This photo provided by the Broward County Jail shows Nikolas Cruz. Authorities say Cruz, a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, killing more than a dozen people and injuring several. (Broward County Jail via AP)
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on a deadly school shooting at a Florida high school (all times local):
8:30 a.m.
A law enforcement official is telling The Associated Press that a former student who killed 17 people at a Florida school legally purchased his AR-15 rifle about a year ago.
The official is familiar with the investigation into the school shooting but not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Federal law allows people 18 and over to legally purchase long guns. At 21, people can legally buy handguns from a licensed dealer.
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7:50 a.m.
President Donald Trump says it appears the suspect in Florida’s deadly school shooting was “mentally disturbed.”
Trump tweeted Thursday about the shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. A former student opened fire Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people. The 19-year-old was charged Thursday morning.
Trump says: “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”
The president offered sympathy in another tweet Wednesday and said he spoke with Florida’s governor, but he has not addressed the nation.
Trump has cited mental health before as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.
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7:30 a.m.
Grief counselors are being made available to students and staff after a mass shooting at their Florida high school killed 17 people and left 14 others hospitalized with wounds and injuries.
The Broward County school district says counseling will be offered at five locations for anyone affected by Wednesday afternoon’s shooting. But Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, now a crime scene, will remain closed through the President’s Day weekend.
The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. He was arrested about two miles from the school shortly after the shooting and initially taken to a hospital with breathing problems. Cruz was questioned overnight and booked into the Broward County Jail early Thursday.
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7:10 a.m.
Pope Francis is sending his condolences to the victims of the school shooting in Florida and praying that “such senseless acts of violence may cease.”
The Vatican says Francis sent a telegram Thursday to the archbishop of Miami saying he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the “devastating attack.”
Francis said he was praying for the dead and wounded and those who are grieving.
A former student at the Parkland, Florida high school opened fire Wednesday with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people.
Francis has frequently lashed out at gun manufacturers, calling them “merchants of death.” During his 2015 speech to the U.S. Congress, he called for an end to the arms trade, which he said was fueled by a quest for “money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”
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7:05 a.m.
The 19-year-old suspect in a deadly school shooting in Florida has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Nikolas Jacob Cruz was booked into the Broward County Jail early Thursday, still wearing the hospital gown he was given after being treated for labored breathing following his arrest. He was later questioned overnight before being booked into jail.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz was a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. He is accused of entering the campus just before school was dismissed on Wednesday afternoon and opening fire on students and teachers.
Officials said another 14 people have been treated at area hospitals.
Cruz, who is listed at 5-foot-7 and 131 pounds, is being held without bond. Jail records don’t list an attorney for him.
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6:55 a.m.
A sheriff said the bodies of 12 of the 17 victims in a mass shooting at a Florida high school were found inside the building.
A statement from Broward Sheriff Scott Israel says two other bodies were discovered outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, another was found a short distance away along a local road and two others died at a hospital.
Dr. Evan Boyer, the medical director at Broward Health North’s Department of Emergency Medicine, told reporters that the suspect was among 17 patients taken to local hospitals after the shooting.
Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz was initially taken by ambulance to Broward North hospital for treatment for labored breathing after his arrest. Then he was taken to sheriff’s headquarters for questioning overnight. He was still wearing a hospital gown when he was brought to the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale for booking Thursday.
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6:15 a.m.
The 19-year-old suspect in a deadly rampage at a Florida high school is being booked into jail after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities.
Television footage showed Nikolas Cruz being escorted by sheriff’s deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s headquarters to the county jail in Fort Lauderdale early Thursday morning.
Seventeen people were killed as gunfire erupted at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School just before classes ended Wednesday afternoon.
Cruz was captured in a quiet neighborhood about two miles from the school. Sheriff’s officials said in an email that Cruz was initially taken to a hospital for labored breathing before being questioned at sheriff’s headquarters.
Counselors are being made available for students, teachers and staff, but the school will remain closed as an investigation continues.
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1 a.m.
Just before the shooting broke out, some students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School thought they were having another fire drill.
Such an exercise had forced them to leave their classrooms hours earlier. So when the alarm went off Wednesday afternoon shortly before they were to be dismissed, they once again filed out into the hallways.
That’s when police say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nation’s deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.
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