PARKLAND
March 17, 2022
"The US government has agreed to pay $127.5m to the relatives of 17 killed in a 2018 school shooting after admitting the FBI failed to follow up two tips that could have prevented it.
Federal officials confirmed the settlement with families of those murdered, as well as survivors, following the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by former student Nikolas Cruz.
Attorneys for 16 of the 17 killed at the high school in Florida and some of those wounded previously announced in November that they had reached a monetary settlement with the government over the FBI's failure to investigate a tip it received about a month before the massacre. The 17th family chose not to sue.
The government's announcement Wednesday said the settlement resolves a total 40 cases connected to the massacre. The settlement does not amount to an admission of fault by the United States, according to a Justice Department news release.
The 2018 shooting was the worst school massacre in the United States since the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, which left 26 dead. "
"About five weeks before the February shooting, the FBI's West Virginia tip line received a call saying a former Stoneman Douglas student, 23-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had bought guns and planned to 'slip into a school and start shooting the place up.'
'I know he's going to explode,' the caller told the FBI. He also shared that Cruz admired ISIS, made death threats to his mother and was mutilating small animals.
But that information was never forwarded to the FBI's South Florida office and Cruz was never contacted. He had been expelled from the school a year earlier and had a long history of emotional and behavioral problems.
'The FBI could have and should have done more to investigate the information it was provided prior to the shooting,' Acting Deputy Director David Bowdich said in 2018."
"'While we will never know if any such investigative activity would have prevented this tragedy, we clearly should have done more,' he added.
The second tip came from a YouTuber, who shared a comment to the bureau that Cruz had posted under the comment section of one of his videos. It read: 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter.'
The FBI's response at the time was that it could not verify the identity of the user who had posted the comment, even though 'Nikolas Cruz' was part of the username.
The gunman was able to legally buy an AR-15 he used in the shooting and pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder."
"He will receive either a death sentence or life in prison after a penalty trial that is scheduled to start in April.
Cruz's lawyers admit that he is behind the shooting, but say he was too mentally-disturbed to be held culpable for his actions, and want him committed to psychiatric care for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, surviving victims of the shooting were able to successfully influence state legislators into passing several gun control measures in the aftermath of the shooting by founding Never Again MSD, an advocacy group that lobbies for gun safety.
Florida's Governor at the time, Rick Scott, also passed legislation allowing for the arming of teachers who were properly trained and the hiring of school resource officers.
A rally organized by the students, 'March for Our Lives,' also drew hundreds of thousands to the nation's capital in March 2018. "
Sauce: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10622077/Florida-massacre-families-receive-127-5-MILLION-FBIs-inaction-Parkland-shooting.html
Can't possibly be related to Biden's newest backdoor gun grab… and certainly won't result in cleaning up the FBI. (imo)