FLORIDA — Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to an active shooter situation at a Broward County school Wednesday afternoon.
Responding deputies were met with hundreds of students fleeing the school. Investigators later learned that the shooter had concealed himself in the crowd and was among those running out of the school.
After watching school security video, investigators were able to identify the shooter as Nikolas Cruz, 19. Cruz had attended and was expelled from the school the previous year.
Cruz was taken into custody by Coconut Creek PD in a nearby neighborhood in Coral Springs. Cruz exhibited labored breathing. He was transported to a local hospital as a precaution for medical clearance.
Seventeen victims were transported to Broward Health Coral Springs, Broward Health North, Broward Health Medical Center and Boca West Medical Center. Two of the 17 victims who were transported died at the hospital.
Fifteen victims died at the school.
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The leader of a white nationalist group told the AP that Curuz was member of his organization.
The Associated Press reported: Jordan Jereb told The Associated Press on Thursday that suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz was a member of his group, the Republic of Florida, and participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee.
Jereb told the AP that his group wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state. He said his group holds “spontaneous random demonstrations” and tries not to participate in the modern world.
Jereb said he didn’t know Cruz personally and that “he acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he’s solely responsible for what he just did.”
He also said he had “trouble with a girl” and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t a coincidence.
BSO investigators are working with Broward County Schools staff to identify all of the victims.
Students were bused from Stoneman Douglas High School to a nearby hotel to be reunited with their families.
A motive for the crime remains unknown.
