Friday 16 February 2018

Florida school shooting: FBI mishandled tip on gunman's 'desire to kill'


The FBI has said it did not properly follow up on a warning that Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz might carry out an attack. Last month, a person close to the 19-year-old contacted the law enforcement agency to warn of "the potential of him conducting a school shooting". But protocols were not followed and the tipline did not pass along the complaint, the FBI said. It was not the first potential warning to the FBI regarding Mr Cruz.
He has confessed to carrying out Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and has been charged with 17 counts of murder. It was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he is ordering a review of the justice department's processes in the wake of the FBI's mishandling of the tip. The review will look at what went wrong and broadly examine how the justice department responds to such cases.
"It is now clear that the warning signs were there and tips to the FBI were missed," he said in a statement. "We see the tragic consequences of those failures."
Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a furious statement that the director of the FBI must resign. "The FBI's failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable," he said.
"The families will spend a lifetime wondering how this could happen, and an apology will never give them answers they desperately need."
The Republican governor said Americans must have confidence in the FBI to act on "see something, say something" tips.

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