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Nikolas Cruz Trained With Florida White-Supremacist Group, Leader Says
Nikolas Cruz Trained With Florida White-Supremacist Group, Leader Says
Jordan Jereb of the Republic of Florida told ADL that Cruz had participated in at least one training exercise.
WSVN.com/Reuters
‘ETHNOSTATE’
Nikolas Cruz, the alleged gunman who killed at least 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday, trained with a white-supremacist group, its leader told the Anti-Defamation League. Jordan Jereb of the Republic of Florida
told ADL that
Cruz had participated in at least one training exercise near Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida. ADL reports the group describes itself as a “white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics” and seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida.
Florida White Supremacist Group Admits Ties to Alleged Parkland School Shooter Nikolas Cruz
Florida White Supremacist Group Admits Ties to Alleged Parkland School Shooter Nikolas Cruz
A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day’s deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group.
On Wednesday, February 14, Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, allegedly entered the school with an AR-15 and opened fire, killing at least 17 people and injuring 14 more. Cruz left the scene but was later captured by police and has been charged with premeditated murder.
After self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum ***** that Cruz had also been a member, the Anti-Defamation League called the ROF hotline and spoke with an ROF member who identified himself as Jordan Jereb.
Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. In 2016, he was arrested on charges of threatening a staffer in the office of Florida Governor Rick Scott because he was allegedly angry at the staffer’s son.
Jereb said that Cruz was associated with ROF, having been “brought up” by another member. Jereb added that Cruz had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida.
ROF has members in north and south Florida. The alt right white supremacist group borrows paramilitary concepts from the anti-government extremist militia movement (not itself a white supremacist movement). ROF describes itself as a “white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics” and seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida. Most ROF members are young and the group itself is only a few years old.
Jereb added that ROF had not ordered or wanted Cruz to do anything like the school shooting.
If Cruz’s role is confirmed, the Parkland school shooting would be the second school shooting by
a white supremacist in the past two months. In December 2017, another young white supremacist, William Atchison, engaged in a shooting spree at a high school in northwest New Mexico, killing two students before shooting himself.