In yet another mass shooting tragedy, this time in a Florida high school, an expelled student went on the rampage with an assault rifle on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring 15 others, at least three of whom were stated to be in critical condition. An Indian-American student suffered minor injuries when he was hit by splinters.
Armed with an AR-15 assualt rifle and multiple magazines, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz turned on the fire alarm and went on a shooting spree as students ran out of their classrooms at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. He then roamed the halls, targeting those huddled in classrooms, reports said.
Cruz, described as a loner obsessed with weapons, gunned down a dozen people inside the school building just a short while before the school was to close for the day. Two others were shot dead on the grounds and one more on a road outside. Two other victims died in hospital, where several of the injured underwent emergency surgery.
More than 40 gunshots could be heard in a video posted on social media as the fleeing students screamed, with one of them yelling “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Another video showed students hiding under desks, screaming as at least 20 gunshots rang out. Some students believed there was a second shooter at the school till the SWAT team completed its operation.
Cruz, at the end of the shooting spree, tried to escape by blending with students fleeing the school premises, but he was spotted and taken into custody, CNN reported citing law enforcement officials. Broward Country Sheriff Scot Israel, who called it “catastrophic” and a “detestable act”, later said the young man surrendered without a struggle.
On Thursday morning, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. The suspect’s Instagram account featured several photos of guns, one of which showed six rifles and handguns laid out on a bed with the caption “arsenal”.
Cruz, according to Broward County Mayor Beam Furr, was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but he hadn’t been to the clinic for more than a year. His adoptive mother died last November, while his adoptive father had died several years ago.
President Donald Trump, amid the renewed Republican-Democratic row over gun control laws, tweeted on Thursday morning that the gunman was “mentally disturbed” and asked people to report anyone behaving like Cruz to the authorities.
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour,” Trump said, adding: “Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”
Cruz was suspended from the school last year after he, according to one account, was found with bullets in his backpack. One former classmate told the Associated Press that Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
Several former classmates remembered Cruz as a troubled teen with few friends. “All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting,” the Miami Herald quoted one of them as saying, adding: “I can’t say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.”
Another former classmate of Cruz told WFOR-TV: “He always had guns on him. The crazy stuff that he did was not right for school, and he got kicked out of school multiple times for that kind of stuff.”
Jim Gard, a math teacher, said Cruz had been identified as a potential threat to fellow students in the past. “We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said 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 Wednesday carnage in South Florida was the 18th shooting in a US school so far this year, according to the pro-gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety. It’s perhaps the worst since the December 2012 massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary School, when another young gunman killed 20 children and six adults.