As Americans reeled from the country’s worst school massacre since the horror at Sandy Hook six years ago, President Donald Trump suggested the root cause of the violence was a crisis of mental health — and defied calls to address gun control. 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. “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 also admitted to police that he discarded his rifle — which he bought legally in Florida — and tactical gear in order to blend in with the crowd to flee the campus, the documents showed. After the shooting, he stopped at a Wal-Mart and then McDonald’s, Israel told reporters. He was detained 40 minutes later, after police identified him using school security camera footage. In a somber televised address to the nation in response to the 18th school… [Read full story]
A teenager opened fire at a school in the US state of Nevada Monday, killing a teacher and critically wounding two students, police and reports said. Law enforcement gather in the parking lot at Sparks Middle School on October 21, 2013, in Sparks, Nevada, where a staff member was killed and two students were injured after a student opened fire (Source: AFP) The shooting, which a witness said happened near a basketball court at the Sparks Middle School in Reno, also left the young gunman dead."The one deceased is a staff member of the school," Washoe County School District police…... [read more]
Two students were injured, one seriously, in a US school shooting Friday before the suspected gunman killed himself, on the eve of the anniversary of the Newtown massacre. Police said the suspect was also a student at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, just a few miles from the sites of last year's Aurora movie theater shooting and the 1999 Columbine massacre. America's perennial debate about gun control is back in the headlines ahead of the anniversary Saturday of last year's Newtown, Connecticut shooting in which 26 people, including 20 young children, were killed. In Friday's incident, students locked themselves…... [read more]
A student shot dead a female classmate and wounded four others when he opened fire in the cafeteria of his Washington state high school on Friday, apparently after a fight with fellow students, authorities said. Pilchuck High School, took his own life as his classmates scrambled to safety in the latest outburst of deadly violence at an American school. A school district official, who declined to be named, said the shooter was Jaylen Fryberg, a freshman who was a popular member of both the wrestling and football teams. "He came up from behind and had a gun in his hand…... [read more]
A student at a Colorado school shot and wounded two students, one seriously, before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say. The gunman brought a shotgun to the school and was looking for a specific teacher when confronted by a classmate, the Arapahoe County sheriff said. The teacher left the school after learning he was a target. The attack took place a day before the anniversary of a US primary school shooting which left 20 children dead. Six adults were also murdered when Adam Lanza attacked Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown Connecticut. Small ceremonies are due to…... [read more]
A teenager opened fire at a school in the US state of Nevada Monday, killing a teacher and critically wounding two students, police and reports said. "The one deceased is a staff member of the school," Washoe County School District police chief Mike Mieras told reporters, adding: "The other deceased individual at this point in time appears to be a student-slash-suspect in this case." Authorities have not released details on the shooter's identity, his motive or how he died. Two students rushed to Renown Regional Hospital were listed in critical condition, said hospital spokeswoman Angela Rambo, cited by NBC News,…... [read more]