at an AR rifle. Thank goodness he did not carry an automatic 308 or 30-06 as those bullets travel thru walls.
Now we have 25 mass shootings and all but one were in gun free zones. I wonder when people will get it out of their heads that these laws do not work and yet schools where teachers can be armed do not have these problems.
The Federalization (Central) of USA continues apace…leaving local solutions to an overall (Centralized) legal regime totally helpless.
sorry.. thought I could set numbers in the post. The issues are the same and it is about control: why are the schools not set with screening areas with controlled access points? My schools all had walls and fences around them with gates that were closed once school started. You could still enter at that point thru the admin building, but it was a controlled entry. Why are metal detectors NOT installed at this point? Arming Teachers will not help: they will not all be willing to learn how to use them safely. It is also know that even if they know how to use them they will be able to act.
It brings up the same issues:
“Mentally unstable persons, those making gun threats against others, and persons convicted of violent crimes should no own guns. Does the NRA disagree?”
No Mish, the NRA agrees with you. OBVIOUSLY there is nothing worse for law-abiding gun owners than crazy people and criminals with guns. There are already laws in place to prevent the people you list from having guns. The NRA says we need to enforce those laws which we already have. Do you agree with the NRA?
The underlying thought behind the NRA is something I agree with: keeping a government from becoming a tyrannical beast by ensuring government suppressing actions can be stopped by force… But it’s 2018, and when I look at the USA it’s as if the people are loosing their liberties anyway, while being well-armed all the way. In other words, this whole right to bear arms thingy only serves to give vigilant Americans a false sense of security. And there is the upkeep in human lives to pay as well. My observation is that it’s never the elite class or whatever you want to call it paying the price. My condolences to the victims…
while on bail
“Three students who knew the suspected high school shooter told BuzzFeed News they reported him to school administrators for erratic behavior and threatening them after an ex-girlfriend broke up with him and began seeing another teenager.”
“The FBI said it received and botched tips about Cruz’s threats of school violence. The Broward County Sheriff said his office received about 20 calls regarding Cruz over the years, and Cruz’s social media history shows an obsession with weapons and violence.”
Assuming Cruz could have been locked up, how long could he have been locked up? What happens when he comes out? Could he have committed the crime after coming out?
Would he have got bail? If yes, what happens when he is released on bail. Could he have committed the crime after coming out?
Seb and a few others are promoting the silly idea that every gun owner should have training in gun use and operation… WTF does this have to do with a crazy guy who showed he was pretty good at handling his weapon. The question is how do you identify nut cases that we should deny legal ownership to. Of course like anything else, if you want to buy something the government doesn’t want you to own their is someone who will supply it at a price. Guess if we’re really serious well have to lock up the nut cases.
Lessons:
– If you depend on govt for anything, you could end up dead.
– The only emotion more exploitable than saving the planet is revenge. We saw it with 9-11, which gave us the Patriot Act and an endless undeclared war that has murdered countless innocent people.
– The only govt propaganda that’s easier to execute than global warming is banning guns. Who wants pollution or guns in the hands of nut-jobs. The issue is pollution does not cause global warming (although the pollution from volcanic eruptions have caused global cooling), and banning guns does not keep them out of the hands of people that want them, nor does it make an insane person sane.
– Govt must band guns to impose their will as they get increasing desperate after the govt debt bubble pops. If they can’t sell their debt, where else do you think they’re going to get the money to continue paying for votes to maintain their jobs, perks, and power?
– Nothing will start a civil war faster than trying to ban guns in the USA.
That guy is an asshole.
Give the FBI a break. This Florida incident is only one amongst many and even with some East German Stasi type network of citizen informers informing on each other not every potential perpetrator is going to be caught in advance, even the weirdos. As we know from The Onion, “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” so with gun control off the table let there be a Casey Ryback in every classroom (and a back-up Casey for holidays, illness, dentist visits and just off days). Meanwhile, recognize that it was just another everyday school shooting – link to youtube.com
I also duly note the sarcasm, however I’ve never heard of one of these deranged people with guns attacking a Senior Citizen center.
@JonSellers “2nd amendment only applied to the federal government, not state and local governements.” I think you misunderstand the constitution. The bill of rights is a list of powers denied to government. Any expressly claimed power to the federal government that is not also denied is left to the states to decide. The states have no more right to deny gun ownership than they have to crush free speech. The high road and truly legal method of gun control should be handled as an amendment to the constitution. Of course that won’t happen as it is difficult — it’s much simpler to officially misinterperet the law.
We are lied to by corporations. We are lied to by the government.
“Breakdowns Everywhere” Society is breaking down. We are lied to every day by the mainstream media. We are lied to by politicians. We are lied to by Hollywood actors.
At the time of its writing, the 2nd amendment only applied to the federal government, not state and local governements.
That pretty much sums up the whole problem, yet people are clamoring for more ineffective solutions that will further impede everyone else’s everyday life. The state cannot efficiently execute a well-documented mass murderer in the face of overwhelming evidence and a confession, and people still expect it to correctly intervene in advance based upon behavioral problems? Seriously? Talk about willing suspension of disbelief.
Add those taking pshycotropic drugs to that list?
No. Only mentally deranged people should have guns.
How else are we going to solve the coming pension crisis?
This aging population has got to go dammit.
link to s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com
To be clear, I have no problem with having reasonable gun control. I do think that anyone that thinks that will solve this problem is naive. Deranged people will simply find other ways to kill, whether it’s a bomb, a truck driven into a crowd, or anthrax in the ventilation system. Is the problem lack of a moral compass? Too much violence on TV, in movies, and in video games? Too little government supervision and control of our daily lives? Opinions can differ, but it seems to be a fact that the trend is to more and more violence.
Seriously? I am not opposed to making people take classes but your point about tanks etc are ignorant. The taliban and isis are doing just fine without these against our forces. One of the main reasons for the 2nd amendment is to act as deterrent to a tyrannical govt. The forefathers knew this because the British went house to house in an attempt to disarm the patriots. Licensing arms would give the govt the database to come and get them. Look up the biggest cause of homicide in the 20th century, it was democide. Over 200 million citizens were murdered by their own government, more than all the wars combined.
The FBI and local authorities have sown the seeds for the next crisis by ignoring the tips from multiple sources. Leading up to the next crisis, one of two scenarios are likely to take place. The first is nobody tips off the authorities because the perception is authorities will do nothing. Vigilantism takes, and a sort of lawlessness takes over. Rights of individuals are violated. The second scenario is the authorities become overly suspicious and the police-state grows. Witch hunts violate individual rights. Until the authorities can regain the people’s trust and respect individual rights both scenarios result the erosion of individual rights.
You understand what I’m saying. We need a license for gun owners. Semantics….
Of course, we do not have licences for cars. Anyone can own one. We have licenses for *drivers*.
We need licensure for guns like we have for vehicles. People should take classes like they do in Japan. Prove you can hit a target and properly care and unload/lad/clean a gun. W have licenses for vehicles- if you want an AR-15, prove you are competent and mentally stable and have relicensure after 8 years as we do with many vehicles. You may all not blame the gun as conservatives but the reality is that you will soon be outnumbered by the bodies of children. Will there always be insane people? Sure they’ll use cars,knifes, ropes, acid, bombs etc. It’s the efficiency and magnitude of killing that gets people. It’s why we are not allowed to own grenades and rocket launchers. You want to keep guns, fine. I myself hunt and see no reason why one needs an AR-15. If you can’t take an animal down in 2 shots you shouldn’t be out there. If your that scared of the government taking over then we might as well supply tanks, apaches and fighter jets to the public “just in case”. All your paranoia does is enrich the gun makers. You all went and spent into oblivion because you were worried about Obama taking guns and that didn’t happen. Now it’s the children that may do it themselves. They become voters soon enough and the thought of having to do active shooter drills all the time and living through the chaos of a school execution event like that will change minds extremely quickly. Your inability to comprimise will surely get your guns taken away…. and will lose you election after election.
This is why we need to be involved in our community, instead of avoiding it or deferring to government as the solution to all society’s ills. It’s not the FBI’s investigators or the local police’s children who were affected. No matter what oath they take or how much they care I guarantee the victims’ parents, “on the ground” school administrators and hypothetical community cops (who actually do more than hand out speeding tickets) would have done more to keep this from happening than any FBI agent. But that means going out into the world instead of watching TV, something that’s hard to do.
Well, your religion at least. Other religions might not be so peaceful.
Fine and good. But who is going to be given the power to say who is “unstable”? Basically, the government will have the ability to take guns away from anyone they disagree with. There is more danger to us from own government than from any crazy man. Thomas Jefferson knew this. That is why the second amendment exists.
Wrong about the AR 15. When the ban on AR’s was suspended our own justice department said it had no effect on the murder rate that is why the ban was lifted. Also one of the worst mass murders in the world took place in Norway or Sweden with the suspect using a bolt action rifle. The worst school mass murder was in Bath Michigan many years ago. The school was blown up and over 30 students were killed. My own suggestion would be to have some teachers armed and trained for this situation many schools in the south have this policy. This school did have a security guard, unarmed, how stupid is that. Also having the school entrance locked with appropriate barrier for breach. The ONE common denominator in all this is the the perps were all fucked in the head. So yes if they somehow could screen this people out from purchasing weapons it may help. The devil is in the details on that one. Last but not least is that these mentally ill people were on antipsychotic meds. These have side effects that can trigger this behavior. Of course the “unbiased” media will never mention that as they don’t want to address that issue as they don’t want to loss advertising revenue. You know the media is not better than the politicians we have the best government and media money can buy.
Up until the early 1970’s, the State of Florida had strict gun laws. Only law enforcements was allowed to own a handgun, and rifles and shotguns were restricted to 3 bullets or shells.
This disturbed individual was living in a fantasy he’ll-land where literally everything of value was being lost; his father, mother, 2 girlfriends, etc. He was physically weak, likely had been on meds from psychiatric treatment, had lost a fight to a rival who was dating an ex-girlfriend, was kicked out of school, police coming to his home, fighting with his brother, supervised by a 65+ aged woman. What did he have that he could control? Repressed rage and a gun. Whether it was one or 17, he was determined that someone would feel his pain and he wasplike be in control for an encounter, rather than school authorities or his rivals and ex-girlfriends.
This guy has confessed to murder. The authorities are considering seeking the death penalty… WTF.. Why isn’t the trial scheduled for Monday and a hanging on Tuesday. They will probably spend a million collecting evidence, everybbullet every she’ll casing, checking for DNA and fingerprints, writing reports and burning up reams of paper. This confessed criminal will still be alive 3 years from now,,, Ridiculous
I’ve heard this before. CNN was trying some of it when the latest story broke, temporarily refusing to show the kids face or say his name. I call BS. I don’t think these things matter and I don’t think not reporting on them on a national level is a solution. The only part of this screed that I would agree with is eliminating the the 24×7 BREATHLESS coverage that occurs with any major event. Just report the story and each hour maybe update with a summary of what is known and any new details on injury/death count, etc. And all news stations should lose those ever annoying “BREAKING NEWS” banners that pollute 1/3 of the screen also seemingly 24×7. Sheeze.
I looked a long time to find Park Deitz in a nice short package, just something that deserves to be passed on… especially to the MSM:link to youtube.com
If you missed this student speech today from a surviving student at the FL school rally Saturday, it is powerful and from the heart. I hope you’ll watch it. I also hope that the time has finally come when there will finally be some action to better regulate the sale of guns in the USA.
===========
Florida student to NRA and Trump: ‘We call BS’
link to youtube.com
If you are a teacher in USA schools, you need to be in top physical shape and probably study martial arts. You never know when you might have to [help] take down a crazy person attacking people with guns, knives, swords or whatever.
The 2nd amendment needs to be repealed. Highly unlikely to happen but one can dream.
I suspect it wasn’t legal for him to have guns, in which case more laws wouldn’t have changed the events. I think that the growth of these kinds of shootings is merely a natural consequence of our choice as a country to remove religion. I’m not going to debate whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing; I’m simply stating that it’s something we’ve done, and that these kinds of things are a natural consequence. If people don’t believe they are accountable to a higher authority, or in an afterlife, they have no particular reason not do things like this. Therefore we need to stop wondering why things like this happen, and just accept that mass murders (shootings, or if we take away guns, mass explosions, poisonings, car rammings, etc) are a part of today’s world, and they are going to continue to happen
Can someone answer me a question? Under existing laws, was it legal for Cruz to have guns?