On Wednesday, after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz was arrested and accused of the crime. Here are seven things to know about the alleged shooter:
1. Cruz reportedly trained with a white supremacist group, though law enforcement says they have no evidence to support the claim. An early report by the Anti-Defamation League indicated that Cruz had trained with a white supremacist group; however, law enforcement has since pushed back on that claim. “A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day’s deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group,” the ADL reported. The Republic of Florida’s website states, “Republic Of Florida is a white civil rights organization fighting for white Identitarian politics, And the ultimate creation of a white ethnostate so we can be free from anti-white policies and have policies that reflect our values as white westerners. The ROF Militia is the armed forces of the Republic Of Florida.” The group’s captain, Jordan Jereb, told The Daily Beast, “There’s a very real sense of feminism being a cancer. That could’ve played into what he did, but we have female members of RoF … we’re not a big fan of Jews. I think there were a lot of Jews at the school that might have been messing with him.” Local law enforcement say they have no evidence of connection between Cruz and the ROF. Jereb has since called his statement to the ADL a “legit misunderstanding,” suggesting he had mistaken Cruz for another “Nikolas” who trained with the group.
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