FBI staffers knew warnings about Nikolas Cruz were related but closed the case, lawma

FBI staffers knew warnings about Nikolas Cruz were related but closed the case, lawmakers learn

By Frank Miles | Fox News
2 hours ago

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is formally charged with 17 counts of murder after Valentine's Day attack.

The FBI this week detailed to Congress a series of mistakes and missed opportunities to intervene before a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida -- including a revelation that staffers knew two warnings about suspect Nikolas Cruz were related, but still closed the case.

FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich made the comments in a closed briefing Tuesday with members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees.

In a summary released Wednesday to Fox News, Bowdich cited two tips that the FBI received about Cruz in September 2017 and January 2018 that were mishandled.

The 2017 tip alerted the FBI to a threatening YouTube comment, made by user Nikolas Cruz, which stated: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”

According to the summary, a FBI call taker “did not ask any standard investigative probing questions” about the 2018 tip.

The 2018 call taker was able to connect Cruz to the earlier call about the YouTube comment, but after discussing it with a supervisor, they decided not to pursue the matter and the case was closed.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said that “despite multiple opportunities, the FBI did not share information with state and local authorities” about Nikolas Cruz.

The FBI is reviewing its handling of the case and will report findings to Congress.

Cruz was charged Wednesday formally with 17 counts each of premeditated murder and attempted murder. The Broward County grand jury announced the 34-count indictment for Cruz, who police say opened fire inside the high school in Parkland, killing 17 people. The attempted murder charges were for the 17 other people injured in the mass shooting on Valentine’s Day.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/07...ers-learn.html

This makes no sense. The FBI took action on the YouTube call and sent two agents down to interview the tipster, twice. But they claim they didn't know who it was or where he was, so couldn't find him and that was the end of it. Four months later, when they get the second tip, which tells them more information about this person, which they connect to the earlier YouTube call, and the FBI now knows for sure, who he is, where he is and what he's doing, they discuss it with management and management says, close the case.

If the protocol called for a follow-up to the first one, which obviously it did, since the FBI sent 2 agents to follow up on the YouTube posting, then the protocol would have connected this second tip to the first one, which it did, and they should have sent the 2 investigative agents who worked the first call to Parkland as well as the agents from the Miami field office.

There needs to be a criminal inquiry into the supervisory staff at the FBI that closed this case. This report indicates the call-takers in both instances did their jobs. The supervisors of the first call did their jobs and sent two agents out to investigate. The agents didn't do their jobs because they didn't investigate the location of Nikolas Cruz and hunt him down, when they clearly have the ability to do that. So they have some answering to do. However, the supervisors on the second call not only didn't do their jobs, they squashed and squandered the work of the group who followed up on the first call.

The FBI didn't "drop"" the ball, they deliberately shut down the game. Why? Why wouldn't they follow the same protocol on both tips and send out field agents to investigate? Why huddle for an hour and shut down the case of someone whose identity, location and threats of mass murder they're now fully and irrefutably aware of?

This makes no sense at all.

Everyone in the West Virginia call center involved or knows about these two tips needs to step forward and start singing to the press immediately. It your turn now to be protected whistle-blowers. We want to see you and hear you. Call Fox News.