Florida governor calls for FBI director’s resignation over missed Parkland tip-off
Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is calling for the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, to resign in the wake of the high school shooting that killed 17 students.
Scott is responding to the revelation that the FBI did not follow proper protocol when it failed to follow up on a tip about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, just five weeks prior to the Valentine’s Day massacre.
"The FBI’s failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable....The FBI Director needs to resign," said Scott in a statement.
READ MORE: FBI starts review of its handling of 'professional school shooter' tip on YouTube
“We constantly promote ‘see something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act. ‘See something, say something’ is an incredibly important tool and people must have confidence in the follow through from law enforcement. The FBI director needs to resign,” Scott added.
On January 5, a person close to Cruz called an FBI tip line about the 19-year-old’s potential to carry out a school shooting, his desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts.
“We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami field office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time,” the FBI said in a statement Friday.
The FBI also launched a review into how it investigated a disturbing YouTube comment left by Cruz, in which he promised to do a school shooting. The comment, posted under a Discovery UK documentary about the 1966 Texas University shooting in 2017 read: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter.. I am going to what he did [SIC].”
Scott has been criticized for his lack of action against gun violence since the Orlando massacre, when he promised to “make sure this never happens again.” The GOP governor's response to Parkland, in particular, is expected to have a strong impact on his upcoming senate race against his predicted rival, Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida).
