Parkland school shooter typical of today's mass killers

[struggle4progress]

Paula McMahon and Brittany Wallman
Sun Sentinel

For two years before the Parkland shooter went on his murderous rampage, he warned people — at least four times — what he planned to do ...

... a new FBI study ... analyzed the pre-attack behavior of 63 active shooters who killed multiple people between 2000 and 2013. More than half had communicated to someone — online or in person — that they intended to harm someone ...

The commonly held perception that mass shooters are mostly mentally ill people who brood in silence and give few warning signs is incorrect and could hamper efforts to identify attackers before they kill, said .. the agent in charge of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and a co-author of the study ...

Senior FBI officials in D.C. have publicly acknowledged they botched their handling of the two tips about Cruz that were reported to them in the five months before the massacre. At least two internal agency investigations into how they failed to appropriately investigate either of those warnings are still underway. Officials told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week that they don’t know when their findings will be completed and released ...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-school-shooting-active-shooter-social-media-20180626-story.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Parkland shooter texted friend that he 'wanted to kill people'

Rafael Olmeda and Brittany Wallman

Nikolas Cruz had a plan — to shoot people at a park in 2020.

That was what he told a 19-year-old former classmate who met him at an alternative education center at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs in 2017 ...

She said she went to his home and he showed her his guns and a “big bag of bullets,” and let her hold one of his guns ...

Katherine Blaine ... said she never met Nikolas Cruz, but that Lynda told her that “he wanted to go to Wal-Mart or something and she said, ‘No, we’re going home.’” He swung his hand and hit her in the mouth.

“He knocked three teeth loose,” Blaine said. “She had to go to the dentist for it” ...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-parkland-shooting-witness-statements-20180629-story.html