Suspected school shooter Nikolas Cruz trained as a member of a white nationalist militia, according to the group?s leader.
Republic of Florida leader Jordan Jereb told the Anti Defamation League that the 19-year-old ? who allegedly slaughtered 17 people at his former high school Wednesday ? had participated in one or more training drills with his group, and had carpooled with other members to Tallahassee for the exercises.
Jereb says the group?s goal is to make Florida a white ethno-state. He spoke with the ADL after apparent ROF members mentioned Cruz?s membership on the web forum 4chan.
He claims he didn?t know Cruz personally and the massacre ? in which most of the victims were white ? was not done at the behest of the ROF.
Two former classmates said he was fiercely right-wing and would discuss politics at school ? and that he wore a ?Make America Great Again? hat around campus, according to the Daily Beast.
An Instagram photo that appears to be Cruz shows him with the hat on and a bandanna over his face.
Jereb says Cruz was having ?trouble with a girl? and may have mounted the Valentine?s Day assault for that reason.
Another student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said Cruz had been expelled from the school after feuding with his ex-girlfriend?s new boyfriend.
Jereb was arrested in 2016 after threatening one of Florida Gov. Rick Scott?s staffers.
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