The moment the teen gunman who shot dead 17 people at a Florida high school is on the ground being cuffed by an officer while being held at gun point, is caught on video.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, who stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday afternoon armed with an assault rifle, was arrested about an hour after the horrific incident a mile off the school’s grounds in the area of Coral Springs.
In the footage, Cruz is seen placing his hands behind his back in surrender as one officer holds him at gun point, while another runs behind him and swiftly cuffs him.
Authorities say he was ‘arrested without incident,’ afterwards he was transported to an area hospital, before being taken to jail.
Photos reveal a dazed and distant looking Cruz being placed into a police cruiser to bring him to police headquarters while still in his hospital gown.
Nikolas Cruz is seen being transported from a hospital, headed to jail still in his hospital gown
Dazed and distant looking Cruz is surrounded by police and authorities to be transported
Charges against Cruz have not yet been made public, as he is pictured about to be transported to police headquarters
Cruz was armed with at least one AR-15 rifle, had ‘multiple magazines’ and smoke grenades when he stormed the school wearing a gas mask, according to the sheriff.
Investigators are now looking into whether Cruz may have pulled the fire alarm to draw people into halls so he could get a higher death toll.
Florida does have the death penalty though it is too early to consider sentencing as charges have not yet been made public against Cruz.
The first victim of the mass shooting has been identified as 46-year-old athletic director Chris Hixon.
A number of students have said they thought they heard the fire alarm right before the first shots were fired. The school had already had a fire drill earlier that day, leaving many of the students confused.
Authorities have already started dissecting his social media accounts and reported that some of things he had been posting was ‘very disturbing’.
The gunman was identified as Nikolas Cruz, 19 (pictured) who students said was ‘obsessed’ with weapons
Parkland police seen inspecting an AR-15 rifle outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the location where mass shooter Nikolas Cruz entered and killed 17 people on Wednesday
Traumatized students said that once they heard reports of a mass shooting at the school they knew it would be Cruz, while one teacher said he had been identified as a potential threat to his classmates last year.
Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old student at the school, told WFOR-TV that all his classmates ‘knew it was going to be him.’
‘A lot of people were saying it was going to be him,’ he said. ‘A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.’
‘He was going class to class just shooting at random kids,’ he said. ‘Everything he posts (on social media) is about weapons. It’s sick.’
Math teacher Jim Gard, who taught Cruz last year, told the Miami Herald: ‘We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him. There were problems with him last year threatening students and I guess he was asked to leave campus.’
Another student took to social media claiming Cruz had mental health issues that were ‘ignored by all the adults’.
‘He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely and he physically assaulted one of my friends once,’ the student added.
Police said the gunman started firing before he entered the school building and left behind a deadly trail.
Twelve of the people shot dead were found dead inside the school building, two more were killed just outside the school and another in a nearby street. Two other people died later after being rushed to hospital.
Gunfire rang out at 2.25pm shortly before dismissal time, sparking panic as students barricaded themselves into their classrooms.
Others were seen running out of the building with their hands in their air as police and SWAT teams swarmed the school. Those fleeing the school, in single file, each threw their backpack into a large pile and huddled together under trees across the street.
Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018
People gather waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida
At around 4pm, two hours after the shooter first opened fire, police and SWAT teams took him into custody. Police initially described him as a student and a former member of the US Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.
Aerial footage showed him wearing a maroon or burgundy colored sweatshirt as he was put in the back of a cruiser by half a dozens officers.
Meanwhile, horrifying video filmed from inside a classroom captured the moment the shooter, who was wearing a gas mask, burst in and began shooting at his fellow students as they screamed in terror.
The students were spotted sitting or lying on the classroom floor, trying to avoid being hit, as rapid gunfire was heard nearby. One girl’s hysterical screams were suddenly cut off during the shocking clip.
Desperate parents and relatives of students still locked down in the high school rushed to the scene to find out if their children were among the injured.
One mother, Michelle, whose daughter was inside, said there at least 20 students and teachers still barricaded in the school buildings. The unnamed mom said her daughter sent her a text that said: ‘There’s been a shooting in school… and it’s for real.’