In Parkland, Florida, students and family members gathered for a candlelight vigil Thursday night to mourn the 17 people who were killed on Wednesday in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The massacre at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, was the 18th school shooting this year. At least 15 other people were wounded in the attack by a 19-year-old former student named Nikolas Cruz, who used a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines. On Thursday, Lori Alhadeff, the mother of 14-year-old shooting victim Alyssa Alhadeff, spoke on CNN.
Lori Alhadeff: “The gunman, a crazy person, just walks right into the school, knocks down the window of my child’s door and starts shooting, shooting her and killing her. President Trump, you say, what can you do? You can stop the guns from getting into these children’s hands!”
On Thursday, Nikolas Cruz confessed to carrying out the mass shooting, according to a police report. Cruz was a former member of Junior ROTC who was obsessed with guns and had been expelled from the high school. CNN reports that Broward sheriff’s deputies were called to the Cruz family home 39 times since 2010 for reports of domestic disturbances. Despite those calls and other warning signs, Cruz was able to purchase his AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle legally at the Sunrise Tactical Supply gun store in Coral Springs, Florida.