Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Teen’s huge ammo stash was covered in swastikas
Nikolas Cruz left at least 180 rounds of ammunition — inside magazines that bore Nazi swastika symbols — at the scene of the Parkland school shooting.
Along with his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, Cruz abandoned at least six magazines that each contained 30 bullets at the scene of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“It could have been more than twice as bad if he had kept going,” one source said.
The magazines had swastikas scrawled or etched onto them, the sources said.
Cruz fired more than 100 rounds, killing 17 and injuring
16. There have been reports that Cruz stopped firing because the rifle may have jammed. But some gun experts have questioned whether that really would have stopped an experienced shooter who wanted to keep firing.
“If that particular type of gun jams, an AR-15, it takes about one second to get it working again,” said one law enforcement official. “If you know how to load and fire an AR-15, you would know how to clear that jam.”
Witnesses, who were in the school building after the massacre, said the shooter tried to fire rounds through a an upperlevel window but that hurricane panes stopped the bullets. State records obtained by the Sun Sentinel show that Cruz’s mother had forced him to remove hate symbols from his backpack in the past.
His mother told investigators that she made her son remove the symbols, including a Nazi symbol and the words “I hate N------” that were drawn on his bookbag.