Florida Mass School Shooting

Florida+Mass+School+Shooting

Fatimah Dibas, Staff Writer

On Wednesday, February 14, one of the deadliest school massacres in the history of the United States went down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Broward County, Florida. Around 2:19 pm, Nikolas Cruz, who has been identified as the gunman, reached Douglas High School. Nikolas Cruz was a former student at Douglas High but was expelled for disciplinary issues not known to the public.

The murder weapon was identified as a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and with it, Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people, 14 of whom were students, and 3 staff members. 15 people were reported injured. Cruz was arrested in a neighboring street by police officers. Cruz confessed to the 17 premeditated murder counts he was charged with. Officials investigating Nikolas Cruz found disturbing social media posts on Cruz’s accounts. A psychiatrist has visited Cruz in his cell, as well as Cruz’s older brother Zachary and a woman who took them in after their mother passed away. There have been signs in the past that pointed towards this school shooting happening. Several, repeated warnings to the FBI should have had some sort of action made towards Cruz. Maybe this shooting wouldn’t have happened.

A possibility of Cruz being executed has popped up. Some argue that the signs in the past have shown the possibility of a shooting like this happening in the future, and it did. So it is either a death sentence or life imprisonment. As of now, Cruz is not allowed to interact with any inmates for his safety. Cruz pleads guilty.