By Elizabeth Chuck, Alex Johnson and Corky Siemaszko, NBC News
At least 17 people were dead after a 19-year-old former student opened fire at a South Florida high school on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
The suspect was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a former student who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
He said at least 14 other people were injured in addition to the 17 people who were killed.
(WARNING: Contains Graphic Images and Content. Several people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14. Authorities took one suspect into custody. Courtesy of the Washington Post and YouTube. Posted on Feb 14, 2018)
Officials believe the gunman had one AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, it was unclear if he had any other weapons.
The suspect “was taken into custody about an hour after he left Stoneman Douglas after he committed this horrific, detestable act,” Israel said.
Federal and local authorities told NBC News there was no indication that the gunman had an accomplice or accomplices.
What we know so far:
- 17 fatalities, according to officials, both inside and outside of the school
- The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland started around 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday
- Suspect Nikolaus Cruz, a former Douglas High student, is in custody
(Authorities say they’ve arrested a former student who is alleged to have committed a school shooting, killing “multiple” people at a High School in Broward county Florida on Wednesday. Courtesy of Global News and YouTube. Posted on Feb 14, 2018)
Parkland, in north Broward County, is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale.
The shooting on the sprawling campus happened despite the presence of police officers at the school.
Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said at last two police cars were typically on campus “on a daily basis.”
While students filed out of the school with their hands up, heavily armed SWAT team members were doing a class-by-class search to make sure there were “no other shooters” — and to retrieve any bodies, he said.
Israel, who said his triplets once attended that school, urged worried parents to head to a nearby Marriott hotel to collect their children.
“This is a terrible day for Broward County, the state of Florida, the United States,” he said.
“There really are no words.”
(Emergency crews have been seen treating victims of a reported shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida. Some received treatment right on the sidewalk, while other victims are ushered into ambulances. The shooting happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which is located just east of the Everglades and south of Boca Raton. The investigation is being handled by the Broward County Sheriff’s office. Courtesy of Inside Edition and YouTube. Posted on Feb 14, 2018)
The first sign that something awful was happening came around 2:30 p.m., not long before classes were supposed to have been dismissed, when authorities were called to respond to an active shooter.
For more than an hour, the school was at the mercy of a gunman on the loose.
“He was outside and inside the school,” Israel said.
Just after 4 p.m., the Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced on Twitter that the suspect had been apprehended.
Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting
— Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018
(At least 14 victims have been taken to hospitals, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. Courtesy of ABC News and YouTube. Posted on Feb 14, 2018)
Not long after, stunned survivors began sharing their accounts of what happened.
“I was on the first floor of the building where the shots happened first,” freshman Jason Snytte told NBC News.
“I was in the classroom right next to the outside, the closest classroom to it. It started there. I heard six or seven shots. Our door was open. I ran and closed it, and everybody ran into a corner.”
Jason, who said the shots were deafening, said they listened to their teacher and stayed put until police arrived and told them to evacuate.
“We were all freaking out. Our hearts were racing,” he said. “We didn’t know what was happening.”
Several students told NBC News that the school had gone through a fire drill earlier in the day. They said the fire alarm sounded again just before the shots were heard.
Relieved parents like Lisette Rozenblet, whose daughter attends the school, also said she was told that a fire alarm was pulled about the time the shots began.
But her daughter’s teacher, sensing that it might be a trap, told the students to stay in the classroom, she said.
“Her biggest fear is a school shooting,” Rozenblet said of her daughter. “She is always begging me to be home-schooled because she was scared of this.”
Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told NBC Miami that the school went into immediate lockdown.
“It’s sad that these tragedies happen in our country,” she said. “Many of the students have been in touch with their parents. We have many, many parents out here.”
(Melissa Falkowski, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, says she hid 19 of her students in a closet as shots were fired at the school. Courtesy of CNN and YouTube. Posted on Feb 14, 2018)
Joel Leffler, whose son and daughter attend the school, said both of his kids were safe — but in shock.
“My son called me as it was unfolding, running. He had to jump a fence,” Leffler said. “My son heard around eight gun shots as he was running out.”
When he reached his daughter by phone, she was whispering, he said.
“My daughter, who was there in the freshman hall where the shooting took place — she’s in shock right now, and she’s being taken out by SWAT,” Leffler said. “She saw multiple dead bodies.”
Agents from the FBI’s Miami Division were on the scene, along with agents from the Miami Division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident and was monitoring the situation, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who was traveling to Broward County to be briefed by emergency management officials and law enforcement, has been in touch with Trump and the Department of Homeland Security, his office said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called it “that terrible day you pray never comes.”
Just spoke to Broward School Superintendent. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018
