Stoneman Douglas High School shooting From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
Part of school shootings in the United States
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2008
Parkland Parkland (Florida) Show map of FloridaShow map of the USShow all
Location	Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 5901 Pine Island Road Parkland, Florida, U.S.
Coordinates	26.3053°N 80.2683°WCoordinates: 26.3053°N 80.2683°W (shooting) 26.2897°N 80.2871°W (arrest)[note 1]
Date	February 14, 2018 2:21 – 2:27 p.m. (EST, UTC−5)
Attack type	School shooting, mass shooting
Weapons	AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle (Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport 2)
Deaths	17
Non-fatal injuries	17
Perpetrator	Nikolas Cruz
Charges	17 counts of first-degree murder 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder

On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members and injuring seventeen others.^[2][3][4] Witnesses identified nineteen-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz as the assailant, and he was arrested in Coral Springs by the Broward County Sheriff's Office shortly after he escaped the scene; Cruz had purchased food at Walmart and McDonald's restaurants after leaving the scene of the shooting.^[5] Cruz confessed to being the perpetrator,^[6] and he was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. Police and prosecutors have not yet offered a motive and are investigating "a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior".^[7]
It is the deadliest shooting at a high school in United States history, surpassing the Columbine High School massacre which took place on April 20, 1999. The shooting was the deadliest mass shooting of 2018 and came at a period of heightened public support for gun control following the attacks in Las Vegas, Nevada and Sutherland Springs, Texas respectively in October and November 2017.
The sheriff's office received a number of tips in 2016 and 2017 about Cruz's threats to carry out a school shooting. The FBI learned that a YouTube user with the username "nikolas cruz" posted a message in September 2017 about becoming a school shooter, but the agency could not identify the user. In January 2018, someone contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tip line with a direct complaint that Cruz had made a death threat, but the complaint was not forwarded to the local FBI office.
Following the massacre, public anger and frustration towards the inaction of the Republican-dominated legislature on the wider issue of mass shootings and gun violence led to the founding of Never Again MSD, an organization formed by survivors and students of the shooting to demand legislative action on gun violence. On March 9, Governor Rick Scott signed a bill that raised the minimum age for buying rifles in Florida from 18 to 21. The legislation also established waiting periods and background checks for gun buyers. The law also allowed for the arming of teachers who were properly trained and the hiring of school police. So-called "bump stocks" would now be banned and some potentially violent or mentally unstable persons would be prohibited from possessing guns.^[8][9] The National Rifle Association (NRA) immediately filed a lawsuit that challenged the federal constitutionality of the age requirement clause.^[10]