The FBI admits that they dropped the ball on the Parkland, Florida shooter

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In a statement on Friday, the FBI admitted that they were tipped off about Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz and that nothing happened to the information they gathered.

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The bureau said that a person close to Cruz contacted them on January 5, 2018 and that “the caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts.” They added that under the “established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life” and that it should have been handed off to the FBI Miami Field Office.

FBI Director Christopher Wray added “I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.”

Cruz is accused of killing 17 people in the shooting, that took place on Valentine’s Day and is among the top ten deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history. As we’ve learned more details about Cruz, glaring warning signs have become evident. An individual claiming to be from a white supremacist group said that Cruz trained with their militia and that he thought the 19-year-old was having “girl problems.”

RELATED: We now know chilling details about the Florida shooter’s activities before and after the massacre

The gun that Cruz used, a Smith & Wesson M&P 15, was legally purchased from a gun shop in Florida. On his social media profiles, there were several photos of Cruz posing with guns and he reportedly even commented on a YouTube video that he aspired to be a “professional school shooter.”

The FBI receives tens of thousands of tips every year and former agents say that sometimes it’s tough to get through all of them. One retired agent told PBS “it’s a tricky situation because sometimes you get information regarding individuals and they may be just showing off, blustering.” But with the Friday announcement, it’s likely that the bureau will be doing some serious investigating into their response to the tip concerning Nikolas Cruz.

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