Parkland school shooting of 2018 was one of the deadliest school shooting incidents in United States history. On Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman shot more than 30 people, killing 17, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Parkland lies in Broward County, north of Fort Lauderdale, in the southeastern part of the state. Police soon arrested 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former Stoneman Douglas student who had been expelled in 2017. The shootings saddened the country and contributed to a longstanding national debate about the ready availability of military-style weapons in the United States.
The shooting.
According to police reports, Cruz took a rideshare car to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, arriving at 2:19 p.m. Cruz was carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle in a bag and extra ammunition in his backpack. He had more than 300 rounds of ammunition. At 2:21 p.m., he entered Building 12—a three-story building on the school’s sprawling campus. According to authorities, Cruz fired into classrooms on the building’s ground floor. Smoke from the gunfire set off the building’s fire alarm. At 2:23 p.m., he went upstairs to the second floor. He fired into two classrooms, but did not hit anyone. At 2:24 p.m., he proceeded to the building’s third floor, where he shot and killed several people. At 2:27 p.m., he left the school and mixed in with other evacuating students. Officers from the Coral Springs Police Department and Broward County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the school during the incident. Police arrested Cruz away from campus at about 3:40 p.m.
The shooting left 14 students and 3 school employees dead. The shooter’s gunfire also wounded another 17 people.
A Broward County deputy sheriff had been assigned to protect the school. The deputy resigned soon after the shootings after reports surfaced that he had failed to confront the shooter after hearing gunshots. Law enforcement protocol calls for officers to attack active shooters.
Investigation reveals details.
Officials stated that Cruz had a history of disorderly behavior at school. They reported that Cruz had been expelled from Douglas High School in 2017 for disciplinary reasons and was attending an educational facility to obtain a high school equivalency degree. Cruz’s attorneys later stated that their client had been treated for depression and that his adoptive mother had died in November. Through social media websites, Cruz displayed an attraction to guns and other weapons. He even posted the message, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter” on a comment on the YouTube site, prompting an alert to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Cruz passed a background check to purchase the AR-15 rifle in early 2017. Investigators later found video recordings that Cruz made of himself preparing for the 2018 school massacre.
Later developments.
Cruz’s lawyers said that their client confessed to the shootings following his arrest. In March 2018, Broward County prosecutors charged Cruz with 17 counts of premeditated first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. In October 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to all 34 charges. Cruz’s attorneys arranged the plea in hopes of avoiding the death penalty for their client, and to spare the community the emotional experience of a trial. Also in October 2021, the Broward County School District agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of attack victims. In October 2022, Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (early release).
