A school shooting in Florida has left 17 people dead — 12 inside the building and five outside — and the shooter, a 19-year old former student, is in custody. Yes, it has happened once again:
At least 17 people were killed Wednesday in a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, is in custody, the sheriff said. The sheriff said he was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
At least 17 people were killed Wednesday in a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, is in custody, the sheriff said. The sheriff said he was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
mmediately after the shooting, aerial footage from CNN affiliate WSVN showed people lying on the ground outside the school, being treated for injuries and moved to ambulances.
Freshman Kayden Hanafi said he heard two gunshots and saw people running out of another building on campus. As he and his classmates went into lockdown in a classroom, many thought the noise might have been firecrackers.
“It’s really a blessing to still be alive,” he said.
More details are coming out by the hour. Some reports say students who know Cruz weren’t surprised it was him.
Israel described Cruz as a 19-year-old former student who was taken into custody without incident. Cruz had previously been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “for disciplinary reasons.”
Cruz used an AR-15 assault-style rifle and had “multiple magazines” on him, according to Israel.
“We’ve begun to dissect the social media he was on,” Israel added. “Some of the things are very disturbing.”
“It is a day that you pray every day you get up that you never have to see. It is in front of us,” Broward County Public School Superintendent Robert Runcie told local station WSVN 7 News.
Video taken off campus showed authorities making an arrest just before 4 p.m. The sheriff’s department said the scene remains active.
The former student suspected of opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland may have been identified as a potential threat to fellow students in the past, according to one teacher.
The 19-year-old ex-student, Nikolaus Cruz, was detained by police, briefly taken to a hospital and brought to the Broward Sheriff’s headquarters. Deputies said at least 17 people died in the shooting.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said math teacher Jim Gard, who said Cruz had been in his class last year. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
The Broward County School District Superintendent, however, told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any concerns raised about the student.
“We received no warnings,” Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn’t have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Wednesday night that Cruz had been expelled from Douglas High for “disciplinary reasons” and that investigators were scouring social-media sites possibly frequented by the shooter. Some unverified images circulating online showed a man purporting to be Cruz brandishing knives and guns.
“Our investigators began dissecting social media,” Israel said. “Some of thing that come to mind are very very disturbing.”
As for Gard, he said he believes the school administration earlier sent out an e-mail warning teachers that the student had made threats against others in the past and that he should not be allowed on the campus with a backpack.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.