Posted on 02/15/2018 8:13:56 AM PST by xzins
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in Wednesday’s horrific massacre at a Florida high school, was allegedly reported to the FBI in September after he left a comment on a bail bondsman’s YouTube channel saying that he was going to be a “professional school shooter.”
The former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had previously been expelled for disciplinary problems prior to the mass shooting that left 17 people dead.
In a YouTube video published on the evening of the attack, Ben Bennight, a Mississippi bondsman, explained that he was contacted by the FBI at approximately 3 p.m. about a comment on one of his videos that he had reported last fall.
“The FBI just left my house in regards to this situation,” Bennight stated. “September 24th 2017, I sent a screenshot of a comment on one of my videos — now people keep asking me which video was it, but I don’t know, I don’t remember what video it was — when I saw the comment come through on my Studio app on my iPhone I screenshot the comment and hit the report button to report it to YouTube. Of course, they removed the comment.”
The video then scrolled through the screenshot and his report to YouTube.
Bennight proceeded to report the comment to the FBI.
“I looked up the number to my local field office and I called and left them a message. The next day I had two FBI agents standing in my office taking down the information and copies of the screenshot. They were asking me questions that of course I couldn’t answer. All it was on my channel was a comment, people leave pretty heinous comments on a pretty regular basis,” Bennight continued.
“This comment said ‘I am going to be a professional school shooter’ and I knew that I could not just ignore that,” he said. “I screenshotted the comment, I sent it to the appropriate authorities — and I imagine that from there they did a pretty thorough investigation and tried to find out who this person was,” he explained.
The bondsman continued on to explain that the YouTube comment did not come from an anonymous account, but from one with the name Nikolas Cruz.
“It wasn’t a generic screen name, the screen name was Nikolas Cruz — which I’m sure as you know by now, is the name of the guy that did the shooting in Florida today,” Bennight said.
Bennight explained that the first contact from the FBI today came in a phone call from his local field office shortly after the shooting. He stated that an agent called him, asked where he was and asserted that he was on his way to his house. Immediately after that, he says that he received a call from an agent from the Miami field office.
“I called him back and he’s like, ‘hey, you know, I’m just following up on a report that you made a couple months back’ — and I was like yeah, I just got off the phone with an agent over here,” Bennight said. “I emailed the Miami agent everything I had — well, everything I had was just that screenshot.”
Within an hour, the agent from his local office was at his home.
When the agent arrived at his home, he was questioned about if he had any previous contact with Cruz, which he says he did not. He was also questioned about how his report was handled at the time.
“I would like to think they were already investigating this guy and they had him at the top of their radar and that’s how they ended up contacting me so quickly,” Bennight said. “I wish I could have given them more information, but it was just a comment on my channel.”
The YouTube channel as well as all other social media belonging to Cruz appeared to have been taken offline by Wednesday evening.
Oh you bet, if the suspect had threatened a federal judge, local cops or the Mayor, the FBI would have been all over this individual. Bet the rent.
The G-men, it seems, were too busy keeping the world safe from Donald Trump.
That they actually stop him. That would have been nice.
FBI director Wray and AG Jeff Sessions better have a credible explanation about the FBI response to this tip immediately. And it needs to be made public by President Trump.
The FBI is really bad at lying because the shooter used his actual name in the original YouTube comment/threat. I mean what more do they need? His address and phone number? The "I" in FBI is supposed to be for "investigation". "Incompetent" seems to fit better.
As my Father, a New York City Detective Luitenent use to say “The FBI couldn’t find a Jew in the Bronx”.
Do you realize the actual cost of that?
Millions. The salaries, remodeling the building, the equipment, the training, and most important, the insurance.
Trust me, that is a very expensive thing. At my daughter’s private school, we are looking at much more standard procedures, and it is pushing $500K real fast.
They’ll argue about guns til the end of time, because we aren’t giving up on 2d amendment and they aren’t giving up on being communist dictators.
But hardening security will make a difference no matter who is arguing what.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/breaking-instagram-account-fl-shooter-nicholas-cruz/
This shows how sick and evil this ***** is.
How could the FBI not lock him up BEFORE he committed this atrocity?
The FBI interviewed a person who came forward to report Cruz’s plans, BUT they did NOT interview Cruz! FBI dropped the ball and cost so many so much pain and the lost young lives of those kids and adults. Those kids could have lived to be 90 or 100 years old.
The gov’t fails again.
The FIB is busy trying to bring down our President. They dont do anything to stop school shooters.
the guy who notified the fbi included Cruz’s name because Cruz posted it. See the article.
It’s hard to believe that with a name that they couldn’t narrow this down.
I’m curious if that is why Cruz was not allowed back in the school with a back pack?
Salaries can be handled by the school district. Up to 6 per school building.
Structural and tech improvements by state and fed.
good question
sadly, you’re probably right
The FBI didn’t want to do anything. They knew that if something did happen, it would help further their narrative for gun control.
And the media would gladly help them.
They were too busy shooting LaVoy Finicum, having office affairs, investigating Blackwater, protecting the Boston Bombers, protecting Hillary and trying to overthrow Trump.
And it would be nice to know what they were doing on the exact day this got swept under the carpet by their laziness.
Reminds me of how kids in the foster care system get overlooked.
You can bet that obama politicized the leadership of the field offices, too
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