Florida Stays Strong

The parents didn’t know what happened to their kids until, they never came home.

Tiffany Beers, Staff

 

One of the deadliest school shootings in the last five months, in modern american history. In Parkland, Florida a devastating attack happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That sent students that go there, running for their lives.

 

Nikolas Cruz, age 19 was behind this horrible act. He was expelled at this school months before. Cruz came to the school carrying black duffel bag and backpacks, where the loaded magazines where hiden. At 2:19 p.m. wednesday Cruz began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds. He shot up inside five classrooms on first and second floor of the freshman building. Eventually he left everything in a stairwell. He then pulled the fire alarm to have students leave the building and then tried to blend in with a mix of kids that were fleeing. He decided to leave the group of kids into a neighborhood of a residential street, and got caught there at 3:41 p.m. It was hard to tell if it was Cruz to others, because he looked like a typical high school student.

 

So, they didn’t know if he was the guy that needed to be stopped. During this time, terrified students videoed the situation as some other students were texting their parents just in case they didn’t make it out. Cruz hit 17 people, where the hospital received nine were patients, one of them was cruz, two patients died, three remain at the hospital and three have gone home. Out of the 17 Cruz hit, 14 students and three teachers. Where two teachers saved a boy life by standing in front of the classroom door. At Pine Trails friends and family will commemorate the victims. Cruz used a AR-15 rifle that was purchased legally, at Sunrise Tactical supply in Florida, in Feb. 2017. AR-15 is easier to buy than a handgun and is one of the weapons of choice for mass killers.

 

Just like in the Las Vegas shooting where Stephen Paddock killed 58 people with a AR-15 and in Aurora, CO at the theater James Holmes also used a AR-15 assault rifle. After Cruz’s mother died, he decided to live with his friend. Where the family knew he had a gun and, they insisted on keeping the gun in a locked box. There was signs of depression in him. The family didn’t know he was capable of of violence yet, Cruz has been planning this since he got expelled. September Cruz wrote on Youtube channel saying, he was going to be a professional school shooter. His instagram was filled with pictures of guns, animals, hats and bandanas he liked to wear at school. They don’t know the fully reason why Cruz acted this way all they know is he possibly had a learning disability, and the fact his mother died that’s making him act this way. He has a significant history of mental illness. All we know the gun shots is something no one will ever forget.