US President Donald Trump has criticized the FBI for failing to foresee the signals and prevent Wednesday’s Florida school shooting. Trump said on Twitter that the agency was spending too much time trying to prove that there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia. He continued to reaffirm that there was no collusion and that the FBI should “get back to the basics and make us all proud.” The FBI admitted that it failed to respond to a tip-off about suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19. He confessed to the shooting at the Florida high school where 17 people were killed.
The shooting that took place at a high school in Parkland, Florida was the deadliest US school shooting since that of 2012. It has rekindled the long-running debates concerning tougher firearm restrictions. The survivors of the shooting demonstrated in Florida, demanding for tighter legislation on gun control. They also criticized President Trump for getting financial support from the National Rifle Association (NRA) during the presidential campaign.
In his tweet, Trump said that was disappointed in the FBI for missing the signals leading to the school shooting. Based on the tweet, he seemed to link the agency’s failure to foresee the occurrence to the time it has been using to investigate into the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign to compromise the 2016 presidential election.
Earlier this week, 13 Russians were charged with being involved in the US election. This is a major development in the FBI investigation that is led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In addition to the named suspects, three Russian companies were also listed in the indictment. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the charges as “blather”. He said that he would not comment further until he saw facts.
The FBI admits to its mistakes
The agency admitted that it did not follow up closely on the tip-off about Cruz’s intentions. The tip-off was given last month by someone close to the suspect who gave information about his gun ownership, intention to kill, unpredictable behavior, disturbing social media posts, and finally his intention to conduct a school shooting. The FBI also received a tip-off from a Mississippi man who saw a disturbing comment by Cruz on YouTube.
The Florida high school shooting claimed innocent lives, and it has stressed further the need to revise gun control legislation.
