FBI Failed to Act on Tip about School Shooter
KEILAR: Breaking news tonight, President Trump and the first lady are visiting with staff at a Florida hospital that is treating victims of Wednesday's massacre that left 17 dead at a high school. And also breaking, a stunning admission from the FBI. They say that they failed to act on a tip they received about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. In a scathing statement, Florida Governor Rick Scott said FBI Director Christopher Wray needs to resign over that. CNN senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin is in Parkland, Florida, for us tonight. So Drew, the FBI says the procedure for handling these kinds of tips was not followed.</s>GRIFFIN: Brianna, really two devastating blows tonight coming out of Florida. CNN has learned that, despite a history of mental illness, this shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was able to buy not one but five firearms in the last year, all legally. And the second blow, that inexplicable item from the FBI, that the FBI had information on this shooter that could have prevented this.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Tonight a startling admission from the nation's top law enforcement agency. Just six weeks ago, a tipster called the FBI tip line and warned Nikolas Cruz could be a school shooter. "The caller provided information," the FBI statement reads, "about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." What did the FBI do? Apparently nothing. In a statement released hours ago, the FBI admits it did not follow protocol. The tip never made it to the Miami field office, never made it to the agents who could have possibly followed up.</s>ROBERT LASKY, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: On behalf of myself and over 1,000 employees of the Miami field office, we truly regret any additional pain that this has caused.</s>GRIFFIN: The attorney general now demanding an investigation. It is just one more warning sign missed on the path Nikolas Cruz was taking that led him to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this past Wednesday. Newly-obtained records by CNN show the Broward County Sheriff's Office was called to the shooter's home more than 30 times since 2010. In 2016, during one of those calls, an incident report shows deputies and mental health professionals wrote, "Cruz suffers from mental illness, was seeing a therapist," and according to the report, "He has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm." Despite reports from his mother that Cruz was cutting his arms, a therapist on the scene deemed Nikolas to be no threat to anyone or himself at the present time. Fellow students tell CNN the shooter was strange, constantly acting up in school, getting in fights, and eventually was expelled. Joshua Charo says, once Cruz left school, he felt the danger had passed. (on camera): You thought he would never come back to the school?</s>JOSHUA CHARO, STUDENT: I think no one knew he would come back to the school.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Charo, 16 years old, spent a year in ROTC class with Cruz, a student that he says was quiet, except when it came to guns.</s>CHARO: He always liked to talk about guns. He was always asking people what kind of guns were better, if they knew which model worked best for certain hunting activities.</s>GRIFFIN (on camera): Did he ever talk about hunting?</s>CHARO: Oh yes, a lot. He talked about hunting a lot. That and guns were usually the only two things he would talk about when we ever spoke.</s>GRIFFIN: Charo says he lost touch with Cruz and then out of the blue came a message.</s>CHARO: He asked to follow me on Instagram before everything happened, like two or three weeks ago.</s>GRIFFIN: That shooter's Instagram account, like his social media postings in hindsight, all possible warnings. Now in the wake of the mass shooting, police, the FBI, school officials and students wonder what could have been done.</s>GRIFFIN: And, Brianna, the Broward County sheriff today said that they do have the electronic devices and cell phones of the suspect they are going through but offered really little else in terms of the investigation today -- Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Drew Griffin, thank you so much for that. We do have more on our breaking news ahead.