Title is a tad bit misleading, I highly doubt I'll be posting daily in this. Nonetheless, I decided to stop filling my other books with news articles and such so I've created this one. In this book I'll be sharing articles, stories, and sometimes pi...
Haven't even gotten through our second month and already another school shooting. Sigh.
PARKLAND, Fla. — A former student went on a shooting rampage at a Florida high school Wednesday, leaving 17 dead while panicked students barricaded themselves inside classrooms and frantic parents raced to the scene.
The gunman, who had been expelled and didn't graduate, was identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz was armed with “countless” magazines and an AR-15-style rifle.
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Family members wait for news of students after a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14
Cruz was arrested a short distance from the school near a home, a law enforcement official who is not authorized to comment publicly told USA TODAY. Students recognized the suspect during the assault, he said.
Flanked by officers, the suspect was later escorted into a police station wearing a hospital gown.
"This is catastrophic," Israel said. "There are really no words."
The shooting happened about 2 p.m. at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which is about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, according to the Coral Springs Police Department.
Students said chaos ensued when a fire alarm sounded in the school near dismissal time — then the gunfire started. Israel said Cruz started shooting outside then made his way through the school's hallways.
He wore a gas mask and used smoke grenades "so the kids would come out in the hallways and thus, he had the opportunity with crowded hallways to start picking off people," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., told MSNBC.
Student Rebecca Bogart, 17, wasn’t sure if the reports of shooting were a drill at first.
The school had a fire drill earlier that day, and she knew it was somewhat common to do an active shooter drill.
It wasn’t until the windows of her first floor classroom shattered and Bogart saw a bullet near the shades did she understand what was happening.
“It was really hard to be calm,” Bogart said. “My friend was holding my hand.”
Bogart said that’s what she and her classmates tried to do as they hid from the shooter.
Though she couldn’t see them from under the teacher’s desk where she was hiding, Bogart said she could hear four of her classmates screaming in pain from injuries.
She added she didn’t know whether they had been shot.
When SWAT officers entered the classroom, they escorted students out. As Bogart walked down the hall, she saw students covered in blood.
Officers told her and the other students to get as far away as possible. Bogart said she walked miles before stopping to get picked up by her father.
