FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A lengthy police report on the Florida school shooting says suspect Nikolas Cruz still had 188 live rounds when he abandoned his AR-15 rifle and blended in with students fleeing the carnage.
Police also collected 70 spent shell casings on the building’s first floor, and a total of 140 throughout the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building. They found a backpack containing a knife, a ski mask, a green camouflage shirt, a cellphone with earbuds still connected and a soft-sided rifle case.
The AR-15 rifle itself was found on the third floor, with a magazine containing 23 live rounds. The 425-page report says a swastika was etched into the side of the magazine.
The report says Cruz’s cellphone also yielded numerous pictures and references to other mass shootings, photos of Cruz holding weapons and wearing body armor, and music lyrics filled with violent imagery.
Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted in the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people.
Officers who arrived at a Florida high school minutes after a gunman killed 17 said they confronted blood, bodies and chaos and even some cowardice.
In more than 600 pages of interviews with investigators, officers each gave their individual tale of how a peaceful Valentine’s Day suddenly turned to horror when they learned of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Two talked of hurrying to campus in fear because their sons are students there and charging inside once they arrived. Another talked about seeing a dead student, his eyes open, his face filled with fear.
Many talked about running past some Broward sheriff’s deputies who had taken cover rather than go toward the shooting.
The interviews were released late Wednesday as part of a public records request.
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