17 high school students and adults have been reported dead after a recent school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland at around 2:30 PM local time.
The shooter was later identified as a 19- year old Nikolaz Cruz, who was reported not to have graduated from the school, and had been expelled. A teacher why talking about Cruz said that the school saw him as a threat, and he was banned from the school campus.
Jim Gard, a math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School also said that in the past, the shooter was known to be a violent and aggressive person towards other students.
The shooting in Florida is the sixth school shooting to have occurred this year.
According to the Broward County Public Schools, the shooting on the campus occurred at almost dismissal time, when students heard the fire alarm, they students all came out of their classes, and that was when Nikolaz starts his shooting.
When the shooter was arrested, police said he had the AR-15 semiautomatic weapon, with countless magazines.
Cruz In Court
According to the report, after the shooting, Nicolas was able to blend in with the rest of the students, and walked into a nearby walmart to get a drink, he then walked into a McDonalds.
Police later apprehended Cruz, and he told police that "he was the gunman who entered the school campus . . . and began shooting students he saw in the hallways," according to court papers filed Thursday afternoon.
"Cruz stated that he brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault," according to an arrest affidavit.
Cruz appeared in court on Thursday with an orange jumpsuit on charges of premeditated murder in the killing of 17 students and faculty at the school.
The presiding judge, Judge Kim Theresa Mollica ordered that Cruz be detained without bonds on the 17 count of murder.
Before the trial, Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes, which office is defending Cruz said that the suspect is a “deeply troubled child who has endured a lot of emotional trauma in a short period of time.” and had trouble since the death of his mother.