Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
white printer paper
white printer paper
Hello I\'m Nik/Unsplash
Culture > News

A ‘Number Of Fatalities’ & Up To 14 People Reportedly Injured After A Shooting At A Florida High School

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Katherine Speller

The Broward Sheriff office confirmed that they were responding to reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Parkland, Florida early on Wednesday afternoon where there were reports of an unknown number of victims and a shooter still at large.

The Miami Herald reported around 4 p.m. on Wednesday that Margate Fire Chief Dan Booker confirmed his department was responding to a mass casualty incident with at least one death and more than 14 injured. Although he said he couldn’t confirm how many were shot and how many were injured or killed. CNBC reported that a suspect, reportedly a man wearing a burgundy shirt, was taken into custody by authorities shortly before 4 p.m. The Miami Herald reported that the suspect had been identified as former student, 19-year-old Nicolas de Jesus Cruz.

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida also said there were “a number of fatalities” in an interview with MSNBC Wednesday afternoon.

According to reports from the Sun-Sentinel, a spokesperson for the Broward School District said that staff and students were alerted to a “code red” lock down around dismissal time (2:40 p.m.) after gun shots were heard.

Coral Springs police also tweeted that the area surrounding the school was locked down and discouraged people from attempting to get to the school. 

According to CNN affiliate WSVN, students at Stoneman thought that the gunshots were initially part of a prank or that it was part of a fire drill. 

“We all thought it was a fire drill because we had one previously today,” one student told WSVN “And we thought it was so no one was that nervous, but then word started going around that it was shots and not just like something else, everyone just started running towards the canal.”

Gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety cited this as the 18th school shooting in 2018 alone in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. That number has since been disputed as it includes incidents of guns going off on school premises without injury. 

Update 4:35 p.m. EST:  The Broward Sheriff’s office tweeted that there were “at least 14 victims” who were being treated at Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital.

The Sheriff’s office also said via Twitter that “The shooter was not a current student.”

Her Campus will continue to update this story as more develops.

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar
Katherine (or Katie) is the News Editor and resident witch at Her Campus. She first fell in love with journalism while attending SUNY New Paltz ('14). Since then, she has worked on the staffs at MTV News and Bustle writing about politics, intersectional social issues and more before serving as staff researcher at Lady Parts Justice League. Her work has been published in Women's Health, the Daily Dot, Public Radio International (PRI) and WNYC and she's been a regular panelist on a few podcasts (mostly screaming about repro rights.)  She is a Libra with a Taurus moon and a Scorpio ascendant, which either means nothing or everything. She loves strong diner coffee, reading tarot for strangers at the bar and watching the same three horror movie documentaries. She lives in the Hudson Valley with too many animals.