PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - A person close to the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation in January of his desire to kill people and investigators mishandled the tip, the FBI said in a statement on Friday.
A caller on Jan. 5 warned the bureau that accused shooter Nikolas Cruz owned guns, had made disturbing social media posts and had the potential to conduct a school shooting, the FBI statement said.
This tip appears to be separate from the previously reported YouTube comment in which a person named Nikolas Cruz said “I‘m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI acknowledged getting that tip as well but failing to connect to the accused gunman.
“Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life,” the FBI said in its statement on Friday. “The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken. We have determined that these protocols were not followed.”
Wednesday’s massacre also raised concerns about potential failures in school security and stirred the ongoing U.S. debate about gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Mark Hosenball, Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Tom Brown