School shootings a top priority for law enforcement: AG Jeff Sessions

As the nation continues to mourn for the victims and families of the Valentine’s Day shooting at Majority Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said law enforcement must do a better job acting on the warning signs from potential threats.

“I met with a group of sheriffs yesterday. They all believe that we need to do a better job of receiving these signs and acting on them and following up on them better. That is probably the most valuable thing we can do to stop these kind of cases,” Sessions said during an exclusive interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered an immediate review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the wake of the Florida shooting after the agency failed to act on multiple tips.

“It is now clear that the warning signs were there and tips to the FBI were missed…this is imperative, and we must do better,” Sessions said in a statement Friday.

The FBI admitted it never acted on a January tip from someone close to the suspect and was reportedly warned in September of a potential school shooting threat from a YouTube user with the same name as the Florida shooter.

Robert Lasky, the FBI agent in charge of the Miami division, said at a news conference Thursday that the agency conducted database reviews, but was unable to identify the person who made the comment on the social media platform.

“In 2017, the FBI received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel. The comment simply said, ‘I am going to be a professional school shooter’. No other information was included with that comment,” Lasky said.

The Attorney General called the deadly shooting a “tragedy” and reassured the Major County Sheriffs’ Association Thursday of the Justice Department’s commitment to addressing school shootings its top priority.

“It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening, and we are once again watching the images of our children— terrified— streaming from their school with their hands above their heads,” he said. “When parents, once again, go to sleep in fear that their kids will not be safe when they leave for their school bus in the morning. We must confront this problem,” he said.

Sessions also discussed the fate of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and whether it can be settled by the March 5 deadline.

“I don’t know. The people who say they want to fix that, President Trump has offered him that. He’s been very generous in his legislation. I think that is a very generous policy. It goes beyond, actually, what President Obama had in his DACA policy. Goes beyond what, even some people who favored the DACA expected. So that’s been very generous. So we’re in a, he’s already made compromises,” he said.

The DACA program, formed through an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012, prevents young immigrants from being deported. It was rescinded by Trump with a six-month delay for current recipients.