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.
How dare they interrupt the FBI with annoying distractions like this when they are focused like a laser on destroying Trump?
It happens because there is no God in the home.
Usually just one parent, and often barely even that.
Robert Swan Mueller III...pick up line #2
I’m amazed they can have really great security at an airport, but they can’t at schools.
As annoying as it is, hijackings are pretty rare anymore.
What if they had a scan station and some assigned agents at schools?
3-6 salaries extra for each school would cost, but it wouldn’t kill. They could even drop the sensitivity studies teacher.
A non-politicized FBI?
Should I even suggest it? ...anti-2nd Amendment FBI? ...let it happen?
First things first
17 young lives!!! Parents grieving beyond comprehension.... and the authorities get on TV and tell the public ‘why wasn’t this guy reported’!!!
Oh man, now that was funny.....
Where was s/?
You really got to wonder what they were thinking on this one.
Across the spectrum from teachers to neighbors to social media, this guy was KNOWN and identified.
CRAZY!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sandy-hook-shooting-investigation-fbi-documents/
See my post above this one.
I was with an army unit once upon a time that worked with fbi sometimes. Our people swore that those at that level were great people.
The upper echelon seems to be infected, and moreover, they seem to have signaled how to get into the upper echelon. Therefore, we have dipwads practicing to be the next peter strzok down in the rank and file.
“...I know we’re constantly reminded that the vast majority of the FBI are great cops. I believe that...”
I don’t. I had to live right next door to one of these arrogant POS for a while. He made sure everyone in the neighborhood knew who/what he was. Whenever, he’d speak to me, I immediately pled the 5th. He didn’t think it was funny, and neither did I.
The FBI has lost all faith, trust and credibility with the People. Liberalism destroys everything it touches...everything, including the so-called “highly esteemed” FBI. It is now even lower than the IRS...who woulda thought? Both should be totally disbanded and those responsible need to be in jail.
Liberals,celebrities etc have made direct threats to Trump...Shouldn’t they be watched and reported on...May have mental health issues
The FBI and local cops must act within the law. They have to present a criminal case with probable cause. Is the mere act of saying something offensive a criminal act? SCOTUS says it is not.
What are they supposed to do? I am upset about current events and do not feel like mounting a defense for them, but seriously, how do they fix this? Put him under constant surveillance?
They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t and will be criticized no matter what they do. Statistically, they can interview a 1000 kids like this and maybe 1 of them would act on their potential threat. Do they incarcerate the other 999 and if so, for what?
I am sick about what happened like everyone, but there are no easy answers to this and it sounds like this kid was a broken egg from birth based on what I have read.
Where was s/?
This is madness. This could have been prevented.
This is becoming black comedy. Same thing happened at Sandy Hook.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sandy-hook-shooting-investigation-fbi-documents/
Show us the proof that the FBI even once did any investigation action at all on the demented kid with leftist leanings?
If the politicized FBI wasn’t so busy helping the DNC and by going after Obamas political opponents then maybe they could have stopped this as well as Mateen at the Pulse nightclub.
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