First funerals held, as investigation continues into Florida school shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The first funerals of victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting were planned for Friday, as the investigation continued into a massacre that claimed 17 lives.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The first funerals of victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting were planned for Friday, as the investigation continued into a massacre that claimed 17 lives.
Two more victims were released from the hospital, a spokeswoman for Broward Health said. Seven people remain at Broward Health North and Broward Health Medical Center, one in critical condition and six in fair condition.
Detectives continued to investigate the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in this affluent community in northwest Broward County, as the school remained closed. Funerals were planned Friday for Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, and Meadow Pollack, 18, both of Parkland.
Here are other developments:
— Trump to visit: President Donald Trump said he will come to Florida Friday, a trip he had scheduled to his home in Palm Beach prior to the school massacre. He has said he would visit Parkland and said he will meet with those involved in dealing with the shooting.
“I will be leaving for Florida today to meet with some of the bravest people on earth — but people whose lives have been totally shattered,” he said in a tweet. “Am also working with Congress on many fronts.”
In a televised address to the nation Thursday, he said he plans initiatives to address school safety and mental health but did not mention gun control. Many South Florida residents have criticized the president for inaction on guns, in wake of the massacre.
“Multiple of my classmates are dead,” wrote Sarah Chadwick, a student at the school where the shooting happened, in a tweet that went viral Thursday. “Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.”
— Shooting details: After firing more than 100 shots at students and teachers, accused shooter Nikolas Cruz discarded his rifle, slipped out in a crowd of fleeing students and headed to Walmart, according to arrest reports from the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
He ordered a drink at the Subway inside the store and then walked to nearby McDonald’s. Later, walking down the street, he was arrested by an alert officer who recognized his description.
Cruz, who has confessed to detectives, arrived at the school in an Uber car at 2:19 p.m. Wednesday.
As he walked through the school, shooting students, teachers and staff, he fired “well over” 100 shots but less than 150, according to a law enforcement source.
“Cruz stated that he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds,” states a report from the Broward Sheriff’s Office. “Cruz stated that he brought additional loaded magazines to the school and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault.”
— Thousands attend vigil: Thousands of students, parents and neighbors gathered for a candlelight vigil Thursday night at Pine Trails Park in Parkland. Seventeen plastic angel statues lit the park’s amphitheater, in place of the 17 people who died. Senior class president Julia Cordover’s voice shook as she read off the names.
“This is our home and this is where we will not be intimidated by evil,” she said. “We need to come together and be there for each other.”
The murders especially hit home for the Stoneman Douglas High School Eagles Regiment marching band, which lost trombonist Alex Schachter and winter guard member Gina Montalto.
“I love you. That’s No. 1,” the school’s band director Alex Kaminsky said as his students stood around him in a semi-circle on the edge of the crowd. “We’re here for each other.”
Chicago Cubs star Anthony Rizzo, who previously attended the high school, spoke to the crowd.
“I’m only who I am because of this community,” Rizzo said. “I want you to know that you’re not alone in your grief. We’re all grieving with you — the entire country is grieving with you.”
— Suspected murder weapon legally purchased in Broward County: Cruz bought the AR-15 rifle allegedly used in in the shootings at Sunrise Tactical Supply, in a strip mall in Coral Springs. At the store Thursday afternoon, a “closed” sign was on the door and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were inside.
Peter Forcelli, the special agent in charge of the ATF in South Florida, said Cruz had purchased the gun legally. “Because he’s over the age of 18, he can legally purchase an AR-15.” The arrest report said Cruz bought it last year. “Once you hit your 18th birthday, you can legally buy a rifle, if you pass the background check,” Forcelli said. “Once you hit your 21st birthday, you can buy a handgun.”
Some of the restrictions on gun purchases include if someone has been formally adjudicated mentally “defective” by a court. One loophole is if a person voluntarily seeks mental health treatment, a measure designed to encourage people to seek help. Illegal immigrants are also barred from purchasing guns.
“He was ticking none of those boxes,” said Forcelli.
— Cruz’s mental health at issue: The suspect’s defense attorneys say he shows signs of autism and appears to be suffering from mental illness .
“We have a strong belief that his mental illness will be a significant issue in the case and is a significant issue in how we got to this point,” said Gordon Weekes, one of Broward’s chief assistant public defenders and a member of the defense team.
Worsening Cruz’s mental issues was the trauma last November of his adoptive mother’s death, Weekes said.
“He was trying to get her to go get that illness checked out, but it moved very quickly and she passed away quite suddenly,” he said. “He was just lost after that. He was sad, he was discouraged.”
— Victims list: The 17 victims ranged in age from 14 to 49.
Their names: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, Parkland; Scott Beigel, 35, Coral Springs; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14, Parkland; Nicholas Dworet, 17, Coral Springs; Aaron Feis, 37, Coral Springs; Jamie Guttenberg, 14, Parkland; Chris Brent Hixon, 49, Hollywood; Luke Hoyer, 15, Parkland; Cara Loughran, 14, Coral Springs; Gina Montalto, 14, Parkland; Joaquin Oliver, 17, Coral Springs; Alaina Petty, 14, Parkland; Meadow Pollack, 18, Parkland; Helena Ramsay, 17, Coral Springs; Alex Schachter, 14, Coral Springs; Carmen Marie Schentrup,16, Parkland; and Peter Wang,15, Parkland.
Outside the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office, families huddled, signed forms and called funeral homes to make arrangements for pickups of the deceased and funerals that will start Friday.
— White supremacist connection: Detectives are investigating a possible connect between Cruz and a small, Florida-based white supremacist group called the Republic of Florida, which seeks to create a “white ethnostate” in Florida. But the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that monitors hate groups, has backed away from its initial report that Cruz had been involved with that group.
The league put out a statement saying that a representative of the group, who had earlier claimed Cruz was involved, now says he had been “misunderstood.”
Detectives are investigating Cruz’s possible white supremacist connections, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference late Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not confirmed at this time,” he said. “We’ve heard that. We’re looking into that.”
— Suspect evaded school security: The accused killer evaded school security procedures by choosing the right time to arrive and by activating a fire alarm, according to school and law enforcement officials.
He showed up just before dismissal time, when gates have been unlocked to allow cars and buses to enter and leave. And he set off a fire alarm, which overrides the security system that would have otherwise locked doors automatically and required students to stay in classrooms.
“This particular individual came on to campus at the time of dismissal, and that is a very open time for campus,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said.
The massacre at Stoneman Douglas, the largest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, has prompted school districts to review their security plans.
Palm Beach County officials are meeting with the county fire marshal to see “if there is anything we can do differently around fire alarms,” said Donald Fennoy, chief operating officer for that district.
— Encounter with killer: Freshman Chris McKenna came face-to-face with a killer on a second floor hallway at the Parkland high school. McKenna, 15, was on his way to use a bathroom when he saw Cruz loading his weapon.
“You’d better get out of here,” Cruz said, according to McKenna. “Things are gonna start getting messy.”
McKenna froze for a second — then fled.
— Court hearing: Cruz was ordered held without bond Thursday afternoon, after a brief hearing in which he stood with his head down in a heavily guarded Fort Lauderdale courtroom.
Wearing orange jail scrubs and shackled at the waist and ankles, he spoke once, saying “Yes, ma’am,” when Judge Kim Mollica asked if he understood the charges.
— Warning to FBI: The FBI was alerted last fall about a person named Nikolas Cruz who vowed online to become “a professional school shooter.”
FBI special agent in charge Robert Lasky said at a news conference Thursday that the agency was alerted in September about the comment on a YouTube channel. The FBI found no more information to identify the person or a particular time or location, Lasky said. “There was no connection found to South Florida,” he said.
— Gov. Rick Scott plans guns initiative: Gov. Rick Scott spoke with House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron on Thursday about preventing those with mental illness from having access to guns, but no specific legislation has been put forward.
“This senseless act of evil is absolutely heart wrenching,” Scott said in a statement. “Our entire state is in mourning, and we have to make sure something like this never happens again. The violence must stop. We cannot lose another child in this country because of violence in our schools.”
But many activists, including Democrats, argue gun-control measures must be passed to prevent future mass shootings like the one in Parkland.
“We are heartbroken and saddened by what happened yesterday in Parkland, but we’re also mad as hell,” said Gay Valimont, Florida chapter leader of Moms Demand Action, a national gun-control advocacy group.
— Sheriff’s deputy injured at false shooting report: Several false copycat incidents were reported at local schools Thursday, the sheriff said. He warned that all will be taken seriously and investigated, with the perpetrators prosecuted to the fullest extent for causing such a waste of law enforcement resources. A deputy accidentally fired a shot and injured himself in the leg Thursday while investigating an unfounded report of a shooting at North Broward Preparatory School in Coconut Creek.
An 11-year-old girl was arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot up Nova Middle School. The Davie Police Department arrested Jasmine Powell on Thursday after they say she threatened to bring a gun to the school and kill people. Davie police said surveillance video showed the sixth-grader placing a noted under the assistant principal’s door that read: “I will bring a gun to school to kill all of you ugly ass kids and teachers bitch. I will bring the gun Feb, 16, 18. BE prepared bitch!”
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(Staff writers Aric Chokey, Gray Rohrer, Marci Shatzman, Skyler Swisher and Scott Travis contributed to this report.)
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©2018 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
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