Valentine massacre stuns US
EX-PUPIL KILLS 17 IN CHILLING SHOOTING SPREE AT FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL Cruz, who surrendered, loved guns and was expelled for disciplinary reasons.
The Florida community joined together yesterday to mourn the 17 victims of a lone gunman, as officials seek to discover how the heavily armed teenager managed to mingle with students in one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
The ex-pupil, identified as Nikolas Cruz, 19, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday shortly before classes ended and opened fire on students and teachers, Broward County sheriff Scott Israel said.
Cruz was armed with an AR-15style rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition 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 was the 18th in a US school this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
It was the deadliest ever at an American high school, surpassing the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher and then themselves.
It was also the second-deadliest at a US public school, behind the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, by a gunman who also killed his mother and himself.
Since Sandy Hook, US schools have installed electronically controlled doors and added security staff.
“Our focus is to find out from a safety perspective what’s occurred,” school board member Donna Korn said.
A law enforcement officer is assigned to every school. The sheriff’s office also provides shooter training and the 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.
The Valentine’s Day bloodshed in the racially mixed community about 72km north of Miami was the latest outbreak of gun violence at US schools and college campuses in recent years.
A chilling cellphone video clip broadcast by CBS News showed what the network said was the shooting in progress from inside a classroom, where several students were seen huddled or lying on the floor surrounded by mostly empty desks.
Those dead were a mix of students and adults. Twelve were killed inside the school, and three outside, while two died from their wounds in hospital.