Accused Florida high school gunman faces 17 murder counts

A 19-year-old man who had been expelled from his Florida high school was due in court on Thursday, charged with 17 counts of murder, after authorities say he unleashed one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.

The ex-student, identified as Nikolas Cruz, 19, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday and opened fire on students and teachers, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. Police believe he acted alone.

Cruz was expected to appear in court Thursday afternoon for a bond hearing, faced with 17 counts of premeditated murder, said Constance Simmons, a spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office.

Cruz was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had multiple ammunition magazines 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 in a community about 72km north of Miami was the 18th in a US school this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, continuing a troubling pattern that has played out over the past few years.

It was the second deadliest shooting in a US public school after the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

The deadliest school shooting in US history was at Virginia Tech in 2007, when 32 people were killed.

The Florida shooting stirred the long-simmering US debate on the right to bear arms, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Schools across the country have installed electronically secured doors and added security staff, but few legislative solutions have emerged.

“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour,” US President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Thursday. “Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”

Trump plans to address the nation from the White House at 11am EST (1600 GMT), a spokeswoman said.

“There’s more questions than answers,” Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Paul Ryan, said in an interview with Indiana radio station WIBC. “I don’t think that means you then roll that conversation into taking away citizens’ rights.”

A law enforcement officer is assigned to every school in the Broward County district, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High board member Donna Korn told a local newspaper. The sheriff’s office also provides active shooter training and 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 first victim of the attack was publicly identified on Thursday as Aaron Feis, an assistant coach on the school’s football team and a school security guard who was shot while shielding students, the team said on Twitter.

Hundreds of panicked students fled the building, running past heavily armed, helmeted police officers while others huddled in closets.

“This has been a day we’ve seen the worst in humanity,” Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said Wednesday.

The assailant wore a gas mask as he stalked into the school carrying a rifle, ammunition cartridges and smoke grenades, then pulled a fire alarm, prompting students and staff to pour from classrooms into hallways, according to Florida‘s two US senators, who were brief by federal authorities.

Cruz had recently moved in with another family after his mother’s death in November, according to Jim Lewis, a lawyer representing the family and local media, bringing his AR-15 along with his other belongings.

The family believed Cruz was depressed, but attributed that to his mother’s death, not mental illness.

“They didn’t see any danger. They didn’t see any kind of predilection this was going to happen,” Lewis told CNN.

Cruz may have left warning signs on social media. Buzzfeed reported that a person named Nikolas Cruz left a comment under a YouTube video that read “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The man who posted the video was alarmed and contacted the FBI, Buzzfeed reported.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm those details.

Colton Haab, a 17-year-old member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at the high school, said he realized the alarms were not a drill after hearing several shots fired.

“That for me changed it to an active shooter scenario,” he said. Haab rushed to his ROTC room and helped usher several dozen students inside, barricading them behind curtains made of Kevlar, a material used to make bullet-proof vests.

“We grabbed two pieces of two-by-four, a fire extinguisher and a chair,” Haab said. “We were going to try to stop him with whatever we had.”

OTHER MAJOR SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES


BENTON, Kentucky, Jan. 23, 2018 
A 15-year-old boy kills two fellow students, both also 15, at Marshall County High School in western Kentucky with a pistol and wounds 14 others.Four other high schoolers suffered non-gunshot wounds in the ensuing panic.

AZTEC, New Mexico, Dec. 7, 2017
A 21-year-old man disguised as a student enters the local high school, kills two students and then shoots himself to death.

SAN BERNARDINO, California, April 10, 2017 
A man dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing his estranged wife at North Park Elementary School. An 8-year-old student is also shot to death.

ROSEBURG, Oregon, Oct. 1, 2015
A man opens fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College, killing nine people before he is shot dead by police.

MARYSVILLE, Washington, Oct. 24, 2014
A freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School fatally wounds four students in the cafeteria before killing himself.

SANTA MONICA, California, June 7, 2013
A onetime digital media student fatally shoots his father and brother, sets their house on fire, and then kills three people at Santa Monica College. The gunman kills himself.

NEWTOWN, Connecticut, Dec. 14, 2012
A man fatally shoots his mother, then kills 20 children and six adults before killing himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School.


OAKLAND, California, April 2, 2012
A former nursing student kills seven people and wounds three at Oikos University,
a Korean Christian college.

CHARDON, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2012
Seventeen-year-old student at Chardon High School kills three students and wounds three in school cafeteria.


HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, Feb. 12, 2010
A biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville opens fire during a staff meeting, killing three faculty members and wounding three.


DEKALB, Illinois, Feb. 14, 2008
A former graduate student kills five students and wounds 16 at Northern Illinois University before taking his own life.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, Feb. 8, 2008
A nursing student at Louisiana Technical College kills two classmates and herself in a classroom.

BLACKSBURG, Virginia, April 16, 2007
A gunman slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech.

NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania, Oct. 2, 2006
A gunman kills five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse, before killing himself.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia, Sept. 2, 2006
A 49-year-old man shoots himself and his two sons to death during a visit to the campus of Shepherd University.

RED LAKE INDIAN RESERVATION, Minnesota, March 21, 2005
A 16-year-old high school student kills seven people and wounds several others in a shooting rampage after killing two people off-campus. He then kills himself.

COLD SPRING, Minnesota, Sept. 24, 2003
Fifteen-year-old student fatally shoots a freshman and a senior at Rocori High School.

TUCSON, Arizona, Oct. 29, 2002
A failing student shoots and kills three professors and then himself at the University of Arizona School of Nursing.

GRUNDY, Virginia, Jan. 16, 2002
A recently dismissed graduate student kills a dean, a professor and a student at the Appalachian School of Law and wounds three others.

SANTEE, California, March 5, 2001
A student at Santana High School kills two students, wounds 13.

LITTLETON, Colorado, April 20, 1999
Two teenagers rampage through Columbine High School, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before killing themselves.


JONESBORO, Arkansas, March 24, 1998
Two boys, ages 11 and 13, fire on their middle school from woods, killing four girls
and a teacher and wounding 11 others.