Suspect In Parkland, Florida School Shooting That Killed 17 Was An Expelled Former Student

Police have identified the suspect in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people as former expelled student Nikolaus Cruz.

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Sheriff Scott Israel said during a press briefing, “Nicholas Cruz was the killer. He is in custody, and we have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing. He’s 19 years old, born in 1998, in September. He was a former student of Douglas High School. He got expelled for disciplinary reasons. I don’t know the specifics. I think he might have Teravella High School. This morning when he woke up whether he was a student or not, I don’t know.”

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The Broward County sheriff’s office tweeted:

Nicolas Cruz is the Douglas High School Shooter

Cruz was an expelled former student at the high school where the shooting took place, and according to police, he had countless magazines and at least one AR-15 rifle.

Cruz’s motive will be known soon enough, but how a teenage kid who was expelled from high school got an AR-15 rifle and tons of ammo is not a conversation that Republicans want to be having, but after scores more innocent Americans have died in another mass shooting, it’s a conversation that the nation must have.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association