MIAMI – The parents of a Parkland school shooting victim are suing the United States government, claiming the FBI ignored a tip that Nikolas Cruz was "going to slip into a school and start shooting up the place."
Philip and April Schentrup, the parents of Carmen Schentrup, filed the 34-page federal lawsuit Friday.
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The complaint alleges a woman who knew the Parkland school shooter submitted the tip to the FBI in January 2018, a little more than a month before the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.
"He wanted to kill people, and he had the means to do so -- he had spent the last several months collecting rifles and ammunition," the lawsuit claims. "Forty days later, Mr. Cruz did just what (the) tipster warned the FBI he would do. He entered his former school -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ("MSDHS") in Parkland, Florida -- and executed 17 people."
The lawsuit goes on to say that the FBI knew Cruz "had the desire and capability to carry out a mass school shooting" but "failed to take any action whatsoever with the information it received."
"If the FBI had complied with its mandatory obligations to investigate and intervene in Cruz's plans to carry out a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, Cruz would not have succeeded in carrying out his attack and Carmen Schentrup would not have been killed," Schentrup family attorney Jeffrey A. Tew wrote.
Carmen Schentrup was one of 14 students and three faculty members killed in the mass shooting. She was a week away from celebrating her 17th birthday.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages for her wrongful death.