Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspected gunman of Wednesday’s high school shooting in Parkland, Florida confessed before court to killing 17 people.
According to the Associated Press, the police report states Cruz admitted to the crime, saying he “began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds.”
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BREAKING: Police report: Nikolas Cruz confessed to Florida high school shooting, hiding extra ammunition in his backpack.
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 15, 2018
Cruz entered the school wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rife. He reportedly “brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault.”
Once students began to evacuate the building, Cruz admitted he discarded his rifle and vest in order to blend in with the crowd. Video of Cruz being captured by police was released on Wednesday afternoon.
The report also indicates that Cruz purchased the rifle in February 2017.
There is no mention of the report that Cruz worked with a second shooter, which contradicts one student’s testimony that there was potentially a second shooter.
Cruz was booked into Broward County Jail on Thursday morning on 17 accounts of premeditated murder, one for each of the victims who died during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Cruz was expelled from the school in Spring 2017 for threatening students. According to one teacher, he was not allowed on the school grounds after the expulsion.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” Jim Gard told The Miami Herald. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Cruz lived with a student at the high school for the past three months, as his adoptive mother had passed away due to pneumonia in November. The family that housed him said they were aware Cruz owned the AR-15, but had never seen him use it.
“The family is devastated, they didn’t see this coming. They took him in and it’s a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished,” Cruz’s attorney Jim Lewis said. “He was a little quirky and he was depressed about his mom’s death, but who wouldn’t be?”
