Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
Part of school shootings in the United States
Pine Island Road entrance to Stoneman Douglas High School (2008)
Location	Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 5901 Pine Island Road Parkland, Florida, U.S.
Coordinates
Date	February 14, 2018 (2018-02-14) 2:21 p.m. – 2:27 p.m. (EST, UTC−5)
Attack type	School shooting, mass shooting
Weapons	Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle
Deaths	17
Injured	15
Charges	17 counts of capital murder

On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. Seventeen people were killed and fifteen more were taken to hospitals, making it one of the world's deadliest school massacres. The suspected perpetrator, Nikolas Jacob Cruz, was arrested shortly afterward and confessed to the shooting, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office. He was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz posted social media messages in which he stated his aspiration to become a "professional school shooter" with his AR-15 style rifle. A month prior to the shooting, the FBI received a tip that Cruz had made a death threat, but due to an error, its Miami field office was never notified of this information. Police and prosecutors have not yet established a motive for the rampage and are looking into "a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior".

Shooting

The shooting took place during the afternoon of February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, ordered an Uber and was dropped off at the school by a female driver at 2:19 p.m. EST. He was carrying a black backpack and a long black bag. At approximately 2:21, near dismissal time, staff and students heard gunfire and instituted a "code red" lockdown.

Cruz activated a fire alarm while he was wearing a gas mask and carrying smoke grenades. He was armed with a Smith & Wesson M&P15 (an AR-15 style rifle) and multiple magazines, and began shooting indiscriminately at students and staff.

The shooting rampage lasted six minutes, after which Cruz discarded his weapon and left the scene by blending in with fleeing students. He walked to a nearby Walmart, where he purchased a soda at its Subway restaurant. He then walked to a McDonald's and lingered before leaving on foot at 3:01. He was arrested without incident on Wyndham Lakes Drive near Coconut Creek in nearby Coral Springs at about 3:40 p.m. School surveillance cameras recorded Cruz as the perpetrator.

Victims

Fourteen students and three staff members were killed and many others injured, including at least 15 (including the suspect) who were taken to area hospitals. Three people remained in critical condition the next day. Of those killed, twelve died in the school, two just outside the school buildings, one on the street, and two at the hospital. The dead were identified as:

2

Scott Beigel, a geography teacher at the school, was shot dead after he unlocked a classroom for students to hide; some students survived because the gunman did not enter the classroom. Aaron Feis was an assistant football coach and security guard at the school; he was shot and killed as he shielded two students. Chris Hixon, the school's athletic director, was killed as he ran toward the sound of the gunfire.

Suspect

The Broward County Sheriff's Office mugshot of Cruz

The suspected shooter was identified as Nikolas Jacob Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the school. His former math teacher said an email from the school administration had circulated among teachers. The email warned that Cruz had made threats against other students, which led the school to ban him from wearing a backpack on campus. He was later expelled for apparently fighting with the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend.

Cruz was born on September 24, 1998, in Margate, Florida, and was adopted at birth. His adoptive father died of a heart attack during Cruz's childhood. His adoptive mother died at age 68 in November 2017, from influenza and pneumonia. Cruz had been living with relatives and friends since her death. He had previously been receiving mental health treatment, but stopped going.

He was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) and had received multiple awards for outstanding academic performance. He was also a member of his school's varsity air rifle team. A former classmate said Cruz had anger management problems and often joked about guns and gun violence, including "shooting up establishments". Another described him as "super stressed out all the time and talked about guns a lot and tried to hide his face". A current student said, "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him." Another classmate described him as a loner with few friends, saying, "He told me how he got kicked out of two private schools. He was held back twice. He had aspirations to join the military. He enjoyed hunting." Cruz also bragged about killing animals. A neighbor said Cruz's mother would call the police over to the house to try to "talk some sense" into him.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County described Cruz's online profiles and accounts as "very, very disturbing". They contained numerous pictures and posts of him with a variety of weapons, including long knives, a shotgun, a pistol, and a BB gun. The Florida Department of Children and Families investigated Cruz in September 2016 for Snapchat posts in which he cut both his arms and said he planned to buy a gun. State investigators reported Cruz had depression, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and assessed that he was not a risk. Cruz's YouTube videos included violent threats, such as "I wanna die Fighting killing s**t ton of people", threats against police officers and Antifa, and an admiration of the University of Texas tower shooting. He left a comment on another user's YouTube video on September 24, 2017, stating "I'm going to be a professional school shooter", which prompted the user to report him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to FBI agent Robert Lasky, the FBI was unable to identify the commenter after conducting database reviews and checks.

Police said Cruz holds "extremist" views and social media accounts believed to be linked to him contain anti-black and anti-Muslim slurs. In a private Instagram group he titled "Murica (American flag emoji) (eagle emoji) great", he advocated killing Mexicans, blacks, and gays. He said his hate for black people was 'simply because they were black', and he referred to white women in interracial relationships as traitors. He also stated anti-Semitic views, even towards his own mother.

Legal proceedings

At his arraignment before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. If convicted of capital murder by a jury, he could face the death penalty. According to an affidavit by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, he confessed to the shooting, stating that he brought additional loaded magazines hidden in a backpack. He purchased the rifle legally from a Coral Springs gun store in February 2017. At arraignment on February 15, he was ordered held without bond. The public defender's office said he will plead guilty if the death penalty is taken off the table. The chief public defender in Broward County said that it is not yet known if Cruz's attorneys will seek an insanity defense. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said she is certain prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Aftermath

First responders established a triage tent outside the school. The school district provided grief counseling to students and their families. Additionally, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said costs of funerals and counseling would be covered by the state.

At least three counties of Florida and Virginia increased police presence at schools on February 15 in response to the shooting. The building where the shooting took place will be torn down.

President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Rick Scott were briefed on the shooting.

Cruz has been placed on suicide watch in an isolation cell.

Political reactions

Trump offered his prayers and condolences to the victims' families, writing, "no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school". In a televised address to the nation, he mentioned school safety and mental health issues. Scott ordered flags at state buildings to be flown at half-staff. Trump later ordered flags be flown at half-staff for the entire United States. Two days after the shooting, Trump and his wife Melania paid a one-hour visit to the victims' hospital, congratulating physicians and posing with staff for photos, with a thumbs-up gesture.

BBC News characterized Republican politicians' reactions as focusing on mental health issues while dodging debate on gun control with the reasons that it was either "too political or too soon". Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said that this was the time to "step back and count our blessings" instead of "taking sides and fighting each other politically". Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that "most" proposals on stricter gun laws "would not have prevented" this shooting nor "any of those [shootings] in recent history" and that lawmakers should "focus on the violence part" alongside guns.

Al Hoffman Jr., a prominent Florida GOP political donor and Rubio supporter, publicized an email sent to Florida GOP politicians after the shooting, including governor Rick Scott and former governor Jeb Bush, pledging to no longer fund legislative groups or candidates who were not actively working to ban sales of military-style assault weapons to civilians. "For how many years now have we been doing this – having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings – and how many years has it been that nothing's been done?" Hoffman said. "It's the end of the road for me."

The Alliance for Securing Democracy alleged Russian bot accounts used Twitter to inflame tensions by posting loaded comments that support or oppose gun control to divide Americans. It said other Russia-linked accounts have labelled the shooting as a false flag operation which the U.S. government will exploit to seize guns from citizens.

Gun control advocacy

Shortly after the attack, public comment quickly shifted focus to gun politics. Several student survivors criticized the response, asking politicians to get things done to prevent more children from dying in shootings rather than just offer condolences. Some of these students have demanded tighter gun control as a course of action. One of the teachers said there were so many casualties even after the people at the school had done all they were supposed to do. She felt the government had not done enough to keep the students at her school safe. Broward County Schools Superintendent Rob Runcie said, "now is the time to have a real conversation about gun control legislation".

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel called on lawmakers to amend the Florida Mental Health Act to allow police to detain and hospitalize people who make disturbing posts on social media, not just clear threats. "I'm talking about being around bombs, possibly talking about 'I want to be a serial killer,' talking about taking people's lives," he said. "Just taking a picture with a gun or a knife or a weapon – that in and of itself is clearly not even remotely something that we're concerned about."

Never Again MSD

Student survivors organized a group Never Again MSD in the aftermath of the shooting. The group began on social media using the hashtag #NeverAgain. It has demanded legislative action to prevent similar shootings in the future and has vocally condemned U.S. lawmakers who have received political contributions from the National Rifle Association (NRA). Never Again MSD held a rally on February 17, 2018 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, attended by hundreds of supporters. Emma Gonzales was noted for her impassioned speech rebuking "thoughts and prayers" from the government and the President. "March for Our Lives", a nationwide demonstration which will include a march in Washington, D.C., is planned for March 24, 2018.

FBI mishandling of information

On January 5, 2018, the FBI's Public Access Line received a tip from a person who was close to Cruz. On February 16 (two days after the shooting), the agency released a statement that detailed this information. According to the statement, "The caller provided information about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." After conducting an investigation, the FBI admitted to mishandling the information. They learned it was not forwarded to the Miami Field Office where investigative steps would have been taken.

Florida Governor Scott called on FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to resign after the agency mishandled information that might have prevented the shooting. President Trump tweeted that the FBI failed to detect the shooter because they "are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign".

See also

• Assault weapons legislation in the United States
• Federal Assault Weapons Ban
• Gun law in the United States
• Gun laws in Florida
• Gun politics in the United States
• Gun violence in the United States
• List of attacks related to secondary schools
• List of disasters in the United States by death toll
• List of rampage killers (school massacres)
• March for Our Lives
• Mass shootings in the United States
• School shooting

External links

• Stoneman Douglas shooting timeline of events. Broward County Sheriff's Office
• "From Superintendent Robert W. Runcie–Today's Tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School." - Broward County Public Schools
• "UPDATE –Regarding Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School February 14, 2018, 9 p.m.." - Broward County Public Schools
• "UPDATE: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School February 15, 2018, 6 p.m.." - Broward County Public Schools