A former student armed with a rifle stalked the halls of a Florida school, breaking windows and shooting terrified students and teachers, killing 17 people, authorities said.
The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School over disciplinary problems, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said, without providing specifics.
He allegedly turned on the fire alarm Wednesday, sending many outside, where he fired shot after shot before following fleeing students inside, officials said. There, he roamed the halls he knew so well, allegedly targeting those huddled in classrooms.
Former classmate Eddie Bonilla said knew the suspect before he was expelled.
“A lot of people were saying that it was going to be him,” Bonilla told CNN affiliate WFOR.
“A lot of kids threw jokes like that, saying he is going to be the one who shoots up the school. It turns out that you know, everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.”
Cruz was arrested off campus after leaving the school, and is talking to investigators, according to a law enforcement source.
He is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday morning.
The massacre
Just before gunshots rang out, the fire alarm blared.
At first, students were confused because there was a fire drill earlier that day. Investigators believe the suspect pulled the fire alarm to draw people out of classrooms and increase the number of casualties, a law enforcement source told CNN
When some students and teachers rushed out of the building, the massacre began. Others scurried back into the classrooms, away from the bullets, as the school went into code red, signaling an active shooter.
Some texted goodbyes to loved ones, fearful they’ll not make it out alive. Others posted social media images of chairs overturned in classrooms and floors stained with blood.
In one cellphone video, one student cried, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!” as gunshots popped in rapid succession in the background.
By the end of the rampage, Cruz had allegedly killed 12 people inside the building, two outside, one in the street and two at the hospital, Israel said.
The school
A little before 3pm ET, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of a shooting at the school.
“We are receiving reports of possible multiple injuries. Law enforcement is on site,” it tweeted. Law enforcement officers rushed to the scene, where they found a grim scene.
Beyond the bodies and blood lay piles of backpacks and dropped cell phones, some still ringing as desperate parents tried to reach their children, a source told CNN.
Nicole Baltzer, 18, was in trigonometry class when the shooting started. When a SWAT team arrived to rescue them, she said, an officer requested they close their eyes as they passed by the classroom.
“There’s nothing good to see in there,” Baltzer said the officer told them.
All she saw was broken glass.
The victims
Authorities have not released the identities of the victims, but they include 17 adults and children.
Loved ones posted photos of missing students on social media, seeking their whereabouts.
“This is Jamie Guttenberg a student a Stoneman Douglas High. If you see her please have her call her parents ASAP. Praying for all of the families and kids. Please keep posts to sharing and positive messages with prayers,” Michelle Wiseman Kredi posted on Facebook.
The suspect
Cruz was identified via security cameras at the school, the sheriff’s office said. He initially mixed in with the crowd of students to try to get away, but it didn’t work, according to a law enforcement source.
Police are investigating his digital footprint, and what they’ve found so far is “very, very disturbing,” Sheriff Scott Israel said.
The suspect used a .223 caliber, AR-15 style firearm in the shooting, which he bought in the past year after passing a background check, a source told CNN’s Evan Perez.
Kathie Blaine, a cousin of Cruz’s mother, said he was adopted and she had never met him.
His adopted mother — her cousin Lynda Cruz — died in November of pneumonia while his father passed on years ago, according to Blaine.
“I never met him. I haven’t seen Lynda, we would talk on the phone occasionally. I was surprised she died. She told me she was sick and I told her to go to the doctor,” she said.
School closed
The school is closed for the rest of the week, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. The district will offer grief counseling to students and their families.
“This has been a day where we’ve seen the worst of humanity. Tomorrow is gonna bring out the best in humanity as we come together to move forward from this unspeakable tragedy,” he said.
The shooting, which is among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern US history, revived debate over gun control.
Parkland, with a population of 31,000 in 2016, was named Florida’s safest city last year. It had seven reported violent crimes and 186 property crimes the previous year, an analysis said.
