The Denver Gazette reveals that the Anti-Defamation League tipped off the FBI back in July about disturbing online posts tied to the 16-year-old who later carried out the Evergreen High School shooting. The ADL had flagged a social media user posting about mass shootings, neo-Nazi imagery, and glorifying Columbine, but the group couldn’t identify him by name or location. The FBI opened an “assessment investigation” but never managed to connect the account to a person until September 10 – one day before the shooting.
The Bureau insists that without identity or location, there was “no probable cause” for arrest or federal action. In other words: they were looking, but couldn’t move fast enough. It’s a grim echo of past FBI misses, like Parkland in 2018, where the Bureau got a tip about Nikolas Cruz but failed to act.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The warning: ADL flagged the FBI in July about an anonymous account obsessed with mass shooters, neo-Nazi symbols, and tactical gear.
- The limitation: No name, no location – just posts. The FBI says that meant no probable cause for action at the federal level.
- The pattern: The teen glorified Columbine, referenced Christchurch, and even showed off tactical gear in videos. He also posted a revolver photo an hour before the Evergreen attack.
- The tragedy: Despite months of red flags, the shooter critically injured one student, seriously wounded another, and then took his own life.
- The déjà vu: Parkland. Columbine. Aurora. Once again, authorities had fragments of warning signs but failed to connect dots in time.
My Bottom Line
Here’s my simple, unvarnished question: if the FBI was warned, why didn’t they act? Maybe there are bigger, valid reasons – legal hurdles, jurisdictional limits, constitutional safeguards. But to a simpleton like me, this seems actionable.
I understand due process matters. You can’t just throw someone in jail for posting dark garbage online. But here’s the rub: when the same Bureau can assign agents to comb through school board meetings and parents’ social media posts, yet shrugs at months of neon warning signs from a would-be school shooter, it sure feels like selective urgency.
This isn’t just bureaucratic bungling – it’s a spiritual blindness. Romans 1:21 says: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” That’s exactly what’s happening in our institutions. They see the signs but can’t see the evil. They analyze the posts but miss the darkness behind them.
No law, no agency protocol will ever wipe out evil. Only God can. Which is why this fight is bigger than the FBI – it’s a battle of principalities. Until we start calling evil what it is, rebuking it, and turning hearts back to Christ, we’ll keep living in this tragic loop: warnings missed, lives lost, officials shrugging.
The FBI can open “assessments” all day long. But evil doesn’t care about forms, case files, or probable cause. It only bows to the One who has already conquered it.
