As YWN has been reporting, investigators are trying to figure out what led a former student to open fire at a Parkland high school killing at least 17 people.
As many as 14 others have been injured.
The male shooter was identified as Nicolas Cruz, said a U.S. official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the information publicly. Previously, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel had said the shooter was a former student. He said the shooter was outside and inside the school at points during the attack, and taken into custody “without incident” about an hour after he left the school. Israel said police were waiting for the SWAT team to give them the all-clear so that they could go inside the school.
Sources confirm to YWN that a few hundred Jewish teenagers attend this school. At least one Jewish student is missing. Please say Tehillim for Rochel bas Leah. As of this posting, her parents have still not located her.
There are at least three other Jewish victims. At least one of them is undergoing surgery at this time.
“It was a wrenching scene,” Rabbi Mendy Gutnick, youth director at Chabad of Parkland, told Chabad.org. “Parents were gathered outside while their children were still inside of the school, and they had no way to save them.”
“Together with Rabbi Shuey Biston, I rushed to the school to give support to anyone we could. The school is at least 40% Jewish, so we know many of the students and their parents,” he continued. “We went from parent to parent and tried to offer as much comfort as possible, and helped them recite Psalms, praying for the students and faculty in the school. ”
The rabbi said he is coordinating with his fellow Chabad rabbis from nearby Coral Springs, home of many of the students, to hold an evening of prayer, consolation and memorial later this week.
More details will be reported as they become available.
(YWN World Headquarters- NYC)
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20 Responses
In addition to tehillim for Rochel, say tehillim for ALL the missing and injured….how much longer will we be unable to take action to restrict access to these semi-automatic militrary style weapons. Kol hakovod to the Trumpkopf for taking less than an hour to express his sympathy to the victims but also remind us that “now is not the time to discuss any gun restrictios”…..im ein achshov, amoitai???
Just when one thought it could never get worst in the USA,then this horrible incident shows up.
May Haswhem shower rachamin on all that got hurt today,and may wisdom be given to the higher-ups
what needs to be done to stop this from happening again and again.
I meant to write Hashem,,in the post written above.
Sorry for that bad error.
This story is similar to Kamtza and Bar kamtza.
This student was not doing well. The kids made fun of him. I don’t think anyone was trying to befriend him. He was sinking and sinking in depression. It appears to me that he did not receive any encouragement from the other students.
Maybe they did not give him enough encouragement. He was angry and took revenge. Obviously, he got insulted many times and no one stuck up for him.
May every one have a complete Refuah Sheleima. So sad. What a horrible experience for anyone to go through.
A concerned Jew “Just when one thought it could never get worst in the USA”. seriously dude? Nobody, particularly the Jewish people has ever had it better since the Beis Hamikdash. Get a grip you drama queen
Like I said in the past and I reiterate every school should have armed security guards. A small school should have 1 and a school of 3000 should have atleast 8. Funding can be by the government the parents or both. The point is we must tighten security in the schools Wake up!!!
A little fact check time for “Gadol”
By law, you have to be 21 to own a long-gun like the ar-15 carried by the perp. IOW, gun control laws ALREADY didn’t stop him from getting a gun and killing people. What people like you never seem to figure out is that criminals will still be able to get their hands on guns no matter what laws you pass. I’m willing to bet, regardless of where you live, you can purchase illegal drugs in fairly short order, despite the fact that drugs are illegal! The analogy applies. Try thinking outside the empty box between your ears.
To straightup,thanks for reading my post.
But if you take a quick crash course on Jewish history after the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed,you will find too many places where we Jews had it good,but it unfortunately ended bad.
Spain in the 900’s to the mid 1300’s Poland in the 1500’s to the Holocaust,Germany from the 1800’s to the Holocaust are all numerous examples among a lot of other places where we Jews had it good,until it all got destroyed due to our sins.
So being part of the Jewish nation necessitates us to never take any quiet moment in Jewish history for granted.
Hashem can change anything in a moment.
Look what a hurricane or a gigantic fire can do.So too,society can change so fast that we might not even know it.
And that is what I emphasized by saying that just when one thought that could never get worst in the USA,for this massacre is just in line with all the too many horrible killings that happens too much in this country,and a drop worse.
In the Pirkei Avot,it is taught that one has to pray for the welfare of the country that they live in ,so a person should not come to swallow each other.And this is the problem we have now,with a President not using the best of words,and then the other side calling for his head.The common folks pick up on the hate and act accordingly.This is the USA.And now, a 18 year old comes and kills kids in school???
If you are not alarmed yet,what will it take for you to be alarmed that something is terribly rotten in the USA???
I find it totally concerning,and may Hashem protect us all.
Avraham: Your comment above comparing this to Kamzta and Bar Kamzta and posing the murderer as a victim and the victims as perpatraders is an outrageous and shameful twist of the facts of this sadistic and beastly act. Your convoluted narrative took some words in the media, embellished it and made it to fit some view or agenda you have.
The true facts in this case have not been revealed since it is too early but I did read this murderer just lost his adoptive mother which might have been a breaking point. There was also an incident where he was expelled because of a fight and we do not know yet what the incident was.
Again I am appalled that you can take this inhumane act and put blame on the victims. I would be horrified if your conclusions were
out there in the mass media for all to see that a Torah Jew sympathized especially at this time with the Mass Murderer. Hopefully no one outside this forum will ever see your written words.
Correction: Perpetrators not Perpatraders.
Avrahm the shooter is responsible for his actions, period, you are too liberal,
To Prayer and Arib:
I did not say the murderer is a victim. I did not say that the victims are perpatraders. I did not put the blame on the victims. I read in a different article that some of the students were saying that this person might one day come back to the school and do something. They knew very well that he was a trouble maker.
I agree, of course the shooter is responsible for his actions.
I was simply trying to explain maybe this could have been one of the reasons that caused him to turn into a monster.
Avraham: You now conveniently left out most of your original statements above but again firmly state, “THEY knew VERY well he was a troublemaker.”
Who are the THEY? The THREE schools he got that he got expelled from or the family that took him in the past year or maybe the radical groups he associated with? Yes all this information has come forward now and more will in time.
You seem too know so much how this person turned into a “Monster” and are so certain that the students actions could have prevented this. You are very quick to judge and point fingers.
You have a view or agenda you want to express and are trying hard to make this barbaric act fit but you are off the mark here!
Prayer:
I had no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings. I would like to apologize. I also want to retract my comment.
Avraham: Apology accepted! My advise would be to wait until all the facts are in before commenting.
Avraham and prayers the problem seems to run deeper than that lt seems the whole system let him down. There is no problem with having a mass murderer being a victim of a society that does not address his problems
Ayn odom choteh ello im kayn ruach shtoos nocheh haymenu
Avraham: you are just trying to make sense out of this tragedy–I do not see the need for you to apologize but it is a merit to you since you are keeping the peace. I wish I was always so wise!
Eli Y and Avraham: I was also surprised that he apologized but there is nothing wrong with apologies! Not everyone can say, “I’m sorry”. It shows that he understood and felt something after reading what I wrote. Yes, it is to your merit and already Avraham you have inspired at least two and probably more people here who have read your reply.
Shalom 1600: Not sure what you mean, “The whole system”?
Do you mean the family that he grew up in? Do you mean that there was no organization that took him under their wings?
There are millions of people let down and walking around suffering everyday because what life has handed them. They lose parents, siblings and health at a young age but they do not go out and murder in revenge.
Many people become dimished and can’t find a way back and then on the flip side many eventually become greater individuals and strengthened.
The diminished individual might do good things but also have tendencies to treat those close to them badly. They might be miserly or inattentive to others. They feel “life” owes them something and they will seek some kind of revenge throughout their life.
The question is who are those individuals who are so diminished that they resort to taking someone else’s life?
There is a big leap from living a life where you constantly hurt others feelings or cheat others in business as revenge verses taking another person’s life from this world!
Who are those individuals who would resort to murder and moreover Mass Murder?
Do we classify these people as Mentally ill or have they become the personification of Evil?
Also nature verses nuture. Are we born with evil or good tendencies?
These are the questions that will come out in prosecuting this individual in court.