White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member

Leader speculates that attacking on Valentine's Day was intentional
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 15, 2018 1:42 PM CST
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows a weapon being held. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.   (Instagram via AP)

An orphaned 19-year-old who participated in paramilitary drills with a white nationalist group was charged with murder Thursday in the deaths of 17 people who were fatally shot at a huge Florida high school in the nation's deadliest school attack in five years. As the criminal case against the suspect took shape, the leader of a white nationalist militia called the Republic of Florida said Nikolas Cruz was a member of his group and participated in exercises in Tallahassee. Jordan Jereb told the AP that did not know Cruz personally and that "he acted on his own behalf" and is "solely responsible for what he just did."

The group wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state. Jereb said his organization holds "spontaneous random demonstrations" and tries not to participate in the modern world. He also said Cruz had "trouble with a girl" and that he believed the timing of the attack, on Valentine's Day, was not a coincidence. Authorities offered no immediate details about a possible motive, except to say that Cruz had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him. Cruz legally purchased the AR-15 rifle used in the assault at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, law enforcement officials told the AP.

(More Nikolas Cruz stories.)

White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows a box of bullets. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon, in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.   (Instagram via AP)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows weapons lying on a bed. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.   (Instagram via AP)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows a target with bullet holes. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.   (Instagram via AP)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows a weapon being held. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.   (Instagram via AP)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
The flag above the White House is lowered to half-staff for the shooting victims of a mass shooting in a South Florida High School, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
President Donald Trump delivers a statement on the mass shooting at a South Florida High School from the White House, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
In this frame grab from video provided by WPLG-TV, law enforcement personnel arrest an unidentified man (in dark red), following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. A former student opened fire at the Florida high school Wednesday, killing...   (WPLG-TV via AP)
White Nationalist Group: Nikolas Cruz Was a Member
In this frame grab from video provided by WPLG-TV, police take Nikolas Cruz into Broward County jail on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities.   (WPLG-TV via AP)