At least 17 dead in
Florida school shooting: Official
They Change the God’s words:
Islam Is Not Terrorist by virtue of Surah Al Maidah, Verses 32 [
5:32 ]. And who is the real terrorist now?
PARKLAND: Seventeen people were killed Wednesday
(Feb 14) when a 19-year-old former student opened fire with a semi-automatic
rifle at a Florida high school, the local sheriff said, calling the scene
"horrific".
Broward County Sheriff Steve Israel said the
victims were a mix of students and adults, though he could not confirm if the
adults were teachers. Twelve of the victims had been inside the building,
he added.
He identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, a
former student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who had been
expelled for "disciplinary reasons."
Cruz was arrested without incident in the nearby
town of Coral Springs after the Valentine's Day rampage and taken to hospital
with minor injuries, the sheriff said.
"We have already begun to dissect his websites
and things on social media that he was on and some of the things ... are very,
very disturbing," Israel said.
"He had countless magazines, multiple
magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle," the
sheriff added.
Israel said he was uncertain about the exact
number of people injured, but at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had
died there of their wounds.
The shooting, one of several in the United
States since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the
country's epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of weapons, with
33,000 gun-related deaths annually.
"This is a terrible day for Parkland,"
Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80
kilometres) north of Miami.
"My very own triplets went to that
school."
A teacher at the school told the Miami Herald
that Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his
classmates.
"We were told last year that he wasn't
allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard said.
"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess
he was asked to leave campus."
A law enforcement source told CBS News that the
gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel said he could not
confirm that report.
"Just a horrible day for us," Robert
Runcie, the superintendent of the county's school district said, adding that
the incident appeared to be over.
"VERY SCARED"
"This is a very tragic situation for
everybody involved," Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN, adding
that she had spoken to a number of students.
"They were very scared," she said.
"And almost in shock when they came out."
Asked about security, the mayor said a police
officer is always stationed at the school and there was a "single point of
entry."
Television images showed students being led out
of the school by heavily-armed police officers and an armoured vehicle filled
with a SWAT team arriving at the scene.
One injured victim was seen being placed into an
ambulance on a stretcher.
Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests
and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points
around the sprawling school complex, which houses nearly 3,000 students.
'EVERYONE STARTED RUNNING'
Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and
her schoolmates had evacuated their classroom calmly after hearing what they
thought had been a routine fire alarm.
"The alarm went off so we had to evacuate
from our classes," she said. "Then we heard gunshots.
"I heard about six gunshots," she
said, "and then some people started running and then everyone started
running because we were like 'If it's real, then just run.'"
A math teacher at the school told CBS that he
was hiding with six of his students. "We are fine. We are waiting,"
he said.
Caesar Figueroa told CNN his daughter was hiding
in a closet and texting her family.
"She's trapped with her 10 friends. She
said she heard gunshots. A window blew and everybody is screaming and running,
and she said she ran in the closet and she's still there," Figueroa said.
NO CHILD SHOULD 'FEEL UNSAFE'
"My prayers and condolences to the families
of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," President Donald Trump
said on Twitter.
"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever
feel unsafe in an American school."
Since January 2013, "there have been at
least 283 school shootings across the country - which averages out to one
school shooting a week," according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a
non-profit group that advocates for gun control.
Since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults
were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US
schools.
The goal is to teach school children how to
react to a shooter who opens fire at random.
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