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FBI Tip-Line Caller Said Nikolas Cruz ‘Is Going to Explode' [Transcript of call]
The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 23, 2018 | Del Quentin Wilber

Posted on 02/23/2018 2:21:40 PM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

A person close to accused Florida shooter said she wanted ‘clear conscience’ if he ‘just starts shooting’

A person close to the teenager accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school warned the FBI she was concerned he would “get into a school and just shoot the place up,” according to a transcript of her call with a bureau tip line operator more than a month before the massacre.

More recently, Mr. Cruz “switched it to he wants to kill people,” the unidentified woman told the operator in a somewhat rambling conversation.

“Something is gonna happen,” she said. “Because he’s, he doesn’t have the mental capacity. He can’t, he’s so outraged if someone talks to him about certain things.”

The transcript, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, provides chilling detail about the woman’s efforts on Jan. 5 to warn authorities about Nikolas Cruz’s propensity for violence and his troubled past. The caller’s identification was redacted from the transcript.

“You know, it’s just so much,” she said on the call. “I know he’s—he’s going to explode.” She said she was making the call because she wanted a “clear conscience if he takes off and, and just starts shooting places up.” [snip]

The FBI last week acknowledged receiving such a call, which it said was from a person close to Mr. Cruz. But the transcript, and the stark nature of the caller’s precise warnings about Mr. Cruz’s disturbing actions and volatile temperament, previously hasn’t been made public.

The caller began by saying Mr. Cruz had the mental capacity of a 12- or 14-year-old. She said he had started posting messages on his Instagram account that he wanted to kill himself and she’d alerted police to that threat, but wasn’t sure what happened in that investigation.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: cruz; fbi; guns; mentalillness; parkland; schoolshooter
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To: hal ogen

Hal, I remember those days well. I appeared before that judge on many a case of DOC? Didn’t “Trapper” John Stanleyused to sit in that court sometimes? They still do much the same thing now, it’s just directed by the criminal courts. With the amount and severity of the credible, specific first hand reports of specific threats in this case, law enforcement and the criminal courts should certainly have been all over this from the very start. And they still would in Marion County Indiana. Cop kids go to to school too.


61 posted on 02/23/2018 5:04:14 PM PST by circlecity
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

There is a possibility that the FBI referred the case to the Broward sheriff’s office per protocol. (I don’t have any knowledge of the law or protocol, just speculating.)


62 posted on 02/23/2018 5:08:02 PM PST by RealVirginia
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
He had recently changed from wanting to commit suicide to wanting to kill people.

If Cruz had been a frequent visitor to any federal agency office to complain about whatever, and the FBI had received this call - well, then it would've been dealt with immediately as an "escalating threat". But just some school kids and teachers at risk? Meh.

63 posted on 02/23/2018 5:14:01 PM PST by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: RealVirginia

Not only the possibility but the Broward Co. Sherrif would have every right to be very pissed off if the FBI failed to inform him of information like that going on in his jurisdiction.


64 posted on 02/23/2018 5:19:19 PM PST by circlecity
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To: circlecity

Here’s some more transcript, courtesy of Ed Driscoll of InstaPundit:

“I don’t know how he got the debit card, but he did,” she said. “And he took it, and he bought all these rifles and ammunition and he posted pictures of them on the Instagram.”

Another of the woman’s stunning revelations: Cruz was obsessed with ISIS.

“He’s so into ISIS and, um, I’m afraid this is so something’s gonna happen,” she said, describing how Cruz would post pictures of himself dressed up as an Islamic terrorist. She also recounted how Cruz would frequently post pictures of himself donning a “Make America Great Again” cap.

The caller provided the agent with usernames for two of Cruz’s social media accounts, encouraging the FBI to comb through the pages.

“It’s alarming to see these pictures and to know what he’s capable of doing and what could happen,” she said. “He’s [been] thrown out of all these schools because he would pick up a chair and just throw it at somebody, a teacher or a student, because he didn’t like the way they were talking to him.”

The woman said she phoned in because she “wanted a clear conscience if he takes off and, and just starts shooting places up.”


65 posted on 02/23/2018 5:31:48 PM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

You know, if Cruz was not supposed to be at the school with a backpack, how is it LEOs did not prevent him before entering, if they were there? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWwqq_mWkAAt93D.jpg:large


66 posted on 02/23/2018 5:36:06 PM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust!)
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To: combat_boots

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWrkHEcX0AQT-2M.jpg:large


67 posted on 02/23/2018 5:39:51 PM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust!)
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To: Charles Martel

Right, if she really expected them to investigate the risk, she should have brought it to their home turf. Had she heard him say he will, “ turn the local Eff-Bee-Aye office into swiss cheese,” they would have been at his doorstep within the hour.


68 posted on 02/23/2018 5:50:37 PM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Absolutely breathtaking. Wonder what it was like for her seeing it happen when she tried so desperately to warn them.


69 posted on 02/23/2018 5:55:24 PM PST by circlecity
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To: combat_boots

It sounds as if the campus is not secured and folks roam in and out at will. Or perhaps there is a late lunch hour and he strolled in with a few others.

Parkland is the least likeliest school in the county for violence. They likely have a very low truancy rate and very few discipline problems. Security was probably not a huge concern. They thought they had gotten rid of Cruz.


70 posted on 02/23/2018 6:03:30 PM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: BunnySlippers

I would like to know how old he was when he was adopted. He was at least a few years old, because he had a brother.


71 posted on 02/23/2018 6:11:40 PM PST by NetAddicted (Just look)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

How do you know he was 2 when adopted?


72 posted on 02/23/2018 6:13:36 PM PST by NetAddicted (Just look)
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To: Fido969

$800,000?


73 posted on 02/23/2018 6:15:17 PM PST by NetAddicted (Just look)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Our institutions are an absolute mess.


74 posted on 02/23/2018 6:29:32 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

I bet it was the first person who wouldn’t allow the fire arms. She said she sent a message to his Instagram acct asking him how he was doing. There would be no need for this if the caller was where he currently was living.


75 posted on 02/23/2018 7:29:39 PM PST by HollyB
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
“Something is gonna happen,” she said. “Because he’s, he doesn’t have the mental capacity. He can’t, he’s so outraged if someone talks to him about certain things.”

I know I am going to sound like a loony-bird here, but that statement indicates that he was emotionally trigger happy. You couple that with someone, say in the FBI, needing to use someone like him to further an agenda AND the fact that the FBI was aware of him by the clues people were sending them through actual people getting in touch with them.

I don't know. There seems to be a lot under the surface of this whole thing. All I can do is shake my head and pray for all the poor souls who were negatively impacted by what transpired.

76 posted on 02/23/2018 8:39:49 PM PST by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: NetAddicted

One of the relatives who remained unnamed stated that in a news article and that the boys had the same birth mother. At the same time, there was a photo on Lynda Cruz’s obit page with her and a newborn. That baby was identified as Nikolas, perhaps wrongly.

The relatives had very little interaction with the family. Four people attended her funeral - the 2 sons and neighbor Rocxanne & her ex boyfriend.

It would be revealing to confirm from where Nik actually originated and this could confirm the armchair diagnosis that appears to strongly fit his behavior and actions.


77 posted on 02/23/2018 8:41:49 PM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Well, they’re not about to do anything. If they stop these incidents, they won’t have an excuse to take all the guns.


78 posted on 02/23/2018 8:42:58 PM PST by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: circlecity

Times long ago. Now we seem to all live in an asylum.


79 posted on 02/23/2018 9:55:51 PM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

She tried...


80 posted on 02/24/2018 3:01:12 AM PST by mowowie
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