Fla. social services investigated suspect before rampage, knew he wanted to buy gun

[DonViejo]

By Mark Berman February 17 at 8:32 PM

Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.

The investigation detailed several unnerving behaviors from Cruz, including that he had cut his arms on Snapchat, had a Nazi symbol and a racial epithet on his backpack and intended to purchase a gun for unknown reasons, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families report obtained by The Washington Post. Ultimately, the investigation was closed in November 2016, just months before Cruz bought the AR-15 assault-style rifle that police say he would later use in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The state social services probe was the latest in a series of revelations about how Cruz’s pattern of worrisome — and sometimes violent — behavior had prompted concerns and had come to the attention of authorities in the past few years, including school officials, state social services officials and federal law enforcement authorities. Though aware of the warning signs, those same officials were unable to stop Cruz from buying a gun or to intervene before he allegedly returned to his former school on Wednesday and opened fire on several classrooms.

Across South Florida and beyond, local and federal authorities have faced intensifying questions over why they failed to act on the red flags. The FBI had drawn the most scrutiny since it acknowledged Friday that the bureau received a tip in January that Cruz might attack a school and then never investigated that warning. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office also said Friday that police had received about 20 calls for service related to Cruz in recent years.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/florida-social-services-investigated-before-rampage-knew-teen-wanted-to-buy-gun/2018/02/17/ea0c6bec-143f-11e8-9570-29c9830535e5_story.html

[janterry]

1. There is very little social services can do for a teen

- or better put: there is very little a social services agency wants to do with a teen. They are better equipped to deal with younger kids. Teens are messy, hate treatment - and there are few appropriate referrals that make sense.

Sure, you can put them into outpatient treatment - they generally don't stay in it (I'm sure that was a recommendation).
You can refer them for meds - but in general, they don't want to take meds (as was the case for this young man).

You can refer them to job programs and school support. And then cross your fingers that they can stick it out (some do).

Moreover, even if they had put him at risk for acting out - or having problems - social services could not have flagged him so that he wouldn't get a gun.

At the end of the day, I don't really know what his diagnosis is -
It's possible he's psychotic (I think he probably is), but at that age folks often still 'look' together and can hide a lot of symptoms. Clearly his behavior was planful - which doesn't mean he doesn't have a major mental illness (though I have seen many people think the two aren't compatible - they are wrong, by the way).

We need better laws about guns, to be sure. And we need to ban assault rifles.

[LAS14]

2. I agree with others here that the failure of law enforcement and social services is...

... just a distraction from the only thing that will work. Ban the possession of high capacity firearms.

[Kaleva]

3. This is what I see gunners on Youtube blaming the shooting on

People like the YankeeMarshall who has about a quarter of a million subscribers to his channel. The easy availability of semi-automatic guns that accept large capacity magazines isn't the problem. It's the Democrats and liberals who failed to provide services and care for this obviously disturbed young man.

Edit: I had a link to his channel so people here could see what I was talking about but I decided to delete it.

[crazylikafox]

4. No wonder Gov.Scott tried to offload this mess on the FBI so quickly.

It's on him. Again.

[Rebl2]

5. I think the blame

should be put on the police. They had gotten 20 calls concerning Cruz over the last couple of years. You can’t tell me they couldn’t have done something about him looking into his posts on social media.

[jberryhill]

6. What is that something?

What is that “something” which police should do about things people say on social media?

Lock them up? Shoot them? Those are the two things police can do with anyone.