Alwaght- Nikolas Cruz, the terrorist who killed 17 people in a United States high school supported the country’s President Donald Trump and was a member of a “white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist organization.”
Cruz, 19, opened fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Prior to the shooting, he trained with the Republic of Florida, the group’s captain Jordan Jereb said (as first reported by the Anti-Defamation League). The RoF seeks to create a “white ethno-state” in Florida, according to its website, a view that Cruz supposedly shared.
“I don’t know precisely what he believes,” Jereb told the Daily Beast. “I know he knew full well he was joining a white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist organization.”
Cruz “seemed like just a normal, disenfranchised, young white man,” Jereb added.
The group posts videos of training montages on the internet with members in fatigues brandishing weapons.
“I’m not trying to glorify it, but he was pretty efficient in what he did,” Jereb said. “He probably used that training to do what he did yesterday. Nobody I know told him to do that, he just freaked out.”
The Florida terrorist has also been identified as a fervent supporter of President Trump.
“I saw him wear a Trump hat,” said Sebastian Gonzalez, a 19-year-old who graduated from the high school in 2017. "At our school you were sort of with Trump or really against Trump.”
Ocean Parodie, a 17-year-old junior said that he also saw Cruz wearing the hat.
“He always wore like really patriotic shirts that seemed really extreme, like hating on the Islamic religion. For example, he would say things such as like, he would degrade Islamic people as terrorists and bombers. I've seen him wear a Trump hat,” Parodie said.
Meanwhile, a Twitter user believed to be a student at the Florida high school where 17 people were slaughtered slammed President Trump on Thursday for his social media response to the massacre in a tweet that has since gone viral, according to a report.
“Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But Gun control will prevent it from happening again,” she added in her comments, which as of early Thursday were retweeted 163,720 times.
Authorities confirmed Nikolas Cruz, an ex-student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire on Wednesday with an AR-15-style assault rifle, killing 17 people in his former school.
He surrendered to police after the massacre and appeared in court Thursday afternoon for the first hearing.
