Loomer Unleashed - January 01, 2018


Laura Loomer Interviews Man Who Reported Florida Shooter to FBI


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

148.56459

Word count

2,122

Sentence count

123


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I speak with a man who reported a disturbing comment made by Nikolas Cruz to the FBI in September of 2018. He talks about the process of reporting the comment, how the FBI responded, and what he learned about the Florida shooter.

Transcript

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00:00:06.000 All right.
00:00:07.000 So, Ben, I understand that you have a YouTube channel, and about six months ago or so, you posted a video and you received an alarming comment on your YouTube channel from the Florida shooter, Nicholas Cruz.
00:00:22.000 Can you tell me about that?
00:00:24.000 Well, it was in September.
00:00:27.000 Yeah, I received a comment on my channel on one of my videos.
00:00:32.000 I don't know which video it was.
00:00:35.000 I wish I did because I see a lot of people ask me that.
00:00:40.000 And it just said, I'm going to be a professional school shooter.
00:00:46.000 So I reported it to the FBI.
00:00:49.000 They came out and saw me the very next day, or the next morning after I reported it.
00:00:57.000 And then I didn't hear anything else about it until, well, yesterday when after the school shooting happened, they contacted me and came out and met with me again and asked me if I had any further information.
00:01:13.000 Right.
00:01:15.000 So the so the FBI, how did they, how did they contact you when you first reported it?
00:01:20.000 Explain that process.
00:01:22.000 What happened exactly?
00:01:23.000 You saw the comment.
00:01:24.000 Just walk people through the process of reporting a threat to the FBI.
00:01:27.000 What did you do exactly?
00:01:29.000 Well, first I tried to find an email address for the FBI.
00:01:32.000 I found one that turned out to be not good at email address.
00:01:40.000 And so I just called and left a message.
00:01:43.000 And they called me back the very next day and asked if they could come out and see me face to face.
00:01:52.000 And they came to my office and I shared the information that I had with them.
00:01:59.000 So which number did you call exactly?
00:02:01.000 Did you call the national hotline number listed for the DC office or did you call like your local FBI office?
00:02:08.000 I called a local number.
00:02:10.000 And where do you live?
00:02:12.000 I live in South Mississippi.
00:02:15.000 All right.
00:02:15.000 And so they were quick to get back to you.
00:02:18.000 And then how many agents responded to your office the next day?
00:02:22.000 Two agents.
00:02:23.000 Two agents.
00:02:24.000 And what was that process like?
00:02:25.000 How did that, you know, how did that go down when they came to your office?
00:02:30.000 Well, they just came in and introduced themselves and asked what I had and I showed them the screenshots and the comments.
00:02:39.000 And they asked me a few questions about, you know, if I knew anything more.
00:02:44.000 And, you know, all I could tell them was, no, all I got here is a screenshot.
00:02:48.000 I don't know anything about the guy.
00:02:51.000 And they went back on about their business.
00:02:56.000 It took, you know, roughly 15 or 20 minutes.
00:02:58.000 And they were polite, professional, and, you know, sort of to the point.
00:03:04.000 Right.
00:03:04.000 So what kind of YouTube channel do you run just so people get an idea of the type of video that this comment was posted under?
00:03:13.000 I run a YouTube channel that talks about the bell bonding industry, the bellbonding business, and my experiences as a bondsman.
00:03:25.000 And what was the title of the video that the shooter commented under?
00:03:29.000 What do you think piqued his interest for your video?
00:03:33.000 I don't know what video it was.
00:03:37.000 So it was just a comment.
00:03:38.000 That's interesting.
00:03:41.000 No, it was a comment on the video, on a video.
00:03:44.000 I just don't know which video it was.
00:03:46.000 Okay.
00:03:47.000 But all of your videos are generally about the bond industry.
00:03:52.000 90% of them.
00:03:53.000 The ones that aren't are about subject matters that are so irrelevant to what's going on, it's not even funny.
00:04:02.000 Right.
00:04:02.000 So, it could have it could be possible that maybe he was, you know, he's been planning this attack for a while now, and maybe he was looking up, you know, legal consequences or bonds or, you know, looking up bond services because a lot of people said that he was a troubled teen.
00:04:17.000 So, you know, that could have been what piqued his interest in your video.
00:04:22.000 Given the fact that you reported this six months ago, and you know, as we as we saw yesterday, this individual who not only was reported by you to the FBI, but was also, you know, reported by, you know, his classmates and teachers to school officials.
00:04:41.000 He was expelled.
00:04:42.000 He was known as problematic, wasn't shy about posting his behavior and his weapons and his sick desires to kill innocent animals on his social media.
00:04:54.000 How did it make you feel when you found out who the shooter was?
00:04:59.000 You know, I only learned who the shooter was when the FBI came to my house yesterday.
00:05:08.000 As far as all the other stuff you just said, I've been so busy with media and interviews today, I haven't actually been able to catch up on the news stories.
00:05:20.000 So I'm not aware of the things that you just talked about.
00:05:24.000 Oh, well, yeah.
00:05:25.000 So not only the thing that people find to be extremely alarming is that not only did you report this comment to the FBI in September, so many months ago, but apparently, according to other students who knew him, they used to joke about how this guy would someday shoot up the school, or if there was a school shooter, it would be him because he was a loner and gave off this weird, depressive vibe.
00:05:50.000 He posted pictures of dead animals he shot and killed on his social media.
00:05:56.000 His Instagram page had pictures of him with guns and knives.
00:06:01.000 And one student said that the shooter would often joke about how he knew the floor plan of the school.
00:06:08.000 So people are just kind of shocked that the FBI essentially knew, you know, months before this attack happened that this individual was threatening to do exactly what he did.
00:06:20.000 And it didn't, you know, they weren't able to stop him or they didn't really make any effort to stop him.
00:06:29.000 Right.
00:06:30.000 Like I said, this is the real, I have heard some of the reporters talk about he had posted some things on different social media sites, but up until right this moment, I haven't been aware of any of that.
00:06:47.000 Right.
00:06:48.000 So it's interesting the FBI didn't, you know, bring that to your attention or, you know, talk to you about that.
00:06:58.000 What did they do when they came to your place?
00:07:00.000 I guess you said either, was it yesterday or today?
00:07:04.000 When was it that you received a visit?
00:07:05.000 It was yesterday.
00:07:06.000 So how long after the shooting did you receive a visit from the FBI?
00:07:12.000 It was less than two hours.
00:07:14.000 Oh, wow.
00:07:15.000 Yeah, it was quick.
00:07:17.000 All right.
00:07:20.000 And how was that visit when they visited you yesterday?
00:07:24.000 What happened during that visit?
00:07:27.000 It was just, it was very similar to the first visit.
00:07:31.000 The lead guy was the same guy.
00:07:34.000 I don't know if the second guy was the same guy or not.
00:07:38.000 You know, very polite, very professional.
00:07:41.000 And he asked me a lot of similar questions as he did the first time.
00:07:48.000 And he asked if there had been any further contact, if, you know, I knew anything else, if I'd found anything else out about the original comment.
00:07:58.000 And unfortunately, there was nothing more I could tell them or give them.
00:08:04.000 And of course, they didn't share their information, their investigation information with me, or they didn't tell me what they had done with the previous information or anything like that.
00:08:18.000 Right.
00:08:18.000 So how do you feel about that?
00:08:20.000 How does that make you feel as a citizen reporting an incident or reporting an alarming comment to the FBI and knowing that they clearly didn't really take a lot of action to investigate this guy before he carried out this horrible shooting?
00:08:39.000 How does it make you feel knowing that you can report a threat and a tragedy can still occur?
00:08:47.000 You know, a lot of the media that I have talked to today has asked similar questions.
00:08:54.000 And I feel like that people are trying to get me to kind of side with the F to side with that point of view.
00:09:07.000 But, you know, the information that I had, the information that I gave them was very minimal.
00:09:14.000 It was very little for them to go on.
00:09:17.000 You know, and the reality of it is, is you can be anybody you want to be on the internet these days.
00:09:23.000 And a username on a YouTube comment just isn't the smoking gun that everybody is trying to make it out to be.
00:09:34.000 That's what you think.
00:09:35.000 Yeah.
00:09:37.000 You know, granted, the username was a name.
00:09:42.000 I don't know how many people with that name exist in the United States.
00:09:51.000 Interesting.
00:09:51.000 Yeah.
00:09:52.000 It's interesting that, you know, that's your viewpoint of the situation because a lot of the discussion now that people found out about your story this morning is how is it that the FBI, right, an intelligence agency, wasn't able to identify this individual when he was posting these comments.
00:10:10.000 So a lot of people are very intrigued by this situation.
00:10:28.000 Oh, sorry about that.
00:10:29.000 It was a notification.
00:10:30.000 I said a lot of people are just very intrigued by the situation because they can't fathom how something like this, like the exact scenario which this individual carried out was reported and it was still not prevented.
00:10:47.000 So people are just trying to wrap their heads around how the FBI, which, you know, we know our intelligence agencies as being able to find out anything, right?
00:10:55.000 Being able to find information out about people that we think is hidden and they still weren't able to.
00:11:02.000 So it's shocking to a lot of people.
00:11:04.000 And given the political climate and some of the recent FBI, you know, the bad press, I guess you could say, that the FBI has been receiving, some people are wondering, you know, whether the FBI is really competent because this is a recurring theme.
00:11:25.000 If you look at a lot of the worst attacks that have happened in this country in the past few months or the past year, the FBI seems to have had foreknowledge of the individuals or they said, oh, this individual was reported to us in the past, or, oh, this person was on one of our terror watch lists.
00:11:41.000 So this situation isn't the first time in which a shooter or a killer or terrorist in the United States has been identified by the FBI prior to an attack taking place.
00:11:53.000 Right, right.
00:11:54.000 And you know, just to kind of tone myself down a little bit, as you can imagine, today has been kind of a stressful day.
00:12:04.000 And I do understand from the average citizen's point of view that, you know, people feel like more could have been done, but I don't know.
00:12:16.000 I just don't know the FBI's processes.
00:12:19.000 I don't know, you know, I feel like they investigated it, you know, and they didn't come up with anything, but I don't know how they investigated it.
00:12:31.000 I don't know what they did or didn't do.
00:12:34.000 And it's, I guess that's why you hear a little bit of frustration in my voice is because I just don't know.
00:12:40.000 You know, all I know is I had a piece of information.
00:12:43.000 I passed it on.
00:12:45.000 I did what needed to be done.
00:12:48.000 And what they did with that information is not my place to judge them on.
00:12:55.000 I feel like that's what people want me to do.
00:12:58.000 Right.
00:12:58.000 No, that's, you know, I completely understand where you're coming from.
00:13:01.000 And I'm sure it's very stressful because, like I said, you're at the forefront of a national tragedy and investigation.
00:13:09.000 And I'm sure that when this information was, I'm not even sure.
00:13:15.000 How did the press, I believe it was BuzzFeed who first reported on this?
00:13:18.000 How did the press first find out about your tip?
00:13:22.000 I guess they saw the video.
00:13:25.000 I published a YouTube video about it, and I think it got to a BuzzFeed reporter and they sent me a message through my Facebook account.
00:13:38.000 Interesting.
00:13:41.000 Well, do you have anything that you would like to, you know, tell other individuals who may receive threatening comments on their social media from people commenting?
00:13:54.000 Do you have any advice for anybody who may encounter similar situations in the future?
00:14:00.000 Sure.
00:14:01.000 Yeah, I would say if you see something that's alarming come across your feed, go ahead and report it to the proper authorities.
00:14:11.000 Once you've done that, you've done your part.
00:14:13.000 What they do with that information is what they do.
00:14:17.000 Well, thank you.