LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — The shooting at Apalachee High School this week brought painful reminders of other attacks on American school students.
"It's absolutely horrible," said Michael Haggard. "The worst thing that can happen to a human being is losing a child."
In 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people. Haggard, a lawyer who says he represented some of the Parkland victims' families, said Friday he sees parallels between the two shootings.
"Both of these shooters, their problems and their threats became known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said the attorney. "I mean, the FBI knew about both these shooters ahead of time."
Acting on an FBI tip, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office investigated the suspected Apalachee shooter last year for alleged online threats, according to an FBI statement earlier this week.
However, after interviewing the suspected shooter, authorities determined they did not find enough evidence to take any further legal action. According to a Jackson County Sheriff's Office case file from the time, an investigator wrote that "due to the inconsistent nature of information received by the FBI, the allegation . . . cannot be substantiated. This case will be exceptionally cleared."
Years earlier, a similar series of events played out before the Parkland shooting. According to NBC News, a tipster raised concerns about the Parkland shooter to the FBI less than six weeks before that mass shooting--but the tip wasn’t properly vetted. The agency said at the time that "protocols were not followed."
Attorney Haggard accused law enforcement agencies of continuing to struggle with interagency "coordination" in cases of school shooting threats, calling it "absurd after everything that we've had happen in the past."
When contacted for comment Friday, an FBI Atlanta spokesman referred 11Alive to the agency's prior statement earlier this week.
In it, the FBI said its agents notified local law enforcement officers who subsequently investigated the tip and, after determining that there was "no probable cause" to take further legal action, "alerted local schools for continued monitoring" of the student who went on to become the alleged Apalachee High School shooter.