Nikolas Cruz, who allegedly killed 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday, trained with a white supremacist group called Republic of Florida, the group’s leader, Jordan Jereb, told the Anti-Defamation League Thursday.
Jereb said Cruz was “part of our organization” and took part in “paramilitary” training with the group in the Tallahassee area. “He probably used that training to do what he did yesterday,” Jereb said. “Nobody I know told him to do that, he just freaked out.”
The ADL called on the group after seeing self-described Republic of Florida members claiming on 4chan that Cruz had been a member. The ADF says ROF describes itself as a “white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics.” The group wants to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida, ADF said.
Students at the high school told The Daily Beast that Cruz had been seen wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. The Trump administration has announced that President Trump will visit the site of the tragedy.
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