The Associated Press is reporting that the leader of a white nationalist organization says the suspect in the Florida school shooting was a member of his group.
Officials have identified the Florida school shooting suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Jordan Jereb said his group, the Republic of Florida, wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state. He said his group holds “spontaneous random demonstrations” and tries not to participate in the modern world.
He says Cruz was a member of his group and participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee.
Jereb said he didn’t know Cruz personally and that “he acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he’s solely responsible for what he just did.”
He also said he had “trouble with a girl” and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t a coincidence.
Jareb is no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law, either. In 2016, Jared was arrested after leaving multiple threatening voicemails on a Gov. Rick Scott staffer's phone and contacted him on Facebook trying to get him to pay a debt.
According to an arrest report, Jareb said Scott staffer Stuart Pollins, a deputy policy coordinator in the Office of Policy and Budget, stole money (in the sum of $60) from him.
“You don’t mess with me and you don’t mess with the R.O.F.,” Jereb allegedly said in one of the voice mails. In the messages, Jereb described Pollins’ residence and vehicles in his driveway and told him to “use your imagination” if the money is not repaid.
money that he said Pollins’ son stole from him. He also suggested Pollins could pay a little extra to make the incident go away.
Jereb, who also violated a probation on 2014 charges of burglary of a structure, was charged with harassment.