On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting. 
 
 Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken. 
 
 We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time. 
 
 FBI Director Christopher Wray said: 
 
 “We are still investigating the facts. 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. 
 
 “We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.” ||||| PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday it had failed to act on a tip warning that the man now accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school possessed a gun, the desire to kill and the potential to commit a school shooting. 
 
 The disclosure sparked angry disbelief from residents of the Miami suburb of Parkland still reeling from Wednesday’s massacre, the deadliest shooting ever at a U.S. high school, and led Florida’s governor to call for the FBI chief to resign. 
 
 A person described as someone close to accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5, weeks before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to report concerns about him, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. 
 
 “The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” it said. 
 
 That information should have been forwarded to the FBI’s Miami field office for further investigation, but “we have determined that these protocols were not followed,” the agency said. 
 
 U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting, carried out by a gunman armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and numerous ammunition cartridges. 
 
 “We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. 
 
 The mishandled information followed a tip to the FBI in September about a YouTube comment in which a person named Nikolas Cruz said, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI said it investigated that comment but was unable to trace its origins, closing the inquiry until Cruz surfaced in connection with Wednesday’s mass shooting. 
 
 The FBI’s lapse regarding the Jan. 5 tip was met with anger in Florida after U.S. President Donald Trump made remarks seeming to chastise local residents for failing to alert authorities to Cruz’s sometimes erratic and violent behavior prior to Wednesday’s shooting rampage. 
 
 Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. 
 
 Florida Governor Rick Scott said Wray, appointed to head the FBI by Trump last year after the president fired James Comey, should step down over the agency’s blunder. 
 
 “The FBI’s failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable,” Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. “We constantly promote ‘See something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act.” 
 
 The FBI separately has been criticized by some Republicans over its investigation of issues relating to Russia and the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 At the funeral on Friday for massacre victim Meadow Pollack, an 18-year-old senior, family friend Jeff Richman expressed dismay at the FBI’s failure. 
 
 “The FBI apologized? Tell that to families,” said Richman, 53, an advertising executive who lives in Parkland. 
 
 Broward County’s chief public defender, Howard Finkelstein, was quoted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper as saying that Cruz’s legal team planned to meet with prosecutors to offer a guilty plea in exchange for a life prison term. 
 
 “There is only one question: ‘Should this young man live or die by execution?’” Finkelstein told the Sun Sentinel. “We believe it’s in nobody’s best interest to go through a circus of a trial.” 
 
 The public defender’s office could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment. 
 
 Participants hold placards with the names of victims of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, during a candlelight vigil at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. February 16, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper 
 
 “KIDS DON’T NEED GUNS” 
 
 The massacre has raised concerns about potential lapses in school security and stirred the ongoing U.S. debate pitting proponents of tougher restrictions on firearms against advocates for gun rights, which are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment. 
 
 Authorities acknowledged that the tips to the FBI were not the only indications that Cruz was troubled. 
 
 Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told a news conference his office had received about 20 “calls for service” in the last few years regarding Cruz and would scrutinize all of them to see if they were handled properly. 
 
 Israel indicated law enforcement should not be held responsible for Wednesday’s tragedy. “The only one to blame for this killing is the killer himself,” he said. 
 
 Some political leaders including Trump have said mental illness prompted the shooting. Cruz had been expelled for undisclosed disciplinary reasons from the school where the attack occurred. Former classmates have described him as a social outcast trouble-maker with a fascination for weaponry. 
 
 Some relatives and friends of shooting victims blamed Florida’s lenient gun laws, which allow an 18-year-old to buy an assault rifle. Outside a vigil on Friday, a sign read: “Kids don’t need guns. No guns under 21.” 
 
 The outpouring of grief was reflected in a multitude of prayer services and vigils on Friday - a total of six at various places of worship in and around Parkland. Funerals for at least two victims were also held. 
 
 Late in the day, the Republican president and first lady Melania Trump visited a hospital where survivors from the shooting were treated, meeting privately with victims and medical staff. 
 
 “The job they’ve done is incredible and I want to congratulate you,” the president said as he shook one doctor’s hand in front of reporters afterward. Trump did not respond when asked if the nation’s gun laws needed to be changed, then walked into another room. 
 
 He later appeared at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, along with the governor and other politicians, offering praise to first responders for the “great job you’ve done.” 
 
 Slideshow (28 Images) 
 
 The vice mayor of Broward County, a strongly Democratic area, earlier blasted any visit by Trump, saying Republicans had failed to back common-sense gun laws and rolled back measures restricting severely mentally ill people from buying weapons. ||||| Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott is calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign, after the FBI admitted it received a tip about the suspect in the Parkland shooting as recently as January, but failed to follow through on it. 
 
 The FBI admitted in a statement Friday that it received a call on Jan. 5 detailing concerns about Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old law enforcement officials believe is responsible for the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this week. The FBI determined "protocols were not followed" when a tip was phoned into the FBI's public access line, but was never forwarded to the FBI's Miami field office and received no further investigation. 
 
 Scott called that "unacceptable" in a statement he issued Friday. 
 
 "The FBI's failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable," Scott said. "The FBI has admitted that they were contacted last month by a person who called to inform them of Cruz's 'desire to kill people,' and 'the potential of him conducting a school shooting.' 
 
 "Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn't going to cut it," Scott continued. "An apology will never bring these 17 Floridians back to life or comfort the families who are in pain. The families will spend a lifetime wondering how this could happen, and an apology will never give them the answers they desperately need. 
 
 We constantly promote 'see something, say something,' and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act. 'See something, say something' is an incredibly important tool and people must have confidence in the follow through from law enforcement. The FBI director needs to resign." 
 
 Wray's bureau is already under fire from the Trump administration over the Russia probe — which saw new indictments Friday against 13 Russians who tried to influence the 2016 presidential election — as well as over the surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page. 
 
 January was also not the first time law enforcement received information about Cruz. A YouTube user told CBS News he reported a post that he believes was from the suspect to the FBI back in September. 
 
 Attorney General Jeff Sessions noted the FBI's failures in a statement Friday. He has ordered Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to "conduct an immediate review" of the Justice Department's and FBI's approach to reviewing violent threats. 
 
 "It is now clear that the warning signs were there and tips to the FBI were missed," Sessions said. "We see the tragic consequences of those failures. The FBI in conjunction with our state and local partners must act flawlessly to prevent all attacks. This is imperative, and we must do better." 
 
 Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, called for congressional investigations of the FBI's failure. 
 
 "It is inexcusable that the FBI failed to follow protocols and inform the Miami Field Office that people close to the Parkland, FL shooter warned the bureau over a month ago of his desire to kill, his mental state, and erratic behavior," Rubio said in a statement. 
 
 "The fact that the FBI is investigating this failure is not enough. Both the House and Senate need to immediately initiate their own investigations into the FBI's protocols for ensuring tips from the public about potential killers are followed through. Lawmakers and law enforcement personnel constantly remind the public that 'if you see something, say something.' In this tragic case, people close to the shooter said something, and our system utterly failed the families of seventeen innocent souls." 
 
 Scott is considering a Senate bid in Florida to replace Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat. ||||| CNN will hold a town hall with the victims' classmates, parents and community members. "Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action" will air live Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. 
 
 (CNN) In an emotional rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, politicians and Marjory Stoneman Douglas students called for a ban on weapons like the one used to kill 17 people at the Florida high school, and urged voters to kick out lawmakers who oppose the move or who take money from the National Rifle Association. 
 
 "We certainly do not understand why it should be harder to make plans with friends on weekends than to buy an automatic or semiautomatic weapon," Gonzalez, who huddled in an auditorium during Wednesday's shooting, said at the rally outside a federal courthouse. 
 
 Gonzalez, whose palpable anger burst out in her words, demanded that laws change because she said they have not, while guns have changed. 
 
 "Maybe the adults have got used to saying, 'It is what it is,'" she said. "But if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead." 
 
 She addressed politicians, saying to those who take campaign donations from the NRA: "Shame on you." 
 
 Hundreds of people gathered began to chant, "Shame on you! Shame on you!" 
 
 As she ended her remarks, she shouted her disagreement with what she hears from the other side of the gun laws debate. 
 
 "Politicians who sit in their gilded house and senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS!" she said. 
 
 "They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS," she cried with the crowd screaming along with the final word. 
 
 Latest developments 
 
 • JetBlue Airways is offering free flights to family members of the shooting victims traveling to Parkland. The airline will also provide free ground transportation via ride-hailing platform Lyft. 
 
 • The defense team says NIkolas Cruz will plead guilty if prosecutors don't seek the death penalty, but the state attorney won't rule that out. 
 
 • The school district has proposed tearing down the building where the shooting happened, Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said. 
 
 • President Donald Trump and the first lady visited wounded patients at a Florida hospital. 
 
 • Three shooting victims remain in hospitals. Broward Health North in Pompano Beach has two patients in fair condition, and Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale has one patient in fair condition, according to a statement from hospital officials. 
 
 • Math teacher Jim Gard says an administrator sent an email in late 2016, asking to be notified if Cruz came on campus with a backpack. The administrator gave no explanation for the email, Gard said. 
 
 Call for ban on some weapons 
 
 JUST WATCHED Florida student to politicians: We call BS Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Florida student to politicians: We call BS 01:17 
 
 The man who kicked off the rally, state Sen. Gary Farmer, called for legislation to ban what he called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and establish a gun registry. 
 
 He said people calling for a focus on increasing school security are "missing the point," because even if security were strengthened, people with semiautomatic military-style rifles still could kill at parks and churches. 
 
 A crowd at times chanted, "Vote them out!" Some held signs such as "Vote Blue" and "Protect children, not guns." 
 
 In a speech to supporters of the President in Dallas, Vice President Mike Pence said Washington will play a role in solutions 
 
 "We will get to the bottom of what happened (in Parkland)," he said Saturday. "And as we speak, the Justice Department is already working with agencies across our government to study the intersection of mental health and criminality. And when President Trump meets with our nation's governors in just a few short weeks, he will make the safety of our nation's schools our top administration priority." 
 
 Teacher: 'He fell through the cracks' 
 
 Laurel Holland, a retired teacher who had the shooter in her junior year English class in 2016, told CNN that Cruz cursed her out during midterm exams and was suspended. 
 
 She said his troubling behavior made her uncomfortable, citing one time when he was caught at school with a gun-related object in his backpack. But she said teachers don't know what to do when kids exhibit "nebulous" behavior. 
 
 Kids who act out are referred to administrators, she said. Kids who cut class get detention. If she saw someone with suspicious bruises, she'd know to call social workers, who would later get police involved. But with Cruz, there was no clear path. 
 
 "He fell through the cracks because we don't know what to do," she said. 
 
 Holland, who now lives in North Carolina, said the warning signs were clear enough that when she first heard about Wednesday's shooting, she "knew it was him." 
 
 Cruz's disciplinary record shows he was suspended two days for the incident with Holland, one of many times since he started middle school that he faced disciplinary action that included in-school and out-of-school suspensions and detention. 
 
 Most of the punishments were for bad language or disrupting class, but one was for fighting and another, in January 2017 while he was still at Stoneman Douglas, was for assault. 
 
 The entries on his records indicate a parents conference was often held and sometimes the infractions were just days apart. The records also show Cruz received individual counseling on several occasions. 
 
 Will Cruz face death? 
 
 Cruz is willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty and spare the community from reliving the massacre in a trial, the top public defender said Friday. 
 
 Cruz, 19, faces charges of premeditated murder in Wednesday's shooting at the high school in Parkland that left 17 people dead. 
 
 Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing the confessed gunman, said there's no question he killed the 14 students and three staff members. 
 
 "The only question is, does he live or does he die?" Finkelstein asked. 
 
 Prosecutors would need to agree not to ask for capital punishment and allow life without parole instead. 
 
 Saturday, State Attorney Michael J. Satz said this "certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for," but that now is the time "to let the families grieve and bury their children and loved ones." 
 
 "Our office will announce our formal position at the appropriate time," Satz said. 
 
 Cruz is being held without bond following a video hearing Thursday in a Broward County court. 
 
 President visits victims 
 
 The President also went to the Broward County Sheriff's Office headquarters, where he met with first responders who played a role in rescues and the arrest of the shooter. 
 
 "What a great job you've done, and we appreciate it very much," he said. 
 
 Trump told reporters at Broward Health North that he spoke to victims, and he applauded the efforts of the hospital staff and first responders to save lives. 
 
 Our entire Nation, w/one heavy heart, continues to pray for the victims & their families in Parkland, FL. To teachers, law enforcement, first responders & medical professionals who responded so bravely in the face of danger: We THANK YOU for your courage! https://t.co/3yJsrebZMG pic.twitter.com/ti791dENTy — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018 
 
 When asked whether more gun laws were needed to prevent school shootings, he did not respond. 
 
 FBI says it failed to act on January tip 
 
 As the victims' loved ones mourn, more signs are emerging that authorities missed opportunities to intervene weeks before the massacre. 
 
 The FBI has acknowledged receiving two tips that appear to relate to Cruz ahead of the shooting. One was a January 5 call to a tip line from someone close to him -- one that the FBI said it failed to act on 
 
 The caller provided information about "Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." 
 
 The information should have been assessed as a "potential threat to life," but the proper protocols weren't followed and the FBI's Miami office was not notified, the agency said. 
 
 FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau is investigating what happened. 
 
 "We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy," Wray said in a statement. 
 
 The FBI's admission prompted Florida Gov. Rick Scott to call on Wray to resign 
 
 Also, a video blogger said he warned the FBI in September about a possible school shooting threat from a YouTube user with the same name as Cruz. An FBI agent confirmed a field officer in Jackson, Mississippi, received the tip and interviewed the person who shared it. 
 
 But no additional information was found to help identify the person who posted the comment and no connection was made to South Florida, said Robert Lasky, FBI special agent in charge of the Miami division. 
 
 Social media posts 
 
 Cruz's apparent digital footprint includes slurs against blacks and Muslims, and declarations of a desire to shoot people. Other social media posts show a photo of a rifle, a collection of firearms on a bed, and a photo taken through a scope looking out a window. 
 
 In a private Instagram group chat, Cruz talked about killing Mexicans, keeping black people in chains and cutting their necks. After one member expressed hatred for gay people, Cruz agreed, saying, "Shoot them in the back of head." 
 
 At one point in the chat, he wrote, "I think I am going to kill people." After a member told him not to say things like that, he said he was just playing. 
 
 In a public post on his Instagram page, Cruz showed what he called an "arsenal" on a bed -- seven guns and body armor. Another post on the page is a view down the barrel of a gun with a holographic sight out a window onto the street. 
 
 Cruz was staying with the family of someone he met at the high school after his adoptive parents died, said Jim Lewis, the host family's attorney. 
 
 The family knew he had a gun. "They had it locked up, and believed that that was going to be sufficient, that there wasn't going to be a problem," Lewis said. 
 
 The family was unaware of any mental illness beyond depression over his adoptive mother's recent death, the lawyer said. 
 
 But Gordon Weekes, executive chief assistant of Broward's public defender's office, said Thursday that Cruz is "suffering from significant mental illness and significant trauma." 
 
 Before his mother died, Broward sheriff's deputies were called to the Cruz family home 39 times since 2010, according to documents obtained by CNN. 
 
 The sheriff's office received a range of emergency calls that included reports of a mentally ill person, child/elderly abuse, a domestic disturbance and a missing person. 
 
 There were 20 calls for service over the past "few years" pertaining to Cruz, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
– A tip about one "Nikolas Cruz" had been investigated by the FBI back in September, though nothing seems to have come out of it. Now CBS News and NBC News are reporting on a new admission from the FBI that "protocols were not followed" for a separate tip about the Parkland shooting suspect received early last month. Someone said to be close to Cruz called the FBI's Public Access Line on Jan. 5 and offered info on "Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting," per an FBI release. However, although the info from that call should have placed Cruz on a "potential threat to life" list, spurring further local investigation, that never happened. "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," FBI Director Christopher Wray says. He adds that the FBI has spoken with survivors and victims' families and "deeply [regrets] the additional pain this causes." The FBI currently has a dedicated webpage set up regarding the shooting for people to send tips to.