FLORIDA SHOOTING: 19-yr-old suspect charged with 17 counts of murder

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old gunman who killed no less than 17 people and wounded a dozen others when he opened fire on his colleagues at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in southeastern Florida has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

According to local police, Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary problems and decided to take out his anger for the punishment by storming his school with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a gas mask, smoke grenades and “multiple magazines” of ammunition.

Florida Sheriff Scott Israel called the shooting “catastrophic”, saying that “there really are no words”.

Read also: FLORIDA: Gunman kills 17 people, wounds 14 others at a local high school

“My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting,” US President Donald Trump said. “No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,” he added.

A student who witnessed the incident said he had to hide in a closet while the school was under rampage by the gunman.

“I was just in disbelief. I was texting my friends and my family,” the student told WPTV-TV, an NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, after being evacuated from the school.

“I didn’t believe it was actually happening,” he said.
The suspect was later overpowered by security operatives and was taken into custody shortly after the shooting incident regarded as one of the deadliest mass shootings in US modern history.

 

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