School officials and social workers in Parkland, Florida sought to commit 19-year old gunman Nikolas Cruz to a mental health facility months before his rampage; raising even more questions over multiple red flags missed by local and federal authorities.
According to the New York Times, two guidance counselors and a Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy concluded in September 2016 that Cruz should be “forcibly committed” to a mental institution after he was deemed a “suicide risk” for five consecutive days.
The officials were notified by a fellow 11th grader, who told authorities that Cruz claimed to “have a gun at home” and was “planning to use it.”
“But Mr. Cruz appears never to have been institutionalized despite making threats to himself and others, cutting his arms with a pencil sharpener and claiming he had drunk gasoline in a possible attempt to kill himself, all in a five-day period in September 2016,” writes the Times.
The news comes days after more missed flags made national headlines, when the Miami Herald confirmed Cruz had confessed to his school psychiatrist that he “fantasized” about “being covered in blood.”
The startling new revelation fuels even more speculation that local law enforcement and the FBI could have prevented the mass shooting that took the lives of 17 individuals and injured scores more.