Senate panel grills FBI over ignored tips ahead of Parkland shooting

Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Thomas Brandon (left), Acting Deputy FBI Director David Bowdich and U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center head Lina Alathari are sworn in before testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, March 14, 2018. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A panel of senators grilled federal law enforcement agencies this week over repeated systemic failures leading up to the massacre in Parkland, Florida last month.

Senate Judiciary Committee Majority Chairman Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, kicked off the nearly four hour hearing Wednesday vowing to “hold government accountable for its failures” and promote legislation strengthening existing gun laws to prevent future attacks — like the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead and 15 wounded.

“At all levels, law enforcement must explain what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what steps it is taking to make sure these failures never happen again,” Grassley said. “And we must determine the best, evidence-based approach to improving school safety.”

Grassley described the timeline of events unfolding in the months prior to the shooting as “disturbing,” after state and federal officials failed multiple times to intervene, despite mounting evidence of the 19-year-old accused gunman’s mental instability.

“As the FBI Director has made clear, the FBI could have and should have done more to investigate the information it was provided prior to the shooting,” said David Bowdich, deputy director of the FBI. “While we will never know if any such investigative activity would have prevented this tragedy, we clearly should have done more.”

Bowdich detailed two separate tips regarding Nikolas Cruz — the expelled teenager charged with murdering 17 people at his former high school — received by the FBI on Sept. 28 and Jan. 5. In the first case, a tipster reported Cruz after he commented on a YouTube video, under the screen name “Nikolas Cruz,” saying “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”

Bowdich said FBI agents interviewed the caller, searched FBI databases and determined Cruz’s true identity could not be learned before closing the case two weeks later.

The second tip, received from a close friend of Cruz just six weeks before the shooting, revealed Cruz owned multiple firearms, mutilated small animals, threatened his mother with a rifle, made several references to harming himself and others and might “shoot up a school.” The tipster pleaded with FBI agents and the Parkland Police Department to “look into the matter.”

Bowdich said the agency doesn’t know why, at this point, the second tip was closed without further investigation. He told the committee Wednesday immediate remedial measures, including doubling the number of special agent supervisors assigned to review tips, have already been implemented, with others “likely” to follow.

“This obviously is not the kind of news I would prefer to deliver to this Committee, but the FBI is committed to maximum transparency in all that we do on behalf of the American people,” he said. “When we make mistakes, we will not hide them, and we are committed, with your help, to doing whatever is necessary to correct our mistakes and prevent tragedies like this one from being repeated.”

Thomas Brandon, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he too ordered an immediate review of the agency’s policies for handling tips. As of last week, the agency launched “iTip” to “document, disseminate, and track” information received from the public.

“These disclosures are gut-wrenching for all law enforcement,” he said. “We are universally committed to responding appropriately whenever information is received about the potential for violence.”

Committee members didn’t mince words for the state officials not in attendance at Wednesday’s hearing, including Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and Michael Carroll, Secretary of Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Both agencies received multiple calls about Cruz and missed several opportunities to involuntarily commit him before he could buy the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack — or any of the nine other firearms ATF agents recovered from his home.

“I’ve seen the Sheriff all over television discussing the shooting, so it is disappointing the he has refused to speak before Congress,” Grassley said, noting Carroll clearly “dropped the ball” too. “By thumbing their noses at Congress, Sheriff Israel and Secretary Carroll have let the American people down and also the citizens of Florida they serve.”

State lawmakers have called on Florida Gov. Rick Scott to remove Israel for “neglect of duty and incompetence.” Scott opened an investigation through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement instead.

Israel maintains none of the nearly two dozen calls his office received about Cruz ever amounted to an arrestable offense. He accused lawmakers of engaging in “disingenuous political grandstanding” for the sake of a few headlines.