Newly emerged photos appear to show that Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz might have attempted to shoot from a window on a higher floor in an effort to gun down more students fleeing below.
Law enforcement sources told Fox News that it appeared Cruz might have tried to create a sniper’s vantage point but his efforts were thwarted by hurricane-proof windows that could not be shattered.
“What you are looking at is the third-floor teachers’ lounge, which faces west, Cruz was trying to shoot those windows out from the inside, creating a perch so he could act like a sniper — little did he know, those windows are hurricane windows and they won’t shatter. Had he been able to get those shot out, who knows how many more people would’ve died, because he would’ve had sight to a wide-open courtyard where the other buildings funnel,' the source told the news station.
In a second photo, boxes of evidence appeared to be stacked in the school, some with biohazard labeling on them, according to Fox News.
“By the looks of it, the ones with orange biohazard are anything from that day in the school that has blood or bodily matter on them; the rest is probably anything that was left behind that was unclaimed or evidence from the school shooting,” a law enforcement source who reviewed the pictures told the news station.
Cruz, 19, is accused of open firing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 which left 17 students and teachers dead. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
“It will still be very difficult for students to return,” Galvano said. “But that particular building should be razed, and the memory of the perpetrator erased and a memorial honoring the victims and their families be put in its place.”