Late Thursday, investigators shared a precise timeline detailing how a mass shooting unfolded Wednesday inside a high school in Parkland, Florida.
According to Sheriff Scott Israel, Nikolas Cruz was dropped off by an Uber driver at 2:19 p.m., when the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School buildings would be unlocked ahead of dismissal.
Israel says the shooter entered one of them through a stairwell, where he pulled his AR-15 rifle from a soft, black case he’d carried with him.
“There, he readied his rifle,” Isreal explained at a press conference Thursday evening.
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At 2:21 p.m., he started firing shots into the first of four rooms. More shots were fired into a second room and then a third room before the shooter returned two the first two rooms to unleash more bullets.
He then targeted a fourth classroom.
Israel says the shooter then went to the second floor, where he shot another victim before heading into another stairwell. He walked up to the third floor where he dropped the rifle and his backpack before exiting the building and running alongside fleeing students.
“He arrived at a Walmart store” not that far from the school, “and bought a drink at Subway,” said Israel.
The shooter left on foot, walking to a McDonald’s. From 3:01 p.m. until 3:41 p.m., the shooter sat in the restaurant before fleeing on foot.
At 3:44 p.m., he was detained without incident in Coral Springs along Wyndham Lakes Drive.
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The suspect is in custody and is being held without bond. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and has not yet entered a plea. He is a former student of the school who got expelled for disciplinary reasons, said Israel.
On Thursday, Israel said his investigators, as well as agents with the FBI, interviewed more than 2,000 people as part of their ongoing probe.
The FBI also confirmed Thursday evening the shooter posted a message on YouTube last year, declaring, “I am going to be a professional school shooter.”