MIAMI (AP) — Officials were so concerned about the mental stability of the student accused of last month’s Florida school massacre that they decided he should be forcibly committed.
But the recommendation was never acted upon.
A commitment under the law would have made it more difficult if not impossible for Cruz to obtain a gun legally.Cruz is accused of the shooting rampage that killed 14 students and three school employees at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14. In addition, 17 people were wounded.
But more than a year earlier, documents in the criminal case against Nikolas Cruz and obtained by The Associated Press show school officials and a sheriff’s deputy recommended in September 2016 that Cruz be involuntarily committed for a mental evaluation.
Some wanted Florida shooting suspect committed in 2016.
I am not surprised and I actually I was expecting this. But the next part opens more questions than gives answers.
The documents were provided by a psychological assessment service initiated by Cruz’s mother called Henderson Behavioral Health. The documents show a high school resource officer who was also a sheriff’s deputy and two school counselors recommended in September 2016 that Cruz be committed for mental evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act. That law allows for involuntary commitment for mental health examination for at least three days.
Why did the Deputy did not start the Baker Act Procedures? LEOs can get it started if they see a suspect that can be a danger to himself or others. And if he wanted to commit Cruz via Baker Act, how come it did not happen? Was it laziness or orders not to upset the statistical apple cart with a bad entry?
More and more convincing evidence is coming out that this was a preventable event, something that does not happen often. And instead of going after those who failed on their duties and pass legislation that prohibits the doctoring of school crime and violence records, citizens in the Sunshine State got shafted by a weak-kneed GOP and a Governor who probably got advised by a former Jeb Bush electoral advisor that signing the legislation would make him the next U.S. Senator for the state of Florida.
No surprise there. The sheriff failed in his duty, again, but don’t worry–the NRA is the bad guy here. Just ask the derelict-in-his-duties sheriff and he’ll tell you how bad and evil gun owners are.
I have no doubt the deputy who wanted to have Cruz committed was ordered to drop it. I’d bet money on it. Sheriff Israel had an agreement with the schools, and they couldn’t risk this kind of thing showing up on their stats. Money was at stake.
Preventable, or deliberate? There was certainly plenty of motive for the Sheriff’s department to have wanted a high-profile, high fatality shooting to happen. School shootings are one of the left’s most effective vectors when pushing for gun control (which proved successful yet again, with even more curtailments on liberties in democrat-run areas), and Israel himself claimed that if they just had a few more options they would have been able to stop it, which is of course the oldest play in the leftist playbook.
I maintain that this was not just an act of gross and criminal negligence, but a deliberate ploy intended to spark the largest anti-gun push in American history.