Parents of Parkland HS shooting victim sue FBI

Philip and April Schentrup claim the FBI could have done more to prevent the Parkland massacre that claimed the life of their daughter, Carmen, and 16 others.

If the FBI had followed protocol and acted on the warnings about the mental stability of the Parkland shooter, the country's deadliest school mass shooting might never have occurred, say the parents of a Filipina American victim.

Philip and April Schentrup say their daughter Carmen, a Stoneman Douglas High School senior gunned down last year, would still be alive if the FBI had not bungled the case.
The lawsuit filed last month seeks unspecified damages in a wrongful death suit.

Nikolas Cruz, 20, confessed to the massacre that occurred on Valentine's Day in 2018.  He killed 17 and wounded another 17 students and staff of the Florida school. His murder trial is scheduled for Jan. 20 next year.

Forty days before the mass shooting, the FBI received a tip saying Cruz was stockpiling weapons and threatening to shoot up the school. "I know he's going to explode," said the tipster.

CARMEN SCHENTRUP

The FBI employee who received the call never passed on the information to the FBI's Miami field office, the suit alleges.

“Before the Parkland shooting, law enforcement, including the FBI, received several warnings about Nikolas Cruz’s desire and capability to carry out a school shooting,” the Schentrup lawsuit says. “Despite the FBI’s awareness of Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts, and the potential of him conducting a school shooting, the FBI failed to follow established protocols that would have prevented the shooting from taking place.”

The Schentrups’ lawsuit is the second leveling blame at the FBI. The parents of Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg, 14, filed a wrongful death suit against the agency in November.

The families of other Parkland victims have filed 22 lawsuits against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward School District.

On March 14th, a month after the school massacre, then acting deputy director of the FBI David Bowdich outlined before a Senate judiciary committee investigating the shooting, the missed tips the agency received about Cruz, including:

• In January 2013, the shooter's mother, Lynda Cruz, called the Sheriff’s Office after he threw her against a wall.

• In February 2016, the Sheriff’s Office got a report from a neighbor saying Cruz was posting photos of himself with guns on Instagram and saying he planned to shoot up his high school.

• In February 2017, Cruz bought the AR-15 he used in the shooting. In the year leading up to the shooting, he purchased at least five weapons, all rifles and shotguns.

• In September 2017, a Mississippi man called in a tip to the FBI saying Cruz posted a threatening comment on YouTube saying he wanted to be a school shooter. Two FBI agents interviewed the tipster the next day, but by October, the agency had closed its file on the matter.

• In November 2017, a cousin of Cruz’s mother called the Sheriff’s Office to urge the agency to seize his weapons.

• A few weeks later, a family friend called police to report a fight between Cruz and her son. She said Cruz turned violent, punched walls and left to get a gun.

• On Nov. 30, 2017, the Sheriff’s Office got a tip from a caller in Massachusetts who said she believed Cruz was stockpiling guns and knives and could be a school shooter in the making.

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Carmen Schentrup, a Stoneman Douglas senior gunned down in one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings, would be alive today had the FBI not bungled the case, her parents claim in a new lawsuit.

Philip and April Schentrup are seeking unspecified damages in a wrongful death suit filed against the agency Friday in federal court.

Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, walked into the school with an AR-15 on Valentine’s Day last year, firing round after round. Carmen Schentrup was among 17 who died that day. Another 17 were wounded.

Cruz, 20, has confessed to the massacre and is awaiting trial.

One warning about the unstable young man who’d been stockpiling guns and threatening to shoot up a school came on Jan 5, 2018.

“I know he’s going to explode,” the tipster told the FBI.

Forty days later, Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and “executed” Carmen Schentrup along with 16 other students and staff.

The FBI phone operator who took the tip that Cruz “was going to slip into a school and start shooting the place up” never passed it along to the agency’s Miami field office, the lawsuit says.

That fatal mistake was a clear violation of protocol — a fact acknowledged by the FBI just two days after the shooting.

The Schentrups’ lawsuit is the second leveling blame at the FBI. The parents of Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg, 14, filed a wrongful death suit against the agency in November.

he families of other Parkland victims have filed 22 lawsuits against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward School District.

“Before the Parkland shooting, law enforcement, including the FBI, received several warnings about Nikolas Cruz’s desire and capability to carry out a school shooting,” the Schentrup lawsuit says. “Despite the FBI’s awareness of Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts, and the potential of him conducting a school shooting, the FBI failed to follow established protocols that would have prevented the shooting from taking place.”

The suit goes on to list all the warnings and tips that went ignored.

Some of the failures detailed in the lawsuit:

• In January 2013, his mother, Lynda Cruz, called the Sheriff’s Office after he threw her against a wall.
• In February 2016, the Sheriff’s Office got a report from a neighbor saying Cruz was posting photos of himself with guns on Instagram and saying he planned to shoot up his high school.
• In February 2017, Cruz bought the AR-15 he used in the shooting. In the year leading up to the shooting, he purchased at least five weapons, all rifles and shotguns.
• In September 2017, a Mississippi man called in a tip to the FBI saying Cruz posted a threatening comment on YouTube saying he wanted to be a school shooter. Two FBI agents interviewed the tipster the next day, but by October, the agency had closed its file on the matter.
• In November 2017, a cousin of Cruz’s mother called the Sheriff’s Office to urge the agency to seize his weapons.

• A few weeks later, a family friend called police to report a fight between Cruz and her son. She said Cruz turned violent, punched walls and left to get a gun.
• On Nov. 30, 2017, the Sheriff’s Office got a tip from a caller in Massachusetts who said she believed Cruz was stockpiling guns and knives and could be a school shooter in the making.

Then came the tip in January 2018, just five weeks before the shooting.

“The caller also explained that Cruz’s Instagram accounts contained photos of animals Cruz had mutilated and killed,” the lawsuit said. “She told the FBI that Cruz’s interest in killing animals, cutting them up, and posting photos of them was a red flag.”

The parents of Carmen Schentrup, a 16-year-old Fil-Am student who was killed in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida on valentine’s day last year filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for negligence.

The complaint alleges that the FBI ignored a tip weeks before the mass shooting that the gunman — Nikolas Cruz — was “going to slip into a school and start shooting up the place.”

17 people were killed that day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Schentrup family lawyer, Robert Stein, spoke to BA about the lawsuit.

“The FBI was provided with detailed information ahead of this tragedy and was in a unique position to prevent carmen’s death. The FBI utterly failed to follow its own protocols and procedures by failing to investigate and fulfill its duty.”

The complaint alleges that the FBI got enough warnings about the confessed shooter including one the agency reportedly received just 40 days before the shooting from a woman who knew Cruz.”

The lawsuit also shows several screenshots of Cruz’s social media accounts, including the one he posted on a youtube page that was reported to the FBI.

“The information was never forwarded to a field office or to any of our state and local partners for review or action.”

On March 14th, a month after the school massacre, then acting deputy director of the FBI David Bowdich outlined before a Senate judiciary committee investigating the shooting, the missed tips the agency received about Cruz.

“The FBI could have and should have done more to investigate the information it was provided prior to the shooting.”

Despite that admission, the Schentrup faces a tough legal battle. Their lawyer said it is generally difficult to the sue the federal government.

Another parkland family filed a lawsuit against the FBI in November 2018.

Both families claim that if the agency had just followed what they were supposed to do, then their daughters would be alive today. Both lawsuits claim wrongful death damages for their losses but they do not state monetary amount.

Meanwhile, Cruz was back in court yesterday where judge Elizabeth Scherer set January 20, 2020 as the start of the murder trial.