Students are brought across Coral Springs Drive from the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School. Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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A young woman who just walked out from the direction of the high school, who refused to give her name, gets a hug as she reaches the safe zone under the overpass at Coral Springs Drive.Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students are evacuated by police out of Stoneman Douglas High School. Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Medical personnel tend to a victim outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Student Kelsey Friend, becomes emotional while recounting her story about the shooting. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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People embrace while leaving the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel. The hotel was a staging point for witnesses to the shooting. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
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Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School. Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Two girls embrace as the students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School. John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Parents meet at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel to pick up their children following the shooting. Jim Rassol/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School. John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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A mourner reacts during a prayer vigil for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Fla.
RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images
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A girl waits for news as students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School. John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School. Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students break down as they are released from the lockdown. John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students react following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. MICHELE EVE SANDBERG/AFP/Getty Images
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Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School. Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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Students, staff, parents, friends and community leaders gather for a moment of silence in Parkland, Fla., on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Taimy Alvarez/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
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Mourners react during a prayer vigil for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Fla. on Feb. 15, 2018. RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images
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Mourners hug during a prayer vigil for the victims of the shooting. RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images
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Mourners gather at a vigil that was held for the victims. Jim Rassol/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
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City, county and state officials release balloons in honor of the victims. RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images
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Suspected school shooter Nikolas Cruz makes a video appearance in Broward County court before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Cruz is facing 17 charges of premeditated murder. Susan Stocker/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images
23 Dramatic Photos Of The Parkland School Shooting
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On Feb. 14, 2018, at 2:19 p.m., 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., with a backpack and a duffel bag full of loaded magazines. As he got out of his Uber, he pulled out a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, and opened fire.
Seventeen people were killed. Fourteen of them were students.
Police say that Cruz told them he just "began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds."
After leaving the school, Cruz walked to a local Walmart, and then to a Subway, where he bought himself a drink. He was arrested walking down the street an hour and 22 minutes after opening fire at the high school.
“He looked like a typical high school student, and for a quick moment I thought, could this be the person who I need to stop?” said Officer Michael Leonard.
Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Investigators discovered that the semiautomatic rifle used in the attack was purchased legally in February of 2017, and noted that in Florida, an AR-15 is easier to purchase than a handgun. The F.B.I also admitted that they had received a tip about Cruz last year after a suspicious comment was made on a YouTube channel, though they were unable to identify him definitively.
A vigil was held for the victims of the shooting on February 15, during which hundreds of people turned out to show their support. The football team also gathered separately, to mourn the loss of their coach and their athletic director, two victims of the shooting.
The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Hgh School has become one of the top ten deadliest school shootings in United States history, coming in at number eight.
Families of the victims of the Parkland shooting, as well as other mass shootings, are using the event to highlight the growing need for gun control in the U.S.
In the wake of the massacre, President Trump tweeted that the gunman was "mentally disturbed" and that those who knew him should have reported him to the authorities. He then held a press conference and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, saying that the country needs to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health." He made no mention of guns or gun control.
A former staff writer at All That's Interesting, Katie Serena has also published work in Salon.
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Serena, Katie. "23 Dramatic Photos Of The Parkland School Shooting." AllThatsInteresting.com, February 16, 2018, https://allthatsinteresting.com/parkland-school-shooting-photos. Accessed February 23, 2025.
