Teen passed purchase check
UNITED STATES: Nikolas Cruz wasn’t old enough to drink a beer, but US federal law allowed the 19-year-old to buy a weapon powerful enough to kill 17 people in a matter of minutes.
He is now facing murder charges over Thursday’s attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the deadliest US school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012.
Cruz purchased the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 assault rifle in February 2017 from Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs, Florida, officials said.
Cruz passed a background check, which looks at criminal history and whether someone has been found to be ‘‘mentally defective’’ by a court, said Peter Forcelli, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in South Florida.
‘‘He was ticking none of those boxes,’’ Forcelli said of the background check.
Lawyers representing the gun shop owners said nothing about Cruz raised a red flag, and all state and federal laws were followed. They described the owners as ‘‘good family people’’ who were ‘‘shocked and mortified anything like this could happen’’, and who would like to see stronger regulations on flagging mental illness during background checks.
The store would be closed ‘‘for the foreseeable future’’ out of respect for the people killed at the school, lawyer Douglas Rudman said.
Cruz has admitted carrying out the shooting rampage, authorities say in court papers. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
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.
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 AntiDefamation 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.
"This community is hurting right now ... Today's a day of healing. Today's a day of mourning."
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel
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 briefly appeared in court yesterday and 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.
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.
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.
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’’.