Florida school ignored ‘multiple’ warnings about gunman Cruz
A former friend of teenage Florida gunman Nikolaz Cruz repeatedly warned their school of his disturbing behavior. Ariana Lopez claimed Cruz had sold knives at school and sympathized with terrorists in Syria.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Lopez told ABC’s Good Morning America she had warned school officials “multiple” times in 2016 and 2017 that Cruz had been selling weapons in school, beating his girlfriend and supporting Syrian terrorists.
"He talked about killing our parents, our friends, boyfriends and girlfriends."Former friend of Florida school shooting suspect speaks out to @VictorOquendo, saying she and her friends reported him multiple times: https://t.co/ZGimiAMj0mpic.twitter.com/gCCo4iEy4G
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 20, 2018
“He used to sell knives out of his lunchbox, which I thought was like insane because you can’t have knives ... [in] a school,” said Lopez, who escaped death in last Wednesday’s shooting by hiding in a closet. “He would talk about how he sympathized with Syrian terrorists and how people who opposed them should be killed.”
“He talked about killing our parents, our friends, boyfriends and girlfriends,” she added. “He would hit [his ex-girlfriend], he would threaten her, he would threaten her family and her friends, for talking to other guys.”
19-year-old Cruz was charged with killing 17 people during his assault rifle rampage at the school in the town of Parkland, north of Miami, last Wednesday.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has demanded FBI Director Christopher Wray resign after the agency admitted it failed to forward a detailed tip-off about Cruz’s impending massacre to its Miami field office.
“The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the FBI said in a statement.
“Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life,” the bureau said. “We have determined that these protocols were not followed.”
“When members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly,” Wray said, promising to “get to the bottom” of his organization’s fatal oversight.
