School massacre baffles authorities
17 killed as former student, 19, opens fire
PARKLAND: Authorities in Florida could offer no explanation yesterdayy as to why a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons”.
Mr Cruz, whose f ellow students described him as “troubled”, was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said. He had mixed in with students fleeing the school before being caught, officials said.
“We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things ... are very, very disturbing,” Mr Israel said.
“If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people ... there’s not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it.”.
Fifteen people were killed at the school itself and 17 were taken to hospital, two of whom died of their wounds, the sheriff’s office said. One of those killed was a football coach, and one student injured was a deputy sheriff’s son.
A teacher at the school said Mr Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” maths teacher Jim Gard said in a Miami Herald interview.
“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
The shooting, one of nearly 20 at a school since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the US, where there are 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.
When questioned at a press conference on Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott — who described the massacre as “pure evil” — declined to make a statement on gun control.
“There’s a time to continue to have these conversations about how through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding that we make sure people are safe, and we’ll continue to do that,” said Mr Scott, a Republican.
At the same briefing, Florida Attorney-General Pam Bondi said the state will cover the costs of funerals and counselling for survivors.
“We will continue to work together as a team, as a family, and love and take care of all of these victims and their family members,” she said.
Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN she had spoken to a number of students after the shooting erupted shortly after 2pm (2am yesterday, Thai time).
“They were very scared,” she said. “And almost in shock when they came out.”
Students, some with their hands in the air, were led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armoured vehicle filled with a Swat team on the scene.
The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.
When asked about security, Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said a police officer is always stationed at the school and there is a “single point of entry”.
President Donald Trump offered his “prayers and condolences to the families of the victims”.
“No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,” he said on Twitter.
But since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of about one a week.