‘I needed to see’: victims’ families tour site of Parkland massacre five years on

Bloodstains and broken glass remain where 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida

For more than five years, the bloodstained halls and classrooms where 17 people died in the Parkland school shooting has remained locked away and mostly untouched – not even the victims’ families had been allowed inside.

That changed on Wednesday, as heart-wrenching private tours began for relatives of the 14 students and three staff members who died on 14 February 2018. The 17 wounded and their loved ones will also be able to visit the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, now that it is no longer needed as evidence in the trials of the convicted killer and the deputy who was just acquitted of failing to stop him.

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Parkland school shooter sentenced to life without parole

Nikolas Cruz gets 17 life terms for the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school that left 17 dead

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz formally received a sentence of life without parole on Wednesday after families of his 17 slain victims spent two days berating him as evil, a coward, a monster and a subhuman.

Cruz, shackled and in a red jail jumpsuit, watched intently as Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentenced him to 17 life terms for the 14 February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in suburban Fort Lauderdale and an additional 17 for the attempted murders of those he wounded.

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Florida governor suspends school board quartet over Parkland shooting report

Ron DeSantis acts on recommendation in report from grand jury investigating 2018 shooting in which 17 people were killed

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, on Friday suspended four members of the Broward county school board, acting on a recommendation in a report from a grand jury investigating the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in which 17 people were killed.

In a statement accompanying his executive order, DeSantis said: “It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance.”

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Prosecutor urges jury to sentence Parkland school shooter to death

Jury to decide on death penalty or life in prison for gunman who pleaded guilty to murdering 17 people in 2018

A prosecutor on Monday urged jurors to sentence to death the gunman who killed 17 people in a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018.

The penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began on Monday, the deadliest US mass shooting to go before a jury.

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Parkland shooter pleads guilty to 17 counts of murder

Defense attorneys turn their focus to saving Nikolas Cruz from a death sentence for 2018 shooting massacre at Florida high school

Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder for the 2018 shooting massacre at a Florida high school, leaving a jury to decide whether he will be executed for one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.

Relatives of the victims who sat in the courtroom and watched the hearing via Zoom shook their heads or broke down in tears as Cruz entered his pleas and later apologized for his crimes.

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Parkland shooting suspect to plead guilty to 17 counts of murder

  • Nikolas Cruz, 23, to enter guilty pleas over 2018 school shooting
  • Florida attack sparked nationwide movement for gun control

The gunman who killed 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland, Florida, high school will plead guilty to their murders, his attorneys said Friday, bringing some closure to a south Florida community more than three years after an attack that sparked a nationwide movement for gun control.

The guilty plea would set up a penalty phase where Nikolas Cruz, 23, would be fighting against the death penalty and hoping for life without parole.

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Death of second Parkland student being investigated, police say

  • Police say, ‘It hasn’t been confirmed as a suicide’
  • Second death of a Parkland survivor in about a week

A second student from the Florida high school targeted in a mass shooting has died in little more than a week, police said on Sunday.

The boy was believed to be a survivor of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas school on 14 February 2018 in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded.

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North Carolina proposes laws allowing teachers to carry guns in schools

State politicians see arming teachers as a way to better secure the school even as polls show it remains largely unpopular

North Carolina is planning controversial new laws that aim to ease gun restrictions in schools and allow teachers to carry weapons while on school grounds and even provide a financial incentive for educators to arm themselves.

The proposed laws – one in the state house and one in the state senate – were filed shortly after 2018 ended as the deadliest year for school shootings in the US since a US naval postgraduate school database began recording data. After last year’s school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people and spurred the March for Our Lives movement, public interest in creating more effective school security has grown.

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Parkland one year on: what victories have gun control advocates seen?

From the March for Our Lives to a background check bill, activists have seen success in preventative measures since the shooting

A year after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school on 14 February 2018 sparked a national youth protest movement, gun violence remains an American crisis.

Nearly 1,200 American children and teenagers have been killed with guns in the past 12 months, a number that does not take into account an additional 900 to 1,000 youth gun suicides.

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‘It was hell’: Parkland massacre survivor sets focus on healing … and soccer

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas student was hailed as a hero for saving 20 students, but the teen only wants the freedom of playing on the field

When the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school commandeered the streets of Washington DC to march for their lives last year, Anthony Borges was still in a Florida hospital, fighting for his.

The soft-spoken 15-year-old, then a freshman at the school in Parkland, had been shot five times during the onslaught of violence on 14 February 2018, which left 17 students and teachers dead.

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Republican tries to remove Parkland parents during gun reform hearing – video

The Republican Matt Gaetz pushed Trump's goal of building a wall across the southern border of the US during a Congress hearing on gun reform. Arguing against the proposed HR8 bill, which would require universal background checks, he said: 'HR8 would not have stopped many of the circumstances ... but a wall, southern border, may have.'  Gaetz's comments angered Manuel Oliver and Fred Guttenberg, both fathers who lost their children in the Parkland shootings in 2018, which prompted Gaetz to call for Oliver to be thrown out

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Parkland commission recommends teachers be allowed to carry guns

Commission unanimously approved 446-page report containing the proposed policy and other changes to ‘harden’ schools

The commission investigating the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida has included a recommendation in its preliminary report that classroom teachers who volunteer and undergo training should be allowed to carry guns in school.

Related: Parkland parents channel their grief at children's deaths into advocacy

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