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On Feb. 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, pulled the fire alarm and shot 17 people as they evacuated the building. Similar tragedies happen far too often in the U.S. but one aspect of this event stands out: many people saw it coming. Before his expulsion from school, Cruz's classmates avoided him. His writings were ominous and threatening. He declared on social media that he wanted to be a "professional school shooter," which an online user reported to the FBI. Since 2010, police responded to dozens of calls related to Cruz. The fact that so few were surprised to hear Cruz identified as the shooter makes this event exceptionally tragic.
Ignored Clues
One myth about mass violence is that people just "snap" and suddenly begin killing people. After the Virginia Tech shooting in which Seung-hui Cho killed 32 people, one tearful young woman told a reporter, "he just snapped. There wasn't anything we could have done."
On the contrary, he did not just "snap." However, this is the type of sound bite that typically makes its way into media coverage of violent acts, whether on school campuses or in workplaces. In fact, leading up to the shooting at least two professors at the institute identified Cho's behavior as becoming more disturbing. He had intimidated several female students and his writings had taken on more violent, obscene themes. On at least two occasions, campus police gave Cho a verbal warning regarding stalking complaints.
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