What Authorities Know About Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooter So Far
On Wednesday, the US faced another tragedy when it was revealed that another school shooting had occurred in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and at the center of it all is 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz.
Nikolas Cruz is suspected to be the perpetrator of the school shooting which resulted in the deaths of 17 individuals and the injury of many others. Armed with a gas mask, smoke grenades a number of magazines for his AR-15 rifle, Cruz had reportedly opened fire on the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while wearing his former U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps uniform.
He was immediately taken into custody afterward, and it was then revealed that Cruz himself had been a student at the high school who had been expelled last year. According to the Associated Press, it has been revealed that Cruz was a member of the white supremacist militia, the Republic of Florida, and that he also participated in a training exercise with them. However, it is suspected that Cruz acted out on the heinous crime alone.
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About 3000 students attend the Florida high school that also employs 130 teachers. After the shooting, graphic videos would appear online of the incident showing students hiding in classrooms and children crying with blood scattered all over the floor. Cruz is currently held in jail without bond, and his public defenders argue that the 19-year-old has brain development issues along with mental illness. They referred to him as a "broken child."
In interviews, Cruz had been described by his former peers as "troubled" and a loner. Others even described him as an outcast who would always talk about guns and knives. One student even claimed that there had been a joke once that Cruz would one day open fire at the school.
"A lot of kids threw jokes around like that, saying that he would be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out, you know, everyone predicted it," one student said.
Cruz's mother died back in November, and ever since then, he had lived with a family friend and had worked at the local Dollar Tree store. While it was believed that he was finally turning his life around, it doesn't seem to have been the case when he opened fire in his former school.
