Florida gunman had extra ammo at school, fired for 3 minutes

The teenager accused of using a semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 people at a Florida high school confessed to carrying out one of the nation's deadliest school shootings and carried extra ammunition in his backpack, according to a sheriff's department report released Thursday.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Nikolas Cruz told investigators that he shot students in the hallways and on the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, north of Miami, the report from the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.

Cruz said he brought more loaded magazines to the school and kept them in the backpack until he got to campus.

This photo was used as the profile picture on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz, who was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Instagram via AP)

As the gunman moved through the school, he fired into five classrooms — four on the first floor and one on the second floor, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

The shooting lasted for three minutes. The assailant then went to the third floor and dropped his AR-15 rifle and the backpack and ran out of the building, attempting to blend in with fleeing students, Israel said.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

After the rampage, the suspect headed to a Wal-Mart and bought a drink at a Subway restaurant before walking to a McDonald's. He was taken into custody about 40 minutes after leaving the McDonald's, the sheriff said.

A day after the attack, a fuller portrait emerged of the shooter, a loner who had worked at a dollar store, joined the school's ROTC program and posted photos of weapons on Instagram. At least one student said classmates joked that Cruz would "be the one to shoot up the school."

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

The 19-year-old orphan whose mother died last year was charged with murder Thursday in the assault that devastated this sleepy community on the edge of the Everglades. It was the nation's deadliest school attack since a gunman targeted an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Meanwhile, students struggled to describe the violence that ripped through their classrooms just before the school day ended.

Catarina Linden, a 16-year-old sophomore, said she was in an advanced math class Wednesday when the gunfire began.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

"He shot the girl next to me," she said, adding that when she finally was able to leave the classroom, the air was foggy with gun smoke. "I stepped on so many shell casings. There were bodies on the ground, and there was blood everywhere."

State Sen. Bill Galvano visited the high school Thursday and was allowed to go up to the third floor, where he was shown bullet holes that marked where Cruz had tried to shoot out the windows at point-blank range. But the high-impact glass did not shatter.

Authorities told Galvano that Cruz apparently wanted to shoot out the windows so he could fire on the students running away from the school. Police told Galvano that it was not that difficult to open the windows.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

"Thank God he didn't," Galvano said.

Among the dead were a football coach who also worked as a security guard, a senior who planned to attend Lynn University and an athletic director who was active in his Roman Catholic church.

The last of the bodies were removed from the high school Thursday after authorities analyzed the crime scene. Thirteen wounded survivors were still hospitalized, including two in critical condition.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Authorities have not offered any specific motive, except to say that Cruz had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students and serves an affluent suburb where the median home price is nearly $600,000. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.

Cruz was ordered held without bond at a brief court hearing. He wore an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed at his waist. His attorney had her arm around Cruz during the short appearance. Afterward, she called him a "broken human being."

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

He was being held under a suicide watch, Executive Chief Public Defender Gordon Weekes told reporters.

Wednesday's shooting was the 17th incident of gunfire at an American school this year. Of the 17 incidents, one involved a suicide, two involved active shooters who killed students, two involved people killed in arguments and three involved people who were shot but survived. Nine involved no injuries at all.

As the criminal case began to take shape, President Donald Trump, in an address to the nation, promised to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health," but avoided any mention of guns. Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, about 40 miles from Parkland, said he planned to visit the grieving community.

He did not answer shouted questions about guns as he left the room.

(Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect "mentally disturbed" and stressing that it was important to "report such instances to authorities, again and again!"

In the case of Cruz, at least one person did report him.

FBI agent Rob Lasky said the FBI investigated a 2017 YouTube comment that said "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." But the agency could not identify the person who made the comment, which was from an account using the name Nikolas Cruz. It was left on a YouTube video of a vlogger and bail bondsman from Louisiana named Ben Bennight.

In a Buzzfeed article , Bennight said he called the FBI, and agents came out to talk with him. They called him again Wednesday.

Officials were also investigating whether authorities missed other warning signs about Cruz's potentially violent nature.

He had been expelled from the school for "disciplinary reasons," according to the sheriff, who said he did not know the specifics.

One student said Cruz had been abusive to his ex-girlfriend and that his expulsion was over a fight with her new boyfriend.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat before Wednesday's attack. Gard believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz should not be allowed on campus with a backpack.

The leader of a white nationalist militia called the Republic of Florida said Cruz was a member of his group and had participated in exercises in Tallahassee. Jordan Jereb said he had only a brief interaction with Cruz a few years ago. The group wants Florida to become its own white ethno-state.

Neither the Leon County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee nor the Southern Poverty Law Center could confirm any link between Cruz and the militia.

Jereb appeared to back away from his claim later Thursday. Someone posting under his name on Gab, a social media site popular with far-right extremists, complained about getting criticized over a "prank," claimed there was a "misunderstanding" and said he received "a bunch of conflicting information."

Cruz's mother, Lynda Cruz, died of pneumonia Nov. 1, and his father died previously, according to the arrest affidavit.

Two federal law enforcement officials said the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 .223 was purchased legally last year at Sunrise Tactical Gear in Florida.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When Florida enacted its six-week abortion ban last week, clinics in several other Southern and mid-Atlantic states sprang into action, knowing women would look to them for services no longer available where they live.

Health care providers in North Carolina, three states to the north, are rushing to expand availability and decrease wait times.

“We are already seeing appointments,” said Katherine Farris, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We have appointments on the books with patients who were unable to get in, in the last days of April in Florida.”

Their reaction is part of a growing trend in the United States: Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, spurring more than 20 states to adopt laws banning or severely limiting abortions, states with looser restrictions have taken steps to welcome women who want or need to end their pregnancies.

Since the court overturned Roe in June 2022, some Democratic-controlled states have made it easier for out-of-state women to obtain abortions. Several have adopted laws protecting in-state health care workers from being investigated for providing abortion to women from states with bans. Such measures have included allowing providers to prescribe abortion pills, the most common abortion method, via telehealth.

Officials in California, New Mexico, Oregon and other states have used taxpayer money to increase abortion access.

Florida recorded more than 84,000 abortions in 2023, a slight increase from 2022. As of April 1, the state reported approximately 14,700 abortions this year, potentially leaving a substantial number of women to consider going out of state.

“Patients will travel when they’re desperate to get an abortion,” said Mara Buchbinder, a social medicine professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We know that.”

At one point, Florida was a go-to state for women from other Southeastern states with restrictions, including neighboring Georgia and South Carolina, which both ban abortions around six weeks of gestation, before many women even know they are pregnant.

Last year, about 7,700 abortions in Florida were for out-of-state patients, according to state data.

But the state has steadily narrowed access. In anticipation of Roe being reversed, the Legislature passed a 15-week ban in April 2022 that took effect despite a court challenge. In 2023, it passed a six-week abortion ban that would take effect only if the earlier ban held up in court. The state Supreme Court upheld the ban last month, and the new law quickly went into effect.

A referendum in November asking voters to codify abortion rights in Florida’s constitution could reverse the ban. But at least until then, Florida abortion advocacy groups will still need to organize many out-of-state trips.

For women who are more than six weeks pregnant, South Florida is now the farthest from a legal provider of any highly populated area in the U.S. Subsequently, the average cost per abortion is expected to jump from $600 or $700 to as much as $1,800 or more, said Daniela Martins, a board member and caseworker team leader at the Women’s Emergency Network, a nonprofit organization that helps people in the region pay for abortion and other reproductive health care.

Martins said her group anticipates helping women get to Virginia and places even farther north, such as Maryland and Washington, D.C. She said it is committed to not turning away clients in need, though raising enough money to honor that commitment could be challenging.

“We’ve seen a lot of outpouring of support,” she said. “It’s nowhere near what we project we’ll need.”

Another group, The Brigid Alliance, which provides travel and support across the country for women seeking abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, is preparing for more needs in the coming months.

Serra Sippel, the group’s interim executive director, said the alliance is adding six new logistical coordinators, including four who speak Spanish, and is partnering with a clinic in Puerto Rico, an option particularly for Spanish-speaking people.

One of the largest patient influxes is anticipated in North Carolina, where, even before Florida's ban, 32% of abortions provided at the state's Planned Parenthood clinics were for out-of-state patients, Farris said.

But while it might be the most convenient place for Florida women given its geographical proximity, North Carolina is not without its own set of hurdles. The state’s 2023 law allows for abortions through 12 weeks of pregnancy, but requires two in-person visits to a provider 72 hours apart.

Those extra steps can turn a single-day procedure into a weeklong affair, said Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler, engagement director for Carolina Abortion Fund, a nonprofit in North Carolina and South Carolina that operates a helpline to assist callers with abortion care.

Providers in North Carolina also fear the arrival of new patients will lengthen the wait time for an abortion, currently five to 20 days. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which serves North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, is trying to avoid that by rolling out seven additional days of abortion services and adjusting providers' schedules at North Carolina clinics to expand availability, Farris said.

“We are all willing to do the work,” she said. “Operationally, it is incredibly challenging, and I think it's important to remember that this is a chaotic system.”

Farris, who provides abortions in North Carolina, has to turn away patients who don't qualify under the state's law because they are more than 12 weeks along. She initially refers them to Virginia, which allows abortions until 24 weeks. If there are no appointments available, women can travel to Maryland, Washington or places farther north.

Carolina Abortion Fund has six staff members and a volunteer network, but working there could often feel like having two full-time jobs even before Florida’s ban, Orlovsky-Schnitzler said.

Volunteers have sometimes stayed up until midnight to help someone coordinate an emergency abortion, and there have been months in which the organization has received as many as 1,000 calls, she said. After Roe was overturned, calls rose by 400%.

“That’s not an exaggeration,” she said.

The center received 650 calls in April alone, according to data it provided.

The organization often runs out of money, but Orlovsky-Schnitzler said that doesn’t stop workers from answering every call to get people the help they're seeking.

Staff at A Preferred Women’s Health Center in North Carolina, with clinics in Charlotte and Raleigh, are fielding about 4,000 calls weekly, most from women in Southern states, Executive Director Calla Hales said.

Since Roe was overturned, about 70% of the clinics’ approximately 13,000 abortions each year have been with out-of-state patients, she said.

The center also operates two clinics in Georgia under the state's six-week ban. The clinics' operations there may give a preview of what’s to come in Florida, Hales said.

“As soon as they pee on a pregnancy stick, they’re running in,” she said.

Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

The Planned Parenthood Health Center located in Chapel Hill, N.C., is seen, Friday, May 3, 2024. The location provides abortion services, in addition to birth control and STD testing, according to its website. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera)

FILE - Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic organizer, Emma Horst-Martz, discusses the groups' canvassing goal of knocking at one million doors during a press conference at Bicentennial Plaza in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, April 25, 2024. North Carolina abortion service providers prepare for a potential influx of people from Florida after the state's six-week abortion ban was enacted Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera, File)

FILE - Protesters on both sides of the issue hold signs as North Carolina House members debate, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina abortion service providers prepare for a potential influx of people from Florida after the state's six-week abortion ban was enacted Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

FILE - Abortion rights protesters are removed after becoming vocal, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina abortion service providers prepare for a potential influx of people from Florida after the state's six-week abortion ban was enacted Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)