The FBI was alerted in September that a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz had posted a comment on a video saying: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter," BuzzFeed News is reporting.
On Wednesday a person by the same name was arrested and charged with killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — just northwest of Fort Lauderdale.
Mississippi bail bondsman Ben Bennight had reported the alarming comment left on one of his videos to both the FBI and YouTube, according to BuzzFeed News. He told the website that agents responded almost immediately.
"They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person," Bennight said. "I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them."
But they were back in touch on Wednesday following the mass shooting. Special Agent Ryan Furr of the FBI's Miami field office left Bennight a voicemail on Wednesday.
"I think we spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel," the agent said in a message Bennight provided to BuzzFeed News. "I just wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that's come up, if you wouldn't mind giving me a ring."
Agents later visited Bennight.
"They asked me if I knew who he was, I didn't. I don't," Bennight said. "Then they left."
BuzzFeed News said the FBI would not confirm whether the YouTube user and the accused killer are one in the same.
However, the Cruz YouTube account was deleted following the shooting due to "multiple or severe violations of YouTube's police on violence" BuzzFeed News reported.
Cruz, an orphaned 19-year-old, was charged 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by authorities.
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