The FBI disclosed that it failed to follow up on a detailed warning about the 19-year-old gunman who is charged with killing 17 people and wounding a dozen others at a Florida high school on Wednesday.
A “person close to Nikolas Cruz” contacted the FBI’s public access tipline on Jan. 5 to “report concerns about him,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday.
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 statement said.
Florida Governor Rick Scott said the FBI’s failure was “unacceptable” and called for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Scott said in a statement. “The FBI director needs to resign.”
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said has initiated a US Department of Justice review of how the FBI acted.
The revelation comes as US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have criticized the FBI for its conduct of investigations into his campaign and into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of private e-mail while she was secretary of state.
Trump also suggested on Twitter that the Parkland, Florida, community should have reported suspicions about Cruz to authorities.
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!” he said.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a Friday news conference that his office had received more than 20 calls about Cruz in the past few years, according to the Associated Press.
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Representative Ted Deutch, a Democrat, said Congress must conduct its own investigation.
The FBI said the information from the caller should have been “assessed as a potential threat to life” and should have been forwarded to its Miami field office, “where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.”
Trump and his wife, Melania, on Friday visited a Florida hospital to offer comfort to those wounded in the shooting.
At Broward Health North Hospital, where the Trumps met with survivors, he thanked the doctors, nurses and first responders for their “incredible” work, and described the carnage as “very sad.”
He later tweeted several pictures of himself and Melania, visiting with a survivor and her family, and with hospital staff.
Additional reporting by AFP
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the