Nikolas Cruz, the teenager named as the Florida school shooting suspect, has been formally charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Seventeen students and adults were killed when 19-year-old Cruz allegedly opened fire on them at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Cruz has been transferred to Broward County jail this morning, where it's expected he'll face court in the afternoon.
Florida and America in general is still coming to terms with yet another school shooting, with this latest one being the fourth worst in US history. Parkland school district Superintendent Robert Runcie said: "Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow. It is a horrible day for us."
Advert
Police say Cruz stormed the school towards the end of the day with a gas mask, smoke grenades and a semi-automatic weapon with plenty of ammunition. There's been no news about his motivations behind the attack, but students at Marjory Stoneman have revealed he was a troubled kid.
Some of his former classmates have come forward to say that they'd always feared he was capable of an act like yesterday's shooting, calling him 'crazy' and alleging he had previously killed animals.
"He was crazy because he liked to kill small things, like little animals - frogs and other animals like that and he just had a crazy mind. He was racist and he was just crazy," one student told 10ABC News.
Advert
Victoria Olvera, 17, told the Daily Mail: "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."
The school issued a statement saying the 19-year-old was expelled last year, but the reason behind that situation isn't clear. Other students have claimed he was kicked out of middle school for repeatedly setting off fire alarms.
US President Donald Trump has tweeted about the shooter being 'mentally disturbed'. The post was attached to a two-day old message about DACA, the scrapped federal program that protects undocumented immigrant children.
It's unclear whether that is a mistake or that he's trying to draw connections between Cruz and undocumented immigrants.
Advert
Trump says people like the alleged shooter should be reported to authorities 'again and again', but interestingly, the 19-year-old was on the FBI's radar months ago after reportedly writing on a YouTube video: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."
This incident has become the 18th school shooting in America in 2018 alone.
Sources: Daily Mail ,Florida County Sheriff, New York Daily News
