Police recount 'troubled' teen's pre- and post-attack activities as court charges him with 17 counts of premeditated murder for school shooting
Mourners stand during a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting on February 15
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A troubled teenager has confessed to gunning down 17 people at his former high school in Florida, court documents showed, as the FBI admitted it had received a tip-off about the 19-year-old gunman yet failed to stop him. Terrified students hid in closets and under desks on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, texting for help as the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, stalked the school with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, appearing Thursday afternoon via video link before a judge who ordered him held without bond. More than a dozen other people were injured in the shooting spree.
Nikolas Cruz. Pics/AFP
"Today is a day of healing. Today is a day of mourning," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. After being read his legal rights, "Cruz stated that he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds," court documents showed. Cruz arrived at the school in an Uber at 2:19 pm, authorities said. Less than three minutes later, he started spraying multiple classrooms with bullets.
At 2.28 pm, he left the campus, according to an official timeline. Cruz told police that he discarded his rifle - which he bought legally in Florida - and tactical gear in order to blend in with the crowd so he could flee, the documents showed. After the shooting, he stopped at a Wal-Mart and then McDonalds, Israel told reporters. He was detained 40 minutes later, after police identified him using school security camera footage.
It's all in the head for POTUS
In a sombre televised address to the nation in response to the school shooting, Trump vowed to make mental health a priority - after tweeting about the "many signs" the gunman was "mentally disturbed" - avoiding any talk of gun curbs. Earlier in the day, Trump had asserted that "neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances."
Trump doing 'worse than nothing'
TV show host Jimmy Kimmel has criticised Trump for doing "worse than nothing" to stop gun violence in the country. "You like to say this is a mental health issue, but one of your very first acts as president, Mr Trump, was to actually roll back the regulations that were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill. You did that," Kimmel said.
17
No. of gunfire incidents in US schools this year
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