Thread: Deputies called to suspected shooter’s home 39 times over seven years

Deputies called to suspected shooter’s home 39 times over seven years

By Yaron Steinbuch

February 16, 2018 | 8:49am | Updated

r
Nikolas Cruz Broward County Jail


Before Nikolas Cruz carried out his mass killing at a Florida high school this week, police responded to his home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to disturbing new documents.

Details about the calls to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office — obtained from police records by CNN — were not immediately available and it was impossible to determine if all involved Cruz.

But the nature of the emergencies at his Parkland home included “mentally ill person,” “child/elderly abuse,” “domestic disturbance” and “missing person,” KTLA reported.

And a schoolmate, Brody Speno, told the network that cops were called to Cruz’s home “almost every other week.”

“Something wasn’t right about him,” Speno told CNN. “He was off.”

Speno said he knew Cruz from elementary school and described him as “an evil kid” who was “always getting in trouble.”

Cruz — who posted images of himself on Instagram posing with guns and knives — has confessed to killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and made an alarming online comment about a recent mass shooting.

“Man I can do so much better,” he wrote.

https://nypost.com/2018/02/16/deputi...r-seven-years/

Yeah, I heard that reported yesterday by Fox News. Unbelievable.

We have PLENTY of money in this country to pay for our health care, mental health care programs and drug programs!

We have PLENTY of money in this country to pay for OUR infrastructure.

All can be done without taxing us more to do it.

Cut off ALL foreign aid. Defund refugee, TPS, asylum and illegal alien programs!

We should not be forced to pay for this. It costs us BILLIONS of dollars every year.

NO GAS TAX, NO MORE TAXES, NO MORE LOUSY OVERPRICED HEALTH INSURANCE.

WE OWE THESE COUNTRIES AND THEIR CITIZENS NOTHING...THEIR PRESIDENT'S NEED TO STEP UP AND PROVIDE FOR THEIR OWN COUNTRY!

Alleged school shooter was abusive to ex-girlfriend: classmate

By Gabrielle Fonrouge and Ruth Brown

February 15, 2018 | 1:48pm | Updated


Nikolas Cruz is booked into jail on premeditated murder charges.Storms Media Group

Alleged school shooter Nikolas Cruz threatened to kill his ex girlfriend — and was expelled after fighting with her new boyfriend, classmates revealed Thursday.

“The reason he got expelled was because he was fighting with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend,” Connor Dietrich, 17, a junior at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told The Post.

“He stalked her and threatened her. He was like, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ and he would say awful things to her and harass her to the point I would walk her to the bus just to make sure she was OK. We all made sure she was never alone.”

Cruz returned to the campus Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle and slaughtered 17 people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a press conference Thursday that Cruz had been expelled from the school for unspecified “disciplinary reasons” and was transferred to a different school in the county.
A math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas had previously said he was kicked out for “threatening students” and teachers had been warned that he was not allowed on campus with a backpack.

Dietrich said Cruz was known for threatening other students and was fanatical about guns.

“He was just a very sketchy kid in general. Seeing him around the hallway I would try to keep my distance from him… he doesn’t look like someone I’d want to hang out with,” Dietrich explained to The Post.

“He wears [pro-America] stuff like that a lot, he was in JROTC so I guess he was pro-military but he was mostly pro-gun and everything. He had this obsession with guns.”

Sophia Serino, 17, said Cruz just “snapped” when he decided to open fire on his classmates and murder anyone in his path.

“There was a lot going on with him mentally. His mother died three months ago and… his other family members took [his inheritance] from him and kicked him out so he snapped,” Serino told The Post.
Reports have come out indicating Cruz suffered from autism.

“He’s been saying this stuff many times… During freshman year around he was in the bathroom and he was actually about to snap and plan this out and do it but [my friend] talked him down.
“It wasn’t something that was spontaneous. I think he really planned this.”

https://nypost.com/2018/02/15/allege...end-classmate/

With his issues, regular appointments/contact with mental health professionals, on medication, etc - no way should someone like this be allowed to buy a gun/rifle. Serious disconnect if this info is not included in a background check. These tragedies will continue if such important info is not available at purchase point and needs to be addressed by law. To watch this over and over again w/o rectifying the issue is insanity itself. The mother said he only had an airgun at that time 2016. Another articles states he bought the rifle a yr ago (Feb 2017). So with all his issues the mother allowed that apparently. There is always a lot of family dysfunction with these cases. Sandy Hook shooter had mental issues & the mother took him to gun practice regularly. He killed her too.

Florida mental health agency examined Cruz in 2016, didn’t hospitalize him
by Phil McCausland

A 2016 mental health report said that crisis workers from a South Florida mental health facility were called to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to hold alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz for a psychiatric evaluation, but ultimately decided against hospitalizing him.
According to the report, an individual alerted Henderson Behavioral Health to come to the school to evaluate Cruz for possible detainment under the Baker Act, which allows authorities to hold individuals against their will for up to 72 hours. Those 17 and younger can be held for 12 hours.
The involuntary psychiatric exam of Cruz took place in 2016, but Henderson Behavioral Health health professionals chose not to hospitalize him after speaking with him, according to a November 2016 Florida Department of Children and Families investigative report obtained by NBC.

The Florida Department of Children and Families was alerted after Cruz sent out a Snapchat video in which he cut both of his arms and shared his intention “to go out and buy a gun,” according to the report. The report also noted that in 2015 Cruz had a “Nazi symbol drawn on his book bag” and “hate signs on a book bag stating, ‘I hate n------.’”

Lynda Cruz, his adoptive mother who died from pneumonia in November 2017, told mental health investigators in 2016 that her son suffered from ADHD, depression and autism but insisted he received his necessary medication as prescribed, according to the report. She told investigators at the time that her son did not own a gun, beyond an air gun that she had taken away when he “didn’t follow house rules about only shooting it within the backyard at the targets.”

Lynda Cruz told investigators that her son had started to cut himself after a breakup, the report said. She also “stated that there has never been any issues with other races or issues with racism in her family."

Though there had been an account of medical neglect, the report said that “[Cruz’s] clinician from Henderson mental health has stated that there are no issues with [Cruz’s] medication and he has been compliant with taking his medication and keeps all of his appointments.”

Suspected school shooter Nikolas Cruz makes a video appearance in Broward County court before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Feb. 15, 2018. Cruz is facing 17 charges of premeditated murder in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Susan Stocker / Pool via EPA
A counselor at the school told the Florida Department of Children and Families investigators that a professional from the mental health facility had visited Cruz and “found him to be stable enough [to] not be hospitalized.” The school counselor expressed concern with the department, according to the report, and said she and her staff wanted to “ensure that the assessment of Henderson was not premature.”

Nonetheless, the Florida Department of Children and Families investigation was “closed with no indicators to support the allegations of inadequate supervision or medical neglect.”

Henderson Behavioral Health did not respond to a request for comment.

After his mother died, Cruz and his brother lived with a family friend. He later asked a school friend if he could live with him and his family. That friend’s parents, James and Kimberly Snead, spoke about Cruz to the media for the first time on Saturday.

“We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead told the Miami Herald. “We didn’t see this side of him.”
“Everything everybody seems to know, we didn’t know,” James Snead said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Cruz is now charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. His court-appointed lawyer said that he would plead guilty to a sentence of life without parole.

Less than six weeks prior to the shooting, the FBI also received a tip about Cruz but never followed up.
“The system broke down,” said Gordon Weekes, one of Broward County’s chief assistant public defenders. “It did not catch the red flags … [and] it’s changed the landscape of this community.”

CORRECTION (Feb, 18, 2018, 7:20 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the organization that had been alerted to Cruz's Snapchat video. The Florida Department of Children and Families was alerted, not Henderson Behavioral Health.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...z-2016-n849221

Federal laws allow people as young as 18 to buy semi-automatic weapons from licensed dealers, while handgun purchases are restricted to those 21 and older.

He couldn't have bought a handgun yet he could buy a semi auto weapon...overdue time to change that law.

Bad diagnosis, clerical errors, background check lapses led to missed warning signs before mass killings

By Travis Fedschun Fox News Anger in Parkland, Florida over missed warning signs

FBI under pressure over failure to act on tip about suspected school shooter Nikolas Cruz; Steve Harrigan reports from Parkland, Florida.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has become the latest mass killer who was able to carry out his sick slaughter due in part to law enforcement's failure to heed warnings of disturbing behavior and because of lapses in the background check process.
The FBI admitted on Friday it received a call just over a month before Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day, killing 17 people.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he ordered an "immediate review" after it emerged the bureau had not acted on a Jan. 5 call from a person close to Cruz who contacted the FBI through its Public Access Line tipline to express concerns about Cruz's erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts. The person said Cruz may have aspired to be a "school shooter."
Nikolas Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Besides the tip last month to the FBI, the 19-year-old was also investigated by social services and mental health professionals in 2016 after disturbing Snapchat videos -- which showed him cutting both his arms -- were uncovered. But Cruz avoided hospitalization, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families report obtained by Fox News.
State investigators found Cruz to be low risk, and investigators felt he was unlikely to hurt himself or others because he had “services already in place,” including receiving counseling from Henderson Behavioral Health.

Cruz had purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed gun store located about three miles from the school, law enforcement officials said.

If Cruz wanted a handgun, however, the sale wouldn't have been allowed. Federal laws allow people as young as 18 to buy semi-automatic weapons from licensed dealers, while handgun purchases are restricted to those 21 and older.

Cruz had his gun for about seven months when he commented on YouTube that he was "going to be a professional school shooter." The FBI has said it investigated the incident, but was unable to identify the person who posted the comment despite Cruz using his actual name as his YouTube user name.

Here are some other recent mass murderers that have slipped through the cracks in the system:
DEVIN PATRICK KELLEY -- SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS

Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of New Braunfels, Texas as pictured in his driver license photo.

The man behind the massacre that killed 25 people at a Texas church in November 2017 had a history of domestic abuse. But Devin Patrick Kelley was able to purchase guns because information about his crimes was never entered into a federal database used for background checks.
Kelley purchased four guns, including the AR-15-style rifle and handguns found in and near First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, from licensed dealers in Texas and Colorado over a four-year span.

The 26-year-old passed required background checks because the Air Force never informed the FBI about his criminal conduct -- which included an assault on his wife and her child that led to a court-martial, a year of confinement and a bad cond discharge. Military rules require the information to be shared.
Kelley was convicted at a court-martial for choking his then-wife and fracturing her son's skull in 2012.

Besides the lapse by the Air Force, officials in Texas disclosed in records released Friday they didn't pursue a sexual assault investigation against Kelley in 2013, even though the woman reporting it signed a complaint detailing the alleged attack.
Authorities said the alleged victim was not given a forensic exam in June 2013 after reporting the assault, which she said had occurred three days earlier. The investigation was then listed as inactive because a detective at the Comal County sheriff's office couldn't contact Kelley, thinking he had moved.
The 2013 case remained inactive even after deputies were called to Kelley's home in February 2014 to investigate a separate domestic violence complaint against him.
"This was an error on the part of the sheriff's office," Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds told The Associated Press.

A 1996 law bans people convicted of even a misdemeanor-level domestic violence offense from owning guns.

KEVIL NEAL -- RANCHO TEHAMA RESERVE, CALIFORNIA
Kevin Neal killed five people and wounded at least a dozen others before he was shot and killed by authorities in Rancho Tehama Reserve, Calif.
The man who killed five people in a rural northern California community in November 2017 had violent squabbles with his neighbors and his wife, but was not arrested for previously violating a court order prohibiting him from having guns.

Police said at the time, neighbors repeatedly complained about Kevin Neal, 44, firing hundreds of rounds from his house -- among other erratic and violent behavior. While authorizes responded to the home several times, Neal wouldn't open the door so they left, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said at the time.

"He was not law enforcement friendly. He would not come to the door," Johnston said during a news conference. "You have to understand we can't anticipate what people are going to do. We don't have a crystal ball."

At the time of the 25-minute rampage, Neal was out of custody on bail after being charged in January 2017 with stabbing one of the neighbors he later killed. After the January assault, a judge barred Neal from having guns, according to court records. The records also show Neal was charged with illegally firing a weapon and possessing an illegal assault rifle on Jan. 31.
He was charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors. As part of a protective order that barred him from "owning, possessing, purchasing or attempting to purchase firearms," Neal was ordered to stay away from the two female neighbors he had threatened. Johnston initially said Neal "was not prohibited from owning firearms" but later acknowledged the protective order against him.
Neal certified that he surrendered his weapons in February, but authorities said they had recovered two homemade assault rifles and two handguns registered to someone else after the shooting rampage. After being pressed by reporters on why police did not act when Neal was in clear violation of his court order, Johnston replied: "The law is only for people who obey it."

DYLANN ROOF -- CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
Dylann Roof is seen in this June 18, 2015 handout booking photo provided by Charleston County Sheriff's Office.
A drug arrest in the months before Dylann Roof killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. should have prevented him from using the pistol in that massacre, but a clerical error allowed the transaction to go through.
A jail clerk at the time made an error when entering the incorrect location for Roof's drug arrest in February 2015, which was not corrected in the state police database of arrests.

The FBI said at the time a background check examiner never saw the arrest report and couldn't find details when Roof wanted to buy a gun because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records.
The background check found nothing after three days, and Roof was eventually allowed to buy the .45-caliber handgun authorities said was used in the June 17, 2015 shooting.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/19...-killings.html