Teen killer
The 19-year-old accused of gunning down 17 people at his former high school in Florida has admitted carrying out the shooting rampage, authorities say in court papers.
UNITED STATES: The 19-yearold accused of gunning down 17 people at his former high school in Florida has admitted carrying out the shooting rampage, authorities say in court papers.
Police wrote that Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, told officers that he walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Thursday wielding an AR-15 assault rifle and began shooting students in the hallways and outside in the school grounds.
Once students began to flee the carnage, Cruz dropped his rifle and a vest packed with additional ammunition ‘‘so he could blend into the crowd’’, an officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit filed yesterday.
Cruz had taken an Uber car to the school, officials wrote, so he fled on foot along with those running from the gunfire. An officer found him not long afterwards, walking on a residential street, and arrested him without incident.
The revelations came as police vowed to make sure that ‘‘justice is served’’ after one of America’s deadliest school shootings.
Authorities have not publicly announced a motivation for the carnage, but they have been digging into elements of Cruz’s troubled past, including a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behaviour.
FBI investigators are pursuing information suggesting that Cruz might have been associated with a Florida-based white supremacist group. But agents were still trying to determine the extent of his involvement with the group, if any, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified.
Jewish organisation the Anti- Defamation League reported yesterday that a spokesperson for the white supremacist group had told it that Cruz had participated in some of its training exercises, but that the group did not order or want Cruz to carry out any attacks. US media were not immediately able to reach the group’s members.
Investigators have been sifting through the background of Cruz, who had been expelled from the school. He had a history of disciplinary issues and a fascination with guns, people who knew him said.
A witness whose name is redacted from the report filed in court said they recognised Cruz as a troubled former student when he arrived at the school before the shooting, carrying a black duffel bag and wearing a black backpack. Cruz told police he had extra loaded magazines in the backpack, the report said.
The witness said they radioed a coworker to tell them Cruz was approaching, and within a minute they heard gunshots and called a ‘‘Code Red’’, which announced an emergency.
Cruz’s lawyers did not specifically say yesterday that he had admitted the shooting, but nor did they explicitly deny his involvement.
Cruz was booked on 17 counts of ‘‘murder premeditated’’. He briefly appeared in court yesterday and
"This community is hurting right now ... Today's a day of healing. Today's a day of mourning." Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel
was ordered held without bond.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel vowed that law enforcement officials would make sure Cruz was convicted on all charges.
‘‘This community is hurting right now ... Today’s a day of healing,’’ Israel said at a media briefing. ‘‘Today’s a day of mourning.’’
Israel said police had identified all the victims, and planned to release their names later. Some were students, but at least one staff member – a beloved football coach who had attended the school before returning to work there – was among the dead.
The coach, Aaron Feis, was shot after throwing himself in front of students, the school’s football team said on Twitter, writing that he had ‘‘selflessly shielded students from the shooter’’ and ‘‘died a hero’’.
In addition to the 17 people killed, another 15 were wounded, authorities said. Three of those remained in a critical condition in hospital.
During a news conference after Cruz’s court hearing, the public defender representing him described the 19-year-old as an ‘‘emotionally broken young man’’ who was ‘‘very saddened’’ by what had happened. Cruz was on suicide watch, he added.
‘‘He has been through a lot of trauma. He has suffered significant mental illness, and significant mental trauma,’’ public defender Gordon Weeks said.
But while school officials, students and others who knew Cruz had sensed that something was off with him before the attack, none of that was enough to stop the teenager purchasing the gun officials said was used in the attack.
Cruz bought the AR-15 himself legally, and so far it was the only gun authorities had recovered as part of the investigation, said Peter J Forcelli, special agent in charge of the Miami field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The court filing said Cruz bought the gun in February 2017.
In his social media postings, Cruz was seen wielding other firearms, so officials were continuing to look for additional weapons, Forcelli said.
Investigators were also reaching out to gun shops across the region to see if Cruz had attempted to buy other weapons.
Federal authorities are looking into whether Cruz had come up on their radar before.
Robert Lasky, special agent in charge of the FBI’S Miami division, said agents investigated a comment on Youtube last year that threatened a school shooting but were unable to identify the person who posted it.
Lasky spoke after Buzzfeed News reported that a Youtube user had contacted the bureau after seeing someone with Cruz’s name post that same message. However, when agents checked the name against their internal databases, they could find no other derogatory information on him, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
Israel said there was an armed school resource officer on the Douglas campus when the shooting occurred, but ‘‘he never encountered Cruz’’.
The bloodshed inside the school, which will remain closed at least through the rest of the week, was staggering even for veteran law enforcement professionals. Forcelli, a homicide detective in New York before he joined ATF, described what he had seen as particularly horrifying.
US President Donald Trump pledged that his administration would help to ‘‘tackle the difficult issue of mental health’’, and said the issue of improving safety in schools would be the top priority during a meeting later this month with governors and state attorneys-general.
Even as the shooting was followed with questions about whether the country would revisit its gun control laws, Trump, much like Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott when he spoke earlier near the shooting scene, made no mention of that issue. Both instead stressed the importance of focusing on mental health in response to Florida’s third mass shooting in as many years.
Former president Barack Obama, who frequently had to address a nation rocked by gun violence during his time in office, wrote on Twitter that ‘‘we are not powerless’’ and called for ‘‘long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws’’. – Washington Post