Civic Register
| 2.15.18

What We Know About the Florida School Shooting

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Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know about the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday.

  • Seventeen people – including teachers and students – were killed after a gunman barged into the high school around 2:30 pm and open fired.

  • Fourteen people were injured during the attack: two died later in the hospital, seven remain in critical condition, and five were released on Thursday.

  • The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, was previously expelled from the institution for "disciplinary reasons." One of Cruz’s former teachers said he "wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," the Miami Herald reported.

  • Cruz was arrested in the nearby city of Coral Springs following a police manhunt. He’s been charged with 17 counts of murder.

  • Police said the suspected shooter was armed with an AR-15 rifle, "multiple magazines," smoke grenades, and a gas mask. He purchased the gun legally.

  • Social media accounts believed to be Cruz’s contain a variety of gun and violence-related posts. As CNN reported, "On his Instagram page, Cruz posted a photo of a shotgun. In another photo he brandishes what appears to be a BB gun. In other pictures, he is covering his face with a kerchief and brandishing long knives."

  • The FBI said it was alerted to a YouTube post made by a "Nikolas Cruz" last September which said, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” However, the FBI stated that “No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment. The FBI conducted database reviews, checks but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment."

  • According to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been 18 school shootings in the U.S. this year. This the eighth deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

What do you think?

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—Josh Herman

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(Photo Credit: ABC News via Twitter)