“A child of God is dead. Can not we acknowledge in this country that we cannot accept this?” Counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd becomes emotional about the shooting at a Florida high school https://t.co/mt55EwkQj1 https://t.co/NLYw9tB3K0
— CNN (@CNN) February 14, 2018
A former FBI counterterrorism agent and analyst broke down in tears on CNN Wednesday while talking about the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Philip Mudd, a regular CNN contributor, became overcome with emotions while talking to Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room after the news anchor asked him how he felt about the incident.
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“I have 10 nieces and nephews,” Mudd said. “We’re talking about bump stocks, we’re talking about legislation… A child of God is dead. Can not we acknowledge in this country that we cannot accept this?”
Mudd paused after being overcome with emotion, adding, “I can’t do it, Wolf. I’m sorry, I can’t do it.”
Blitzer cut away from Mudd, saying, “We’re going to get back to you. You’re obviously… this is so emotional.”
“Unfortunately it happens all too often,” Blitzer continued. “And people say we’ve got to learn some and, as a result people say we’ve got to learn some lessons. Unfortunately lessons are never, never learned.”
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz was taken into custody as several victims were transported to Broward North in Deerfield Beach and Broward Health Medical Center. Seventeen people were killed during the school shooting.
Cruz reportedly began shooting around 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, minutes before the school day’s dismissal. Using an AR-15 rifle, Cruz reportedly pulled the school’s fire alarm then opened fire as kids began filing out of classrooms.
“We all thought it was a fire drill because we had one previously today,” a student told FOX 6. “And we thought it was, so no one was that nervous, but then word started going around that it was shots and not just, like, something else, everyone just started running towards the canal.”
One student managed to live tweet the shooting, while others posted videos to social media from inside classrooms. Police and SWAT arrived on the scene and helped many of the students out of the building, while others quickly fled on foot without being seen by Cruz, who was detained outside the school.
Cristina Vega, a student, told 7 News Miami that returning to the school will be extremely difficult. “I don’t want to come back to this school,” she said. “I can’t go up the stairs because up the stairs there was just trails of blood. Our teacher, right there in the corner.You just see the bullet and the blood on the wall.”
Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kim Zolciak-Biermann and Piers Morgan have spoken out about the tragic shooting.
