Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Nikolas Cruz Was Reported to FBI As Potential School Shooter in September (Screenshot of Threat)
TGP ^ | 15 Feb 18 | Cassandra Fairbanks

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: braking; fbi; florida; flschoolshooting; nicolascruz; nicolascruzbio; nicolascruzfbi; nikolascruz; professionalschoolsh; schoolshooting; shooting
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 261-280 next last
To: xzins

FBI- Flushing Beneficial Information


21 posted on 02/15/2018 8:23:03 AM PST by tflabo (Varmints)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

Put Petey Struck and his LoveStruck UgleeAzz adulteress on the case


22 posted on 02/15/2018 8:24:36 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Another Islamic terrorist event, and no “outrage” from the “Muslim community”. Again)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

The FIB’s function is to ensure that Democrats win elections.

Wrong number, sorry.


23 posted on 02/15/2018 8:24:45 AM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

My thoughts exactly.


24 posted on 02/15/2018 8:25:22 AM PST by Quilla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: xzins

The reason, absolutely and positively without a doubt, there are many more examples of school shootings than say 30 years ago is..we stopped hauling nutjob like this N.Cruz away to the cookie farm.
I’m sure a lot of Freepers can remember hunters bringing guns to school around hunting season.
No one freaked out and No one got shot.same with Gun Clubs.


25 posted on 02/15/2018 8:25:24 AM PST by Leep (The dims better watch it..Trump is CRAZY!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins
Are these two the same person? I think they could be.


26 posted on 02/15/2018 8:26:34 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Conservatives love America for what it is. Liberals hate America for the same reason.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

>>>What else is needed?<<<

An insurance policy.


27 posted on 02/15/2018 8:26:43 AM PST by reagandemocrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: xzins

The FBI was probably just too busy to look into it. They needed all their resources to investigate a much more dangerous threat...Donald Trump.


28 posted on 02/15/2018 8:26:53 AM PST by Angels27
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

The FBI is proving itself to be typically bureaucratic and therefore completely undistinguished and mediocre as crime-fighting unit.

Their upper levels do excel at political meddling though.


29 posted on 02/15/2018 8:27:00 AM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Leep

We had actual asylums when I was a boy. We knew their names in our city. They really did keep people.

We didn’t have homeless on the streets. We didn’t have panhandlers on street corners. We didn’t have school shootings.

I agree with you.


30 posted on 02/15/2018 8:27:03 AM PST by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: FirstFlaBn

Chaos Is King, and SOP at the FBM. The FBM is in full Saul Alinski mode, along with The Progressive Elitists. “Ignore a murdering POS. Frame private citizens, and undermine DJT.”


31 posted on 02/15/2018 8:27:50 AM PST by gathersnomoss
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: xzins
FBI using Obama Rules ignore everything except Flame Trump
32 posted on 02/15/2018 8:27:51 AM PST by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

Well, at least now we know that a ball was dropped here, and who dropped it.

This one didn’t come out of the blue.


33 posted on 02/15/2018 8:28:27 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants

Look similar to me. Would facial recognition software determine it? I’ll bet it could.

Wonder if anyone ever bothers.


34 posted on 02/15/2018 8:28:33 AM PST by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: xzins

Meanwhile back at the airport white haired grandmas with walkers get fleeced over by the ‘federal protectors’.


35 posted on 02/15/2018 8:28:42 AM PST by tflabo (Varmints)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

They got him a hooker and put him on the payroll


36 posted on 02/15/2018 8:28:53 AM PST by al baby (May the Forceps be with you Hi Mom Its a Joke friends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: xzins

“Thank you for contacting the FBI. At this time, all agents are busy with Russia. Please try again in one week. Have a nice day.”


37 posted on 02/15/2018 8:28:58 AM PST by polymuser (Its terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today. - Chesterton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xzins

After the fallout and the FBI takes the heat on this, you can bet that such warnings in the future will be taken seriously, at their peril.


38 posted on 02/15/2018 8:29:17 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: xzins

“But the dipwads are out there, and they’re ruining the reputation of the rest.”

If the FBI had real leadership top to bottom, you would not have dipwad agents. The cold hard fact is that FBI “leadership” are not law enforcement types, they’re effing political hacks!


39 posted on 02/15/2018 8:29:31 AM PST by vette6387
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: xzins

It is not that easy - so they go interview the kid...... “do you want to be a professional school shooter?” He says - “I was just joking”. They refer him to mental health and they get the same response. The school counselor talks to him and he says he was just acting out and didn’t mean it. They expel him anyways.

Now what?

Is it a crime to say that? Have you read the comments lately on youtube channels and MSM news stories? I even read comments here occasionally that make me cringe, but I don’t think the FBI or cops should go arrest the person. For every million “they should shoot them all” comments you read how many people act on it?

I just wrote a long response on another thread a few minutes ago about this from my perspective in law enforcement. I am sick about this incident and others and have probably heard more about some of these incidents than most in active shooter trainings, but I would caution any desire to move towards a police state where “spouting off” or “having more than one firearm” is cause for detention. We cannot remove the rights from 319,999,990 people for the actions of 10. That is likely to lead to more murder than these horrific incidents.

As you know given your tagline and thanks for your service - Jesus would be an answer for such people, but we cannot force that on them or legislate it.


40 posted on 02/15/2018 8:29:58 AM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 261-280 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson