Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Florida high school on Wednesday, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
If guilty, Cruz's actions could constitute a capital crime, and the sentencing jury can recommend the death penalty under state law.
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Florida high school on Wednesday, could face the death penalty after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Sheriffs in Broward County, Florida, posted custody records online the morning after they arrested Cruz. They listed 17 separate counts of premeditated murder, matching the latest casualty figures from officials.
Cruz, at 19, will stand trial as an adult. If found guilty, his alleged attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school could qualify as a capital crime, as he may have knowingly created a great risk of death to many people.
In Florida, if a sentencing jury unanimously recommends the death penalty, the judge can impose it.
Between 1973 and 2016, the state of Florida executed 95 individuals, sometimes after they had spent decades on death row.
Cruz's lawyer told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel that the AR-15 allegedly used in the shooting was possessed by Cruz legally.
Source: Business Insider, Alex Lockie, February 15, 2018
Nikolas Cruz: Depressed loner 'crazy about guns'
A grimly familiar picture is building of the suspect in America's latest mass shooting as a depressed loner with a fixation on violence and weapons.
One student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, said that many pupils had previously joked Nikolas Cruz, 19, would be "the one to shoot up the school".
The leader of a Florida white supremacist paramilitary group said that Mr Cruz had been a member, and had even carpooled with other group members in order to participate in training exercises.
The orphan was expelled for disciplinary reasons from the high school he is now accused of attacking.
Maths teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald: "There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."
He added that the school had sent out an email warning teachers about Mr Cruz's threats.
Mr Gard said the suspect was so obsessed with one girl at the school it approached "the point of stalking her".
Eddie Bonilla, a former classmate, told local media that many students predicted Mr Cruz was behind the shooting.
"We actually, a lot of kids threw jokes around like that, saying that he's the one to shoot up the school, but it turns out everyone predicted it. It's crazy," he told a local CBS affiliate.
Chad Williams, 18, told Reuters news agency Mr Cruz was "crazy about guns" and would regularly set off the fire alarm before he was eventually thrown out of the school for fighting.
"He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends," he said.
Another former schoolmate, Joshua Charo, said bullets had been found in Mr Cruz's backpack.
A spokesman from a white supremacist group told the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-bigotry group, that the school drop-out had been a member of his organisation.
Jordan Jereb, of the Republic of Florida (ROF), said Mr Cruz had carpooled with other members to undergo paramilitary training on at least one occasion. Law enforcement have not confirmed any such allegiance.
The ROF describes itself as a "white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics" and seeks to create a "white ethnostate" in Florida.
Mr Jereb said the group had neither ordered nor wanted Mr Cruz to carry out a school shooting.
Knives and guns feature in images taken from now-deleted Instagram accounts that apparently belonged to Mr Cruz.
One picture shows a box of ammunition and another rifles on a bed.
In several images a masked man is shown holding up large knives to the camera.
One of the Instagram accounts shows Mr Cruz wearing a Make American Great Again hat - worn by supporters of President Donald Trump - with a red, white and blue bandana masking his face, according to CBS News.
Two students also told the Daily Beast website that the suspect was previously seen wearing the hat at school.
The mayor of Broward County, Mayor Beam Furr, told CNN that Mr Cruz had sought treatment at a mental health facility over a year ago.
The suspect allegedly carried out the massacre with an AR-15 that he had legally bought.
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Source: BBC News, February 15, 2018
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
