UPDATE 1: Law enforcement officials have stated that they have yet to find any connections between suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz and white supremacist group Republic of Florida, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
UPDATE 2: Jordan Jereb, who leads the Republic of Florida (ROF) white supremacist group, is now walking back his claim that Cruz was involved with ROF.
Original Story:
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect behind the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, was reportedly involved with a white supremacist organization.
Jordan Jereb, who leads a white nationalist group called Republic of Florida (ROF), told the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that Cruz had been to at least one of the group’s training sessions. Jereb claimed that ROF had nothing to do with the shooting itself.
Jereb told the same thing to the Associated Press (AP), but added that Cruz’s shooting was likely done on Valentine’s Day because he was dealing with “trouble with a girl.” Jereb also told the AP that “he didn’t know Cruz personally.”
ROF, which is based in Tallahassee, advocates for the creation of a “white ethnostate” in Florida. They engage their members in paramilitary training; their website states they will “fight to the death” to accomplish their goal. Below is one of their training videos:
School shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz reportedly trained with the "Republic of Florida" white-nationalist militia; this video shows ROF members in fatigues drilling and saluting each other. Some of the lyrics: "They call me Nazi / and I'm proud of it." https://t.co/5B5n7s52Cq
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) February 15, 2018
Jereb himself was arrested in 2016 after allegedly threatening a staffer to Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R).
Prior reports indicated that Cruz had made derogatory comments about Islam and once wore a Donald Trump hat. People who knew him described him as a loner who had previously threatened students. Cruz was expelled from the school.
CNN’s Jake Tapper noted that there were Cruz had multiple red flags that weren’t really acted upon:
Sept 2017, FBI was told of shooter's "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" post on Youtube. FBI said today its agents couldn't ID him — though he had posted under his name with same unusual spelling.
1/— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 15, 2018
2/ By that time, Sept 2017, the shooter had:
* been suspended from school for fights and for bringing ammunition to school;
* been expelled for disciplinary reasons;
* bought a gun (Feb 2017)— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 15, 2018
3/ The shooter's social media footprint was also fairly disturbing by the time the FBI heard the complaint about his Youtube posting. And he posted under his own name.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 15, 2018
4/ In July 2017, under a news clip about the doctor who shot up the Bronx hospital where he used to work, someone posting under the shooter's name wrote:"Man I can do so much better"
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 15, 2018
5/ One month AFTER the complaint to the FBI, under a video of a Trump supporter being pushed around, someone with the same name as the shooter posted:
"I whana shoot people with my Ar-15"— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 15, 2018
At least six of the murdered students and a security guard were Jewish. Overall, 17 people were murdered and another 14 were injured.
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