CARNAGE CONFESSION
Florida suspect charged
PARKLAND, Fla. • The 19-year-old accused of gunning down 17 people at his former high school admitted to carrying out the shooting rampage, authorities said in court papers filed Thursday.
Police wrote that Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, told officers he walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday wielding an AR-15 and began shooting students in the hallways and outside on the school’s grounds.
Once students began to flee the carnage, Cruz dropped his rifle and vest packed with additional ammunition “so he could blend into the crowd,” an officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Cruz had taken an Uber to the school, officials wrote, so he fled on foot along with those running from the gunfire. An officer found him not long after walking on a residential street.
The revelations came as police vowed to make sure “justice is served” after one of the country’s deadliest school shootings.
A day after the Valentine’s Day shooting rampage, authorities had not publicly announced a motivation for the carnage, but they were digging into elements of Cruz’s troubled past.
What unfolded inside the high school was a grimly familiar sight, as another school became transformed into a war zone. Catarina Linden, a 16-year-old sophomore, said she was in an math class when the gunfire began.
“He shot the girl next to me,” she said, adding that when she finally was able to leave the classroom, the air was foggy with gun smoke. “I stepped on so many shell casings. There were bodies on the ground, and there was blood everywhere.”
Aaron Feis, a school security guard and an assistant football coach, used his own body to shield students fleeing from the gunman.
“He died the same way he lived — he put himself second,” said Denise Lehtio, a spokesman for the school.
Abbie Youkilis, the aunt of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg who died in the shooting, said Jaime’s parents were “the world’s most loving and over-protective parents but they could not protect Jaime from the sickness that has gripped our country.”
Donald Trump delivered a sombre address from the White House, but avoided any mention of curbing access to guns. Instead, Trump said he would “tackle the difficult issue of mental health” and that there had been “so many signs” that Cruz was “mentally disturbed.”
Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, said: “It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening. We are going to take action. We must reverse these trends.”
David Hogg, a student who survived the shooting, demanded more: “We’re children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together, come over your politics, and get something done.”
Another student named Sarah wrote on Twitter: “Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.”
Cruz had been treated at a mental health clinic, but was still able to legally purchase the AR-15 rifle, and large amounts of ammunition, passing a background check in February 2017.
Cruz was adopted as an infant, along with his brother, by Roger and Lynda Cruz.
Roger Cruz died when Cruz was a child. Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 last year and he moved in with another family.
Jim Lewis, a lawyer for that family, said: “There was no indication that anything severe like this was wrong. Just a mildly troubled kid who’d lost his mother.”
However, fellow students said they had always feared Cruz would “shoot the place up.” Dakota Mutchler, 17, said: “I think everyone had in their minds, if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.”
There had been a litany of missed warnings about Cruz. Last year, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sent an email to its teachers telling them not to let Cruz on site if carrying a backpack, after bullets were found in his bag.
On Sept. 24, a YouTube user calling themselves Nikolas Cruz posted a message saying: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”