Accused Parkland School Shooter: So Many Red Flags

PARKLAND, FL — As the first two funerals were planned for Friday, a portrait of accused Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz has begun to emerge that shows his childhood was anything but pinwheels and cotton candy. Prior to his expulsion last year from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, police officers responded to the home of Cruz' adopted parents dozens of times.

Police records show that officers paid visits to the home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to CNN while a former classmate told that network the troubled 19-year-old would sometimes refer to himself as a "school shooter" in casual conversation.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel confirmed on Friday that his deputies logged approximately 20 calls for service at Cruz' home over the past few years.

"Every one of these calls for service will be looked at and scrutinized," Israel said. "If we find out — like in any investigation — that one of our deputies or call takers could have done something better or was remiss, I'll handle it accordingly."

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Cruz confessed to police "that he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds," according to court documents and that he "brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault."

But there were apparently plenty of warning signs in the years leading up to the attack that showed he was not like the other children around this affluent suburban community.

The FBI acknowledged on Friday the agency received a tip about accused Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz on Jan. 5 but failed to follow "established protocols." The tip came from a person close to Cruz.

In September, the FBI was alerted to a disturbing comment on a YouTube video by a user named Nikolas Cruz. The creator of the video, Mississippi bail bondsman Ben Bennight, sent a screenshot of the comment — "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" — to the FBI, and agents interviewed him again Wednesday, BuzzFeed reported. YouTube removed the comment.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Lasky said at a press conference Thursday that agents are investigating. “In September 2017, the FBI received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel. The comment said, ‘I’m going to be a professional school shooter,’” he said. “No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location, or the true identity of the person who posted the comment. The FBI conducted database reviews and other checks, but was unable to further identify the person who posted the comment.”

Seventeen people were shot to death and numerous others injured Wednesday after Cruz allegedly took a "small, goldish-colored" Uber to the campus and opened fire, according to law enforcement and school officials. He stopped at a Subway restaurant for a drink and a McDonald's before he was taken into custody on Thursday by an officer who thought twice about stopping him.

Fourteen-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff's funeral was getting underway on Friday following a public show of grief by her mother so raw and genuine that it brought tears from veteran CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin and U.S. Congressman Ted Deutch.

Lori Alhadeff pleaded on CNN for President Trump to take action.

"How do we allow a gunman to come into our children's school? How do they get through security? What security is there? There's no metal detectors," she said, issuing her plea directly into the camera. "The gunman — a crazy person, just walked right into the school, knocks down the window of my child's door and starts shooting, shooting her and killing her. President Trump, you say what can you do? You can stop the guns from getting into these children's hands. Put metal detectors at every entrance to the schools. What can you do? You can do a lot. This is not fair to our family that our children go to school and have to get killed."

Watch Lori Alhadeff's plea below:

AP Photo/Brynn Anderson