It’s been confirmed there’ve been seventeen fatalities in the Florida high school shooting.
The suspected shooter, who’s been placed in police custody, has been named as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, report NBC.
According to reports twelve of the students were killed in the school building, another two just outside the premises and one in the street, while two others are believed to have died in hospital.
Cruz, who was recently expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons and was enrolled in another school in the same district, was said to have ‘countless magazines and an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle’ on him.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said:
You come to the conclusion this is just absolutely pure evil.
Helicopter footage, which has been circulating around American media outlets, shows a man, believed to be Cruz, in a red shirt, surrounded by police officers while in handcuffs.
Broward Sheriff’s Twitter account confirmed the shooter has been placed in police custody:
Broward Schools Superintendent, Robert Runcie, confirmed there’ve been ‘numerous fatalities’ and in a brief press statement said:
There are numerous fatalities. It’s a horrific situation. It’s just a horrible day for us. We have no evidence at this point there was more than one shooter.
It’s a day you pray every day you never have to see. We didn’t have any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made.
We cannot live in a world built on fear, we have do what we can to provide the greatest safety measures for our kids.
Mental health issues in this country are growing and it’s certainly something that needs to be addressed in our school system.
The Florida shooting is now the eighteenth to take place in a US school this year – the third deadliest in American history.
On January 23, two people were killed and another 15 were shot at Marshall County High School in Kansas.
Our thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy.
