Posted on 06/05/2018 11:28:01 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
An unarmed security monitor in a golf cart was the first person to see Nikolas Cruz step out of an Uber, a large bag in hand, and stride toward Building 12 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High just before the worst school shooting in state history.
Cruz, however, was no stranger to staff.
"Nikolas Cruz. I knew the kid," security guard Andrew Medina told Broward detectives in a sworn video-recorded statement released by prosecutors on Tuesday evening.
As soon as Cruz began walking "like on a mission" toward the building, Medina followed and began frantically texting fellow security guards. "We had a meeting about him last year and we said if there's gonna be anybody whose gonna come to this school and shoot this school up, it's going to be that kid," Medina told detectives on the day of the Feb. 14 shooting.
Cruz had earlier been transferred out of the school because of his behavior.
"He was rebellious, you know ... he had 666 on his book bag. He had the [anti-] Jewish swastika. He had all that crazy stuff. ... All the signs were there, so they, they got rid of him," Medina said.
Medina's testimony to detectives details what became alarmingly clear after the shooting: School officials long knew about Cruz's bouts of rage, obsession with weapons and Nazi imagery and violent outbursts against fellow students. Cruz was also assigned to a controversial program that diverts troubled students to alternative schools over the criminal-justice system — critics contend the program encourages a culture of lax discipline. The Broward County School District says he never showed up for those classes.
Yet, Cruz had avoided any arrests, and despite his history of mental health problems, was able to buy a cache of weapons.
"Just crazy," Medina recalled of Cruz during the teen's time at Parkland. "And we always was watching him, you know. Like, it was one of those kids that we always kept an eye on."
The Broward State Attorney's Office released Medina's statement on Tuesday as part of the ongoing criminal case against Cruz, who fatally shot 17 people and wounded 17 more during the Feb. 14 massacre at the Parkland high school. The video is evidence against Cruz, 19, who faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
The carnage sparked a wave of student activism, changes to Florida's gun laws and scrutiny on the actions of law enforcement during the pivotal first moments of yet another public massacre.
Medina, 39, is a baseball coach and monitor whose chief job is to make sure gates are locked, or opened for dismissal, while watching for intruders or students trying to leave. In an interview with the Sun Sentinel, which obtained a transcript of his statement, Medina last week denied he recognized Cruz or that staff had met about him. That claim is contradicted by the video of his talk with detectives.
After Cruz ran into the building, Medina also told detectives he heard gunshots ring out within moments.
Medina rushed to the campus office, where he summoned school resource officer Scot Peterson. Unsure of what exactly the sounds were, Medina picked up Peterson and the two rushed over to Building 12.
"I heard 15 bangs," Medina said. "And it was loud. Like, you could kind of feel the percussion coming out of that building, the echo coming out of the door of the building. ... It was kind of surreal."
Peterson told him "we got a shooter on, on campus," Medina recalled.
But Peterson, the only armed official on campus at the time, yelled for Medina to return to the front of the school. Peterson has since become the focus of national scorn when the Broward Sheriff's Office revealed that he never entered Building 12 to confront the shooter.
Breaking his silence this week, Peterson insisted he was not sure the gunfire was coming from inside the building — and even shifted the blame toward Medina for not giving him enough details about the shooter. That claim also seems to conflict with Medina's interview with detectives on the day of the shooting.
Wouldn’t it be a little difficult, for them to keep an eye 👁 on him, if their eyes 👀 were already closed?
[In an interview with the Sun Sentinel, which obtained a transcript of his statement, Medina last week denied he recognized Cruz or that staff had met about him. That claim is contradicted by the video of his talk with detectives.]
What in the world.....so was he lying then or is he lying now?
>> their eyes were already closed.
The school board and sheriffs dept demanded the negligence.
Haven't seen this detail before--similar to Santa Fe.
Lying to the Police is a crime.
Lying to the Media is not.
I'm gonna go with "Lying then".
>>The video is evidence against Cruz,
Sounds like evidence against the school and police. It doesn’t help Shooter Cruz but it does expose negligence by others in not preventing or halting this.
The shooter shot. There is no case of mistaken identity. How does this help convict him?
>>Yet, Cruz had avoided any arrests, and despite his history of mental health problems, was able to buy a cache of weapons.
Blame the authorities. The police were responsible for not entering his record into the database.
But the MiHe isn’t saying that, so more guns must be grabbed. He “Fell through the cracks” because the authority figures MiHe trusts didn’t do their job.
How about we lock up the criminally insane instead? He could still be found “not guilty by reason of insanity” and how will that sit with the public? If he isn’t to be held accountable for his actions, then he shouldn’t be walking around freely to begin with.
Texts should be easy enough to track.....so we will find out. 666 on his bag huh? My hubby and I were discussing the shocking numbers of kids turning to Islam to rebel against their Christian parents.
And yet the Left tries to portray these as white male Christian shooters. And when shooters specifically ask their victims if they are Christian and shoot the Christians, they claim that isn’t important.
e had the [anti-] Jewish swastika.”
The writer had to add “anti” so readers would know it’s a bad thing. You know... so people can distinguish it from that other PRO-Jewish swastika that’s so popular. Sheesh!
Is this the coward of Broward?
Gosh I didn't realize he was bravely texting. I had thought he would do something like try to stop him, but he risked his life sending text messages to OTHER officers to do that.
“so was he lying then or is he lying now?”
My guess is that he’s lying now. If authorities, or citizens, knew he was aware and didn’t say/do anything, it’s possible he could be held partially liable. It’s safer to go all Sgt. Schultz and “know nothing”.
Not a guard, but a low paid monitor who talks like he’s nearly illiterate.
I’ve dealt with CPS before. The Child ‘protective’ Services are happy to involved themselves EXCEPT when there is any real issues - then they are afraid to act.
>>Breaking his silence this week, Peterson insisted he was not sure the gunfire was coming from inside the building — and even shifted the blame toward Medina for not giving him enough details about the shooter. That claim also seems to conflict with Medina’s interview with detectives on the day of the shooting.
Then there are the police who stood outside and “set up a perimeter” through which the shooter escaped?
>>Yet, Cruz had avoided any arrests, and despite his history of mental health problems, was able to buy a cache of weapons.
His having avoided arrests was directly because of policy that the Broward school superintendent, board of education, Sheriff, and others had put in place. Look up the Broward Promise. They were feted nationally, other school systems took up the policy, they were lauded by Obama and his Administration, who were using this as a model for national policy.
That we are talking about guns in the wake of Parkland, and not talking about this massive policy failure, and reversing it, is criminal.
Correct, ignoring criminal behavior by minority students was policy, and as a result Cruz didn’t have a record. This allowed him to legally purchase his murder weapons.
Shout it from the rooftops.
>>My hubby and I were discussing the shocking numbers of kids turning to Islam to rebel against their Christian parents.
Obama, CAIR, Auntiefahhhhhh, and CPUSA have encouraged students turn to Islamic supremacy or Communism-Socialism to rebel against their parents. The Communists and Black Panthers (echoing the Communists) have encouraged kids to kill their parents for 50 years. This is the approved rebellion against the past.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5gy7g8/bobby-v14n9
Labor Day Bobby-que - Bobby Seale was the founding chairman of the Black Panther Party. (2007)
Q: What was Eldridge like?
A: Eldridge was just a pure anarchist. He wanted to pull that Bakunin bullsh!t off, you know what I mean? I mean, to show you what I’m talking about, Eldridge put out a pamphlet called “Catechism of a Revolutionary”—this is after that shoot-out situation. This is a Black Panther Party Ministry of Information pamphlet. I had not read this sh!t, OK? I did not know it was all Bakunin, the 1800s anarchist. And Marlon Brando called me up, he said, “Bobby! I’m not going to send you any more money.” Because Brando would give me money. I guess he must have donated ten grand to me. But he says, “I’m not gonna work with you guys any more. You’re running around telling people to kill their mother and father for the revolution. That ain’t right.” I said, “We don’t do any such g-d- thing, what the hell’s wrong with you, Marlon?” “Here on page so-and-so!” “Of what?” He says, “Your ‘Catechism of a Revolutionary’!” So I says, “Rosemary, hand me that out of my briefcase.” I had the thing in my briefcase for two months and never read the damn thing because I’m busy, I’m organizing too much. So I got on page so-and-so, and he’s reading, “Kill their mothers and…” and I says, “Damn, I’m sorry, man…” He says, “OK, I’ll see you, bye”—click. So I lost my funding source because of Eldridge Cleaver’s bull. Later in life, I’m really taking the time to look at this and put two and two together. When I go back to speaking with Eldridge in 1992, we got a chance to get in various conversations. So I’m asking Eldridge, you had “Catechism of a Revolutionary.” I remember you called Martin Luther King a nonviolent fool. Now you’re a born-again Christian on the other side of the fence. So when Little Bobby Hutton was killed, were you operating from the standpoint of “Catechism of a Revolutionary”? He said, yeah, I was just stupid, I just thought we had to do something, boom boom boom.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/08/05/the-three-piece-jerry-rubin/d49aae35-8ff1-4041-8f46-d79d65ae0464/?noredirect=on
The Three-Piece Jerry Rubin
August 5, 1980
...First, he made a living off the Movement, no mean feat in itself. He wrote books and made speeches about how kids should drop out and turn on and “Do It!” He penned everybody’s pet paranoid phrase, “Kill your parents...”
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