Gunman kills at least 17 at high school in Florida

PARKLAND, Fla. — A former student opened fire at a Florida high school Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and sending scores of students fleeing into the streets in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooter, who was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, set off a fire alarm to draw students out of their classrooms shortly before the school day ended, officials said.

Authorities offered no immediate details on the 19-year-old suspect or any possible motive, except to say that he had been expelled for disciplinary reasons.

Frantic parents rushed to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the campus. Live footage showed emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks.

“It is a horrific situation,” said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour’s

Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

drive north of Miami. “It is a horrible day for us.”

The suspect was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after he left the scene. He had at least one rifle and multiple magazines, authorities said.

“It’s catastrophic. There really are no words,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said on Twitter.

The attacker used the fire alarm “so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall,” Sen. Bill Nelson said in an interview on CNN.

“And there the carnage Joel Auerbach / AP

began,” said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.

The Florida Democrat said he did not know if the gunman used the smoke grenades, but he assumed that’s why he had a gas mask on.

Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.

The gunman was identified as Nikolas Cruz by a U.S. official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the information publicly.