FLORIDA – Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cru was a member of a white supremacist group and had taken part in military-style training exercises, the rights group Anti-Defamation League said on Thursday.
Jordan Jereb, believed to lead the shadowy Republic of Florida (ROF) group, said that Cruz had been “brought up” by a member of the group and joined its training exercises near the group and joined its training exercises near Tallahassee, in Florida.
Cruz was armed with an AR-15 rifle, and has been charged with the killing of 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
On its website Republic of Florida describes itself as a “white civil rights organisation fighting for white identitarian politics”. It advocates creating a “white ethnostate” in Florida.
The group “borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement.”
Jereb also said that Republic of Florida had not ordered or supported Cruz’s attack on his old high school, adding that Cruz “seemed like just a normal disenfranchised, young white an”.
“I don’t know precisely what he believes,” said Jereb.
“I know he knew full well he was joining a white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist organisation.”
He also added that Cruz was a member of its “cell” in Clearwater, Florida, about 300km northwest of Parkland, and had trained with them.
“He probably used that training to do what he did yesterday. Nobody told him to do that, he just freaked out,” said Jereb.
Photo Credit- Citizen
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