Indian American Student Injured in Florida School Shooting That Left 17 Dead

By Little India Desk | February 15, 2018

An Indian American student is among those injured in the shooting incident that left 17 people dead at a Florida school. The gunman, who opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in the afternoon of Feb. 14, has been identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz.

The injured Indian American student is in the ninth grade. He suffered minor injuries after getting hit by splinters, and is being treated at the hospital, PTI reported.

Cruz is an ex-student who had been expelled from the school. He was armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. He was arrested at the scene and is being questioned by authorities, reported The Guardian.

“This is a sad day for the country and the community. We all Indian Americans are praying for the victims,” Shekar Reddy, whose friend’s son was among those injured in the mass shooting, said, PTI reported. The school has many Indian American students.

The gunman began the shooting spree outside the school before the school’s dismissal time around 2:40 p.m. He then entered the school and went past the hallways as he kept shooting students and teachers scampering for cover, said authorities.

This is the 18th school shooting in the United States so far in 2018.

Fifteen victims are in the hospital, and five of them are not out of danger yet. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that by the time the gunman ended the rampage, he had killed 12 people inside the school and three outside it, including a person standing at the corner of the street. Two more victims succumbed to injuries and died in local hospitals.

“There really are no words,” Israel, who has three children who graduated from the high school, said, calling the carnage catastrophic, the New York Times reported.

While students ran for cover, many recorded the incident on their smartphones and texted their parents.

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said that from what he learnt from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the shooter wore a gas mask, had smoke grenades, and set off the fire alarm so children would come out of the classrooms.

Cruz is said to have been receiving treatment for mental health issues. Broward county mayor Beam Furr said that Cruz had gone to a mental health clinic earlier, but for more than a year he had not been spotted there, CNN reported. Cruz had joined another Broward County school, the authorities said.

U.S. President Donald Trump took to the social media to pay his condolences to the victims’ families.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

He also tweeted saying that had spoken to Rick Scott, the governor of Florida. “We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting,” he said.

Some of the students who survived the rampage described the incident to the media.

“He went up and down the hallway,” a student describes being in the same building as the Parkland, Florida, school shooting suspect https://t.co/vx1ig7UWQR pic.twitter.com/FTKuM1s1n5

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 15, 2018