Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Deputy Peterson recommended Cruz under the Baker Act

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 Nikolas 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.

The documents, which are part of Cruz's criminal case in the shooting, show that he had written the word "kill" in a notebook, told a classmate that he wanted to buy a gun and use it, and had cut his arm supposedly in anger because he had broken up with a girlfriend. He also told another student he had drunk gasoline and was throwing up. Calls had even been made to the FBI about the possibility of Cruz using a gun at school.

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.
FBI admits it failed to investigate specific tip on Florida shooting suspect

Such an involuntary commitment would also have been a high obstacle if not a complete barrier to legally obtaining a firearm, such as the AR-15 rifle used in the Stoneman Douglas massacre on Feb. 14, authorities say.

There is no evidence Cruz was ever committed. Coincidentally, the school resource officer who recommended that Cruz be "Baker Acted" was Scot Peterson — the same Broward Sheriff's Office deputy who resigned amid accusations he failed to respond to the shooting by staying outside the building where the killings occurred.

Another example of a law already on the books that was ignored. Solution? New laws.

...AND another failure by the FBI to prevent a crime they were aware of ahead of time. Pulse nightclub, San Bernardino, etc, etc, etc....

They’re so busy cock blocking their political rivals that they’ve no time to do what they were chartered to do. They’re waging a war against the American people and the constitution by acting as the enforcement branch of the Democratic Party. They’re all too happy to shoot women, children and old men on snowy backroads but they’re impotent to stop crimes that they’re aware of. If they can’t dress up in tactical clothing and shoot unarmed citizens or strut around like the weaklings they are then they’re uninterested in doing anything except cash their checks. They’ll continue their political conquest of us through intimidation and murder until we’ve had enough, but as I’ve said before, when “we’ve” had enough there’s 65 million people that want more. I’m hoping that the President is successful in cleaning up this mess before we reach the point of civil war. McVeigh might have been ahead of his time......and the Feds still use children as their shield.

The leadership of the FBI was tied to Hillary clintoon getting elected and then becoming part of their new socialist government they failed the rest of America. I am amazed and appalled at just how many people in the federal government were tied to the bill and hilllary clintoon liberal anarchist bandwagon. It appears that swamp D.C. is truly a socialist underground government just waiting for the right time to emerge and take over. Thank God above for all of the Americans who rejected her and did not vote her. I am afraid for our future. You know they are not done yet.

kwg

What do they mean, "wasn't acted upon?"

JUST EXACTLY WHO didn't act on it?

So Peterson was a visionary that turned out to be a coward. That's a hell of a legacy. He should be proud.

Y'all need to focus... Again.

We all know it was the gun's fault. Therefore we need more laws to guarantee this will never, ever happen again. Ever.

Because we all know that the shooters obey all laws.

A glaring example of democrap "leadership".

The school super was typical lazy black liberal in a position of most likely unmerited authority. Soft on problem kids.

Nuff said

What if we had a law to make it a crime to kill people, that law would cover bombs, cars, trucks, knives et al.

THAT is the $64 question.

Who didn't act on this, who's job was it to evaluate and "act" as necessary ?

Who, in the FBI, failed to act on the call, from one of Cruz's "Friends" telling them he had guns, was crazy, and talking about shooting up a school ?

These shot nosed punks, walking out of school for 17 minuets, this is the question they should have painted on their signs.

That's madness! Madness, I say! Such a thing could never be accomplished!

(Rick Bin, we desperately need a sacrcasm emoticon!)

Ed

What should have happened here is that, immediately after reaching the decision Cruz should have been Baker-acted, he should have been taken into custody (by BSO, or PBSO depending on where he was located at the time), and brought to Henderson for inpatient evaluation. Again, no one knows why this wasn't done, nor did the SRO seem to follow up with that finding, unless instead of Baker acting Cruz, they moved him to the “special school” to follow him.

What the vast majority of the country seems to be missing, and which is not really publicized in news reports, not only does South Florida have horrendous educational leadership made up of politicians and top heavy administrators on the take, we also have a ton of seriously disturbed students being poorly dealt with due to the system. Ive seen it my entire life as my Mom, now retired, was an Exceptional (Special) Ed teacher in Dade County (Miami) for 30 years, and my ex wife a Speech Path in Broward. If I told you some of the things Ive seen and heard, you wouldn't believe it. Seriously emotionally disturbed kids exactly like Cruz taken from schools and programs set up specifically to deal with these kids, and mainstreamed into regular schools and classes, where they continually disrupt and affect other kids’ learning until they get tossed, drop out, or wind up in trouble with law enforcement and placed into diversion programs. In my experience, we current have other kids in school here just as disturbed and dangerous as Cruz, and the admins will not do anything with them either until after something happens. Sad.

Being born and raised in Broward County, and going through public school here, we did not have many, if at all any, significantly disturbed kids in school. My question is, where the hell did all these kids come from?

Craig

It would be interesting to see a list of the the calls to the FBI about kids like Cruz and see what the FBI's action has been . Bet it would show they are just sitting on their asses more less.

Peterson likely knew who was on the trigger when the first shot rang out.

Exactly...

Not incompetence. A conspiracy.

That negro obamanite who came from the Chicago Schoold system and nixed the process in order to make the statistics look good showing less miscreants going to jail.