Florida killer’s spree leaves 17 dead
A 19-year-old youth who had been expelled from his Florida high school was held on 17 counts of murder on Thursday, the morning after authorities say he opened fire at the school, unleashing one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
A 19-year-old man who had been expelled from his Florida high school was held on 17 counts of murder on Thursday, the morning after authorities say he opened fire at the school, unleashing one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
The former student, identified as Nikolas Cruz, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday and opened fire on students and teachers, Broward County sheriff Scott Israel said. Police believe he acted alone.
Cruz was being held on 17 counts of premeditated murder, according to the Broward County sheriff’s website.
Cruz was armed with an AR15-style rifle and had multiple ammunition magazines when he surrendered to officers in a nearby residential area, police said. He loved guns and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.
The shooting in a community about 72km north of Miami was the 18th in a US school this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, continuing a troubling pattern that has played out over the past few years.
It was the second-deadliest shooting in a US public elementary or high school after the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. The deadliest school shooting in US history was at Virginia Tech in 2007, when 32 people were killed.
The Florida shootings stirred the long-simmering US debate on the right to bear arms, which is protected by the Second Amendment of the constitution.
Schools across the country have installed electronically secured doors and added security staff, but few legislative solutions have emerged.
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour,” US President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Thursday. “Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”
A law enforcement officer is assigned to every school in the Broward County district, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High board member Donna Korn told a local newspaper.
The sheriff’s office also provides active shooter training, and schools have a single point of entry, she said.
“We have prepared the campuses, but sometimes people still find a way to let these horrific things happen,” Korn said.
Hundreds of panicked students fled the building, running past heavily armed, helmeted police officers while others huddled in closets.
Parents raced to the school of 3,300 students and a nearby hotel that was set up as a checkpoint to find their children.
“This has been a day we’ve seen the worst in humanity,” Broward County public schools superintendent Robert Runcie said on Wednesday.
The assailant wore a gas mask as he stalked into the school carrying a rifle, ammunition cartridges and smoke grenades, then pulled a fire alarm, prompting students and staff to pour from classrooms into hallways, according to Florida’s two US senators, who were briefed by the federal authorities.
A CHILLING CELLPHONE VIDEO SHOWED THE SHOOTING IN PROGRESS FROM INSIDE A CLASSROOM
Cruz had recently moved in with another family after his mother’s death in November, according to Jim Lewis, a lawyer representing the family and local media, bringing his AR-15 along with his other belongings.
The family believed Cruz was depressed but attributed that to his mother’s death, not mental illness.
“They didn’t see any danger. They didn’t see any kind of predilection this was going to happen,” Lewis told CNN.
A chilling cellphone video broadcast by CBS News showed what it said was the shooting in progress from inside a classroom. Several students were huddled or lying on the floor surrounded by mostly empty desks. A rapid series of loud gunshots are heard along with hysterical screaming.
Colton Haab, a 17-year-old junior and member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at the high school, said he realised the alarms were not a drill after hearing several shots fired and learning that three people had been shot.