A woman who called the FBI with a tip about Nikolas Cruz, the confessed gunman in last week’s shooting at a Florida high school, warned the bureau he had multiple rifles and ammunition and feared Cruz would wind up “getting into a school and just shooting the place up.”

The woman spoke with the FBI for roughly 13 minutes, according to a transcript of the call obtained and published by the New York Times. During that time, she told the FBI about several photos on Cruz’s Instagram accounts, as well as changes in his behavior following the death of his mother.

“If you go onto his Instagram pages, you’ll see all the guns,” the woman said. “He’s so into ISIS, and I’m afraid this is, something’s gonna happen because he doesn’t have the mental capacity. He can’t. He’s so outraged if someone talks to him about certain things.”

The tip to the FBI came on Jan. 5, more than one month before Cruz, 19, said he opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Seventeen people were killed and at least a dozen were injured. Cruz admitted to police he was the shooter.

The FBI acknowledged last week it received a tip about Cruz, but said proper protocols “were not followed for the information received.” The bureau said the information should have been “assessed as a potential threat to life” and forwarded to the FBI field office in Miami, which did not happen.

During the call to the FBI, the tipster, whose name was redacted, said Cruz had the “mental capacity of a 12-to14-year-old" and said she alerted local police about her concern that Cruz wanted to kill himself. Later, she said, his rhetoric shifted and Cruz's viewpoint changed to he “wants to kill people."

“I just want someone to know about this so they can look into it,” she told the FBI. “If they think it’s something worth going into, fine. If not, I just know I have a clear conscience if he takes off and just starts shooting places up.”

The woman told the FBI during the call that Cruz had “pulled a rifle” on his mother before she passed away and withdrew money from his mother’s bank account after her death to purchase rifles and ammunition, photos of which he posted on Instagram.

“It’s so much, and I know he’s going to explode,” the caller said.

During the conversation, the woman indicated Cruz had a penchant for “cutting up animals and things like that,” including frogs and at least one bird.

She recalled one occasion where Cruz put a bird on his mother’s kitchen counter and began cutting into it. When his mother asked what her son was doing, he said he wanted to see what was inside, the woman said.

“Now I don’t know, that to me would be a red flag,” she said of the incident.

The woman said she had contacted Parkland law enforcement officials with concerns about Cruz and was unsure whether to reach out to the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security.

“When you look into this, you can make the decision as to whether you want to go further or not,” she told the FBI intake specialist. “I just want to, you know, get if off my chest in case something does happen, and I do believe something’s going to happen.”



The FBI and local law enforcement have been scrutinized as more information has been revealed about Cruz.

In addition to the FBI’s tip, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office received multiple warnings about Cruz’s behavior.

The FBI said it is conducting an investigation into why the information shared with the bureau last month was not followed up.