Parkland Victims Remembered at Temple of Time 2:42
(CNN Spanish) -
On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 years old at the time, shot inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people, including students and teachers.
Cruz was an alumnus of that Florida high school, and had been expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
Cruz pleaded guilty in Florida court to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The most important data of the attack
Shortly before 3 p.m. on February 14, 2018, police respond to reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a public high school attended by about 3,000 students, outside Boca Raton.
Upon arrival, the officers encountered a dramatic scene.
The shooting had already happened.
Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time, entered school and started shooting.
Law enforcement sources said the suspect used a .223 caliber AR-15-style firearm in the shooting.
In a span of about 10 minutes, Cruz wandered the hallways and targeted those huddled in classrooms on the first and second floors before leaving campus undetected in a crowd of students.
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The shooting left 17 people dead, including teachers and students.
12 people died inside the building and two outside it, according to police at the time.
Another of the victims died in the street while the remaining two died in hospital.
Investigators believe the suspect activated the fire alarm to remove people from classrooms and increase the death toll, a law enforcement source told CNN at the time.
Some students, fearing their lives would soon end, sent goodbye text messages to their loved ones;
others used their phones to share shocking images of the attack on social media.
On March 7, 2018, a Florida investigative jury indicted Nikolas Cruz with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the school shooting.
The Parkland massacre is among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in American history.
Who is Nikolas Cruz?
Nikolas Cruz was 19 years old when he gunned down high school students and teachers in Parkland, Florida.
Cruz was an alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he had been expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
At the time of the attack, Cruz lived in the home of Kimberly and James Snead, who had given him accommodation after the death of his mother.
After the massacre, they assured that they never saw the violent side of the young man, so they never imagined that he was capable of committing a massacre.
James Snead knew he had weapons, but he had ordered him to lock them and he thought the young man had given him the only key, so he could not use them without his permission.
Cruz pleaded guilty in Florida court to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The declaration begins to conclude a legal chapter of a massacre that marked a community and sparked a massive national protest movement against gun violence in American schools.
Parkland Massacre
