Student says heroic janitor saved many lives during shooting

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Student says heroic janitor saved many lives during shooting

Florida high school student describes on 'The Ingraham Angle' how adults helped to protect students and what he knows about the gunman.

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 14, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening from Washington. This is THE INGRAHAM ANGLE on this dreadful evening of mourning in Broward County, Florida. We have everything you need to know about this horrific school shooting.

By now, you know probably that 17 people were killed, many others wounded, at least a dozen more. Most have been identified but not all. And the scene today and some of you saw it playing out on social media was absolutely terrifying, shocking, and harrowing.

Eyewitnesses who were on the scene. You see some of that video there when the shots rang out at the Stoneman Douglas High School this afternoon. There's a lot going on that ends up going into this type of a horrific act.

We're going to unpack all aspects of it. But we have to begin with the very latest on the still-developing story. Let's go to the scene. Fox's Phil Keating who is on ground in Parkland, Florida -- Phil.

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Laura. The high school is about a quarter of a mile behind me. It remains a crime scene, will remain so all throughout the night and early morning. There are still 12 fatalities inside the high school, 12 out of 17 in total, and 12 of the 17 have been positively identified.

That means that the sheriff's department is still trying to positively ID five of these victims who are described as children and including adults. We presume this is a mixture of students and teachers, mostly students. This happened in a high school at 2:30 pm this afternoon, near the end of the school day, Valentine's Day.

And witnesses heard pop, pop, pops. They thought they were balloons popping, but they were not. They were the beginning of a horrific worst shooting in Broward County school history, 17 total dead, 12 dead inside the school, two dead right outside the school. Another one dead down the street, and then two others died at local hospitals.

The suspect identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student of this high school who was expelled last year for reasons not yet made clear. He was currently enrolled in another Broward County school. The name of that school also not being shared yet for privacy rules as far as the public school system goes here.

The governor said he was sickened, is on scene. The attorney general is on scene. Pam Bondi and Rick Scott respectively. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel calls this absolutely catastrophic, horrible, and is sick to his stomach.

And the superintendent of Broward schools, the sixth largest school district in the country, said the level of grief is just indescribable. Their hearts go out to these 17 families and that no one should send their sons and daughters off to school one day in this country and not have their sons and daughters return home.

But crushingly, that is the fact for 17 families, some of whom tonight are still scrambling to try to find out whether some of these still- unidentified five fatalities is in fact their loved one. That's the latest there.

The suspect was arrested about an hour and 15 minutes later about a mile and a half down the road from the school. He was described by witnesses as wearing a black hat, burgundy shirt, and black pants.

In fact, from our Fox News Miami helicopter aerials, upon the arrest, you can see a man in handcuffs being led to a sheriff's deputy vehicle with that exact appearance, black hat, burgundy, shirt, as well as the black pants.

And they say that is Nikolas Cruz, 19 years old. No further details as to motive. Motive still unclear, but they are believing that this is in fact a lone gunman. He is alive. He was treated for some injuries. We don't know what caused the injuries, Laura, but he is currently in custody being processed.

INGRAHAM: Phil, I noticed you mentioned the maroon shirt and yet in some of the video we saw, he was being led away in a surgical outfit. Do you know anything about that? That was curious. He had a surgical shirt on. What was the reason for that?

KEATING: Well, aside from being arrested with multiple magazines, bullets, and that AR-15 assault rifle, he was then taken from the residence where he was arrested to the Broward Health North Campus Hospital, treated for some unknown injuries. We don't know whether he was wounded in the apprehension or anything like that.

It appears it would not be too serious. He has been released from the hospital and now in the Broward County Jail being processed and facing a slew of incredibly serious charges. Keep in mind, he is 19 years old. He is an adult. I've spoken to Attorney General Pam Bondi certainly hopes they go death penalty.

INGRAHAM: Yes. They are going to go for the death penalty. No doubt about it. Thank you so much, Phil for that reporting.

And now onto an eyewitness, a student who was at Stoneman Douglas as this horrific event unfolded. David Hogg is joining now from Broward County. David, first of all, our thoughts -- thoughts and prayers sound after a while very trite and cliche.

But as I was in my kitchen watching this today, and I have three kids, you just want to break down and cry. But there's so much bravery on the part of students and teachers, according to reports, at least one who died. That does give us some hope in humanity. But tell us what happened and what you heard unfold as you were in school today.

DAVID HOGG, STUDENT AT SCHOOL DURING SHOOTING: So, the first thing that I heard was one single gunshot. We initially thought it was a drill, but it turned out to be anything but. After we heard the first gunshot, we headed down the way. We started heading towards our designated zone for the fire.

Anyways, on our way there, we started seeing a bunch of people running and started running with those people in the opposite direction. But little did we know at the time, we were actually running towards the school shooter.

But luckily for the heroic actions of the school janitor and actually (inaudible), they saved hundreds of lives because they stopped all the students and got them in one single room and helped saved all of our lives. They were usually 30 to 40 people in one single room packed together for an hour-ish and because of their actions, they saved --

INGRAHAM: And are they OK, David?

HOGG: Yes. Right now, as far as I know, when we left they were OK. I haven't heard anything otherwise, but all the students are fine.

INGRAHAM: And, David, you're a student journalist. You're writing in school, which is incredibly helpful because you're observing everything. Did you know the shooter? And if you did not, do you know people who knew him and what were their observations about him?

HOGG: Yes. I did not know the shooter personally, but I know many people that did know him. What I've heard about him is that he was a person that was very offset, kind of awkward. Many people have interesting stories about him that were really quite awkward from their time in middle school and just a really precarious kind of offish guy.

INGRAHAM: Did you know anything about his family, his upbringing, other siblings, problems at home? Was he just a social pariah, nobody talked to him and he was really isolated?

HOGG: As far as I know, this man was a very isolated person socially. He did not interact with many people. From what I've heard from a few of my fellow students, he seemed to have a somewhat messed-up personal life at home. He had a rough personal life, and that's as far as I know. And I've heard that from multiple people.

INGRAHAM: There were other reports that he had threatened at least -- and kind of jokingly, that I could take all of you out or I could take some of you out. And he knew the layout of the school. He knew the evacuation drills. He was up on that third floor when he pulled the alarm. He knew the layout. He knew where people would have to go, correct?

HOGG: Exactly. And the amazing thing is, because of the heroic and more or less the actions taken by the Broward County schools to make it a more safe school in the past months in response to all of these mass shootings in schools that we shouldn't have to deal with that's how they do.

They've trained all of the teachers recently to lock all of the doors and make in case a horrifying incident like this happens, we're as safe as we can be. And luckily because of those actions, I think that training saved hundreds of lives today.

INGRAHAM: Are there any school officials or other than a security guard who are armed inside the school that you know of?

HOGG: As far as I know, there is a school resource officer that I believe is armed, but I didn't hear much about him or anything that he did during this event. Obviously, I'm sure he was doing all he could. But as far as I know, I haven't heard much about him, but I'm sure the media knows more than I do.

INGRAHAM: Tell us about that gazebo area where certain kids sit in the lunchroom. Owens gazebo or something like that where some of the outcasts sit. He wasn't even welcome in that area where, again, it was in social media, some of the freaks in school sit because they're not accepted in the rest of the school. Tell me about that.

HOGG: Yes. So, he sat in an area that sadly many students refer to as -- I'm not going to say it on TV. But it's an area where very unique kids sit and children that are interested in things that are more extracurricular and outside of school and have amazing interests and are just as valuable as any student in this school.

But the fact that he was outcasted by those people, I would say it doesn't say a lot. But actually, it does say a lot because here at Stoneman Douglas High School, we like to accept everyone for who they are. We like to bring everyone in and just embrace who they are.

And sadly, with this person, he didn't feel that way. He didn't feel accepted and that may have been part of the reason why he did this horrible atrocity that should never have happened.

INGRAHAM: Isolated. Isolated. In one case, he described himself as being bullied. Did you hear anything about that? That he was bullied by one particular individual. Did you hear anything about that?

HOGG: I didn't hear anything about bullying, but I can tell you that from what I've heard, he does seem like an individual who would have had a rough time in school based off of some his previous actions like interesting and weird comments made to people around him. Even one of his tutors that -- yes --

INGRAHAM: What was the comment? David, what was that comment?

HOGG: It was actually -- I don't want to go -- this person told me not to tell anyone.

INGRAHAM: You don't have to identify anybody. But what was the comment? What did he say?

HOGG: The comment was a request for sexual relations with a student, and it was very awkward, according to them.

INGRAHAM: Yes. And obviously probably obviously rejected. So, David, incredibly poised delivery of information tonight and our emotions --

HOGG: Can I say one more thing to the audience?

INGRAHAM: Yes.

HOGG: I don't want this to be another mass shooting. I don't want this just to be something that people forget. This is something that people need to look at and realize that there is a serious issue in this country that we all need to face. It's an issue that affects each and every one of us.

And if you think it doesn't, believe me, it will, especially if we don't take action to step up. Like going to your congressman and asking for help and things like that.

INGRAHAM: David, thank you very much. We really appreciate your words tonight. Our prayers are with all of you and your family, schoolmates and all of those who've lost their lives tonight.

And I want to speak to another student now who witnessed today's awful event. She was there. Addison joins us on the phone from Broward County. Addison, I know this has been an incredibly difficult day for you. You did not know the shooter, but you were there. You were hunkered down in a classroom for I'm sure what seemed to be an eternity. Addison, you're a junior, I believe, at the school. Tell us what you experienced.

ADDISON JOST, STUDENT AT SCHOOL DURING SHOOTING (via telephone): Hi. So, first off, the fire alarm went off, as the other student you just spoke with said. And we all proceed to follow our rules and we started to head out of the classroom.

And our teacher was out and about two other students were out as well and then all the sudden, we heard the type of gunshot noise, but it doesn't sound like a full gunshot. It sounded more muffled.

My teacher assumed it was a drill. The teachers had been trained to go through these drills. So, we were expecting a drill, actually, for an experience like this. So, we immediately went back into the classroom, made sure the door was locked, and we got in our position under the desks.

And then we realized it's the last 10 minutes of class and it just seems very unlikely that they would do a drill like this when school was ending, and kids were getting ready to get up and leave. And we also realize they didn't call a code red on the intercom.

We all got worried. Everyone hopped on their phones. We were texting our parents. Several kids were getting phone calls that there's cops outside, something is going on at the school, something is wrong, but stay where you are. Just stay put and treat it as if it is real. So that's what we did.

INGRAHAM: How much time went by between the time that you heard the first, you didn't know at the time, shot and then when you knew this was the real deal? How much time was that because it seemed insane that it took that long. But how much time?

JOST: I would say only about 30 minutes.

INGRAHAM: It's 30 minutes? That's a lot of time.

JOST: In my class, we're a pretty small group of students taking a pretty hard advanced placement class. We didn't want to panic. We wanted to figure out what was going on. So, we were just sitting on our phones trying to get as much information as we could.

So, I think quickly we realized that there is a shooting and that something is going on. But we did remain there until the swat team came to get us, which did take a little while longer and that was also pretty intimidating.

We didn't know who they were, but we also did hear multiple sets of gunshots. And then through our communications over our phone, we realized that it was not a simulation gunshot, as we had thought originally. We thought, OK, this is just a really extreme drill. We realized it was in a separate building and that's why they were muffled.

INGRAHAM: So, Addison, you were in the separate building. So, there wasn't an announcement over the intercom from the school or you didn't get a text message from the school. Did you actually learn that it was a real attack on your phones, on social media? Is that how you learned?

JOST: Yes. Solely through my phone and I actually did not have any access to internet in this building. We could not look on the news. We only had one student with barely any service. But I texted my father who was communicating with my mom and aunt.

And of course, they had access to the news and we were trying to figure out what could possibly be happening.

INGRAHAM: And Addison, you were in AP Psych class, is that right?

JOST: No, AP Chemistry.

INGRAHAM: So, you're all smart kids. You're in there getting ready to end the day and this happens. Did you know anyone who knew him?

JOST: I do actually know a lot of the kids in the organization that he was in. That's probably where he learned how to shoot a gun because, of course, they're training for the military and things of that sort.

And those kids in that group, especially the older kids, since he obviously is an older student, they knew exactly what the other students had said, that he was a little bit different and he had made several statements saying, I can get all of you guys if I wanted to and I will bring a gun on campus.

He had said things like that loosely outside of school. And also, several kids followed his Instagram, which a lot of us didn't even know he had. We tried to find his Instagram immediately to see what type of kid is this and one of my friends found it during the shooting, and it pictured guns and bullets and just dark pictures.

INGRAHAM: He had knives. He was wearing a face mask that to some people - - then he had a Navy hat on. A bunch of different weapons and asking questions about how to get a background check for a long gun. We're not putting up his picture yet for legal reasons.

But you knew what he looked like. But just one final question, and I'm so impressed with this poised that both you and our previous guest, David Hogg, have on this incredibly difficult day.

It's unbelievably impressive and I want to thank you for talking to us for a few minutes today. Was the school a place that was welcoming to kids who were different?

JOST: Yes.

INGRAHAM: Were there social pariahs and kids who were just the odd kids who weren't in the cool club and they were kind of ostracized? Because I read a lot about that tonight, that he was very ostracized, and I guess maybe for good reasons.

JOST: He was probably ostracized because he seemed intimidating. A lot of kids were probably scared of him because from what I hear he was probably pretty vulgar and said some pretty explicit type statements. But no, we're a very welcoming school.

We have 3,000 kids and we live in South Florida, which is extremely diverse that we see all different types of kids. South Florida is very prominent for kids who don't really seem to fit in other places, all the LGBTQ festivals and all that stuff.

I mean, at this point we're used to it. We don't mind. Today, I spoke to many kids who I did not think I would be speaking to and many kids who are viewed as outcasts and it was not an issue for anybody. We're very welcoming.

INGRAHAM: Good for you.

JOST: So, I really don't think so.

INGRAHAM: Good for you.

JOST: No, we don't create minorities at our school.

INGRAHAM: Addison, do you know of any of the victims who have been identified? I can't even imagine what the students are going through, friends of teachers and students who lost their lives today.

JOST: Yes, I do, actually. I know our security guard was shot. He was probably the first victim and he is in critical condition. There were rumors for a while that he had passed and then a few of my close friends had other friends, two friends that had passed. And another one of my friends witnessed her teacher being shot and killed and all the aftermath of that. And I do have several friends who are not accounted for at this point.

INGRAHAM: Addison, we have to cut in, but thank you very much for your contribution on this very difficult day, and God bless you and your family and all your classmates and the teachers.

Rick Scott is giving a statement. We're going to go to this now, Governor of Florida.

GOV. RICK SCOTT, FLORIDA: And everybody in a tragedy like this, what's great about our healthcare industry is these are wonderful people that show up and care about these individuals. I talked to a few families that have individuals here that have gone through surgery.

And of course, they're very concerned about their loved ones. They know they're getting good care and what I told them is to make sure they knew how to reach out to me. Whatever I could do to be helpful to them, I would.

I don't know what to say to everybody, other than the fact that we live in a state that people love each other and care about each other. This is tragic. It makes you mad. I think about my -- I have six grandsons now and the eldest is six, going to school. And I already talked to my daughter today.

And I'm sure every parent's doing the same thing. Is my child going to a safe school? And I know our law enforcement is going to continue to do everything they can to keep every child in our state safe and we're going to continue to figure out how we learn from this to hopefully try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

We've gone through a variety of things while I've been governor, and we've got to figure out how to keep everybody safe. Your heart goes out to them. I went through this with Pulse and we lost 49 individuals there.

And in talking to those families and they tell their story. I still probably -- I remember one mom just recounting the last 24 days of her son's life there. So right now, these individuals are sitting here worried about the health of their children. But they're optimistic.

They feel like they're getting good care. They know -- they're worried about others that -- because we don't know the names, at least who's been lost, and so, they're worried about that. It's hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pulse was obviously a horrible situation. These are children, though. How much more difficult does it make it for you?

INGRAHAM: We'll join if necessary. That was governor of Florida, Rick Scott on the scene. We're joined now to talk about this horrific day. What can we learn from what we know so far? And can these schools really be safer in the face of these threats of mass shootings?

Former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman is with us along with Randy Sutton, a former Las Vegas police officer, Gentlemen, it's good to see you on another awful night. Mark, let's start with you. You've been taking this all in today. What are your thoughts?

MARK FURHMAN, RETIRED LAPD DETECTIVE: Well, Laura, when you look at this since Columbine, it seems that public schools have grappled with security in a lot of ways. They've come up with a lot of scenarios for lockdown procedures and dealing with the police that are about to approach in an active shooter situation.

But we have to look at the things that are coming up. And once again, gun control comes up. Once again, mental illness. We're not going to stop mental illness. We're not going to get rid of the second amendment. We can harden the target. We can lock down schools. We can have metal detectors.

We can have some type of electronic admission. We can have metal detectors. We can make the kids safe so the shooter just can't walk into the school anytime he pleases. And that's what happens every single time in one of these shootings.

INGRAHAM: Randy, I was at my kid's school today and it was so weird because I was buzzed in. Every time I'm buzzed in to a school to visit my kids, I always think about these things. It's easy to get into most schools. You can kill a security guard, they force someone to buzz you in, then they're in.

What can you do? You can't turn a school into a prison and so, then people get locked into classrooms. And is that a good idea given the fact that then you're a target in a classroom? I'm not an expert in this. You are, Randy.

RANDY SUTTON, RETIRED LAS VEGAS METRO POLICE: You said it very well, that we can't make these schools into a prison, however, we can target harden. There's a very wise man that once said, 'if it's predictable, it's preventable.' And unfortunately, we have now found that school shootings are predictable.

So, we have to discover the ways that we can target harden these schools and at least give these children and teachers and staff members a chance. There's clearly a correlation here that we have seen tonight that there was -- because of training, many, many lives that were saved. So that's a positive, but we have to look at a way to prevent what is predictable.

INGRAHAM: Mark, let's go back to you on this. We found out that he was denied entrance to the school campus not so long ago when he was carrying a backpack. He had reportedly made threats, some in jest, some perhaps not, against students. He was socially ostracized.

His mother died last year. He was an adopted young man. He has family in the area, obviously. But his mother died. He followed the Iraqi resistance online and fighters. Social media of him with various knives, various guns, asking about long gun background checks, particular ammunition. He was getting ready for something.

FUHRMAN: Well, these are clues and there's a thousand people that people can name right now that are watching this show of yours right now that say he fits that profile. So, if we can profile and we can actually target these people and actually notify somebody, is there really an agency that's going to do anything?

On Sean Hannity's show, he brought up retired cops and retired military being on campus. I understand what he's saying, but I disagree. I think you need to make school security a specialty. You need to make it a specialty just like terrorism.

You need young officers that are motivated in the beginning of their career that are sharp and really dedicated to the long range in being in that type of profession in school security because our youth are some of the most important people in the country and yet it seems that we secure them the least.

INGRAHAM: Randy, back to you. Given the fact that they knew he was very troubled -- and there are a lot of kids that are troubled. A lot of kids that come from broken homes that seem to have predilection to violence or anger, ostracized, alone.

He had very few friends apparently at the school. We haven't found one friend or acquaintance of him. So, those do kind of tick off a lot and Mark, you've been on this for a lot of these school shooters. So, given that they knew all this about him -- I'm not saying they should have known he was going to shoot, but is there any interventions that you can do either at the home with him, that could have prevented this. He was expelled from the school for obvious reasons.

RANDY SUTTON, RETIRED LAS VEGAS METRO POLICE: Once the autopsy of this individual is done, and when I say autopsy I'm talking about a psychological autopsy is done, they're going to discover that there were a number of key factors that would have set red flags up all over the place.

And nothing happens in a vacuum. There are people that already have spoken that knew that this guy had predilections for violence and that he was making these comments. He was showing basically I think his cards in advance.

I want to talk about something that Mark just spoke about. And Israel in the '70s dealt with the schools being targeted by terrorists. And they lived through unfortunately the murders of a number of school children. And they have stopped it. And you know what, Laura, we can too.

INGRAHAM: Mark, finally on this, the AR-15 looks like it was his weapon of choice. That was involved in the San Bernardino shooting, Sandy Hook, the Pulse Nightclub. So you already see the push about re-examining the AR-15. Tell us a little bit about that weapon. Forty percent of Floridians have firearms, AR-15 one of the most popular firearms in the United States. But that clearly is being targeted by the anti-gun folks tonight.

MARK FUHRMAN, RETIRED LAPD DETECTIVE: Well, it's called the M4 platform and it's based on the AR-15. And yes, there's a lot of them. And most of them are used legally. If a suspect chooses that weapon and you take that weapon away, they've been making weapons since about 1908 that are automatic fired weapons that can deliver just as much firepower and almost as fast as an AR-15. In the hands of a competent person, you don't even need that. You need something that is very -- almost an antique weapon to do the same amount of damage. So it's in the hands of a skilled person, an AR-15 makes up for that a little bit. But it is not the reason that this occurred. The reason that this occurred is not only a mental illness, it's security, it's not having a hardened target, and actually not anybody paying attention to all the flags.

WHITFIELD: Well, thank you, gentlemen, on a very difficult night for this terrific analysis of this horrific situation.

And Broward County sheriff Scott Israel had some important words during a news conference today, especially if you're dealing with a potentially troubled young person.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT ISRAEL, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, SHERIFF: This nation, we need to see something and say something. If we see different behavior, aberrant behavior, we need to report it to local authorities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Yes, what triggers an isolated kid to walk into a school and kill? And how do we stop the next one from happening? Can we even?

For expert insight we turn to forensic criminologist Ron Martinelli. Ron, thank you for being with us tonight. You've seen and read all the reports, some of them preliminary, some not, about this young man. Mother died, adopted, two parents in the area until last year when she passed. He was banned from the school. He was expelled from the school and he was recently denied entrance to campus when wearing a backpack. He frightened some students but he was ostracized by others. He was reportedly upset that he was bullied by one particular kid and claimed that the staff did nothing. We're still trying to confirm that particular report. What's your sense so far?

RON MARTINELLI, FORENSIC CRIMINOLOGIST: My sense so far is that he's self- isolated, and he is a troubled person. And what we have to determine when we go through the psychological profile which is being conducted right now no doubt by Broward County Sheriffs and the FBI is we have to find out what the precipitating event was.

I've written extensively about these people. I call them ticking time bombs. We have to find out what lit the fuse. You can have mental health problems, but that doesn't mean you're not smart. And this was a smart active shooter. This was planned. He used smoke bombs both to create chaos and also to mask his escape. He turned on the fire alarms, which he knew would bring people out in the hallway, which we refer to as the funnel of fire. And we note that there's several decedents in that hallway. He knew what types of weapons to bring. He brought a gas mask anticipating SAT. He was a smart individual, albeit probably troubled.

INGRAHAM: The American Psychological Association has a list of potential warning signs for people who might be engaged in some type of either self-harm or harm to others. And he seemed to possess a lot of those factors -- serious drug or alcohol use, gang membership or desire to join a gang, access to fascination with weapons, or fascination with weapons, and trouble controlling feelings like anger, many of the things like withdrawal from friends and activities. He didn't even have any friends. Regularly feeling rejected or alone.

I want to center in on that for a moment because in almost every report, every report about him and his position at that school was that he was so rejected, he wasn't even accepted by the rejected kids, that he was ostracized. Obviously no one is making excuses for what he did. But it reminds me a lot of the Columbine killers, Adam Lanza, and some of the others who are just not part of society. They're removed from society or their peers. What about that?

MARTINELLI: Well, I think that's a very important aspect here. We'll have to delve into it to see how serious it was. So far it sounds like it was serious.

And what happens often is there's an extreme disconnect between the students which is his formal society, and the school officials. And the kids at the school that have ostracized him won't report this type of behavior unless it's extreme to the school officials. So when a school superintendent says there was no warning signs, we didn't expect this, that just means that the school officials had no warning signs. But I think as we delve into this we're going to find out that certainly in his peer group they were aware of the warning signs and they just didn't report.

INGRAHAM: And let's be honest here. Everyone's worried about liability. As a lawyer, they're all worried about getting sued here. So people are, they're not going to say it's really obvious. A lot of students said it didn't surprise them at all that he was the one who would do something like this. He joked about doing -- who jokes about doing something like that? He was joking. And there is a flipped switch in people, and his switch flipped. And I think you're right. We're going to find out that there probably was one particular thing that happened at that school and it built up over time and he blew. And he came in there and was able to take out that security guard and go in there, and he could have killed a lot more. Go ahead.

MARTINELLI: And once that bomb goes off, you can't put it back in the container.

INGRAHAM: All right, we appreciate the insight tonight. Thank you very much, Mr. Martinelli.

And up next, we're going to have a look at that rifle that we just talked about with Mark Fuhrman used often in mass shootings. And an update from the shooting scene in southern Florida when we continue. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: The Broward county sheriff's office said 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz had an AR semiautomatic rifle in his possession when he was arrested. It's an extremely popular rifle and has been used in mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, San Bernardino, Sutherland Springs, Texas, and in Las Vegas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY, D—CONNECTICUT: This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: It didn't take him long to go right to gun control. Chris Murphy from Connecticut. Is this a problem with the gun or the shooter? Let's look at the AR-15, what makes it so popular and overwhelmingly what makes it so safe, and what it takes to get one.

Joining us now is Aaron Cohen, a security and counterterror expert. Aaron, you know this weapon well. I've fired it many times. My family owned a lot of guns. I shot guns since I was, I don't know, six years old. But it's like all weapons. It's very dangerous in the hands of the wrong person, and if you're not trained and you have a criminal disposition, a violent disposition, it can be turned into a killing machine. But Chris Murphy wants to make this tonight all about the weapons.

AARON COHEN, SECURITY AND TERROR EXPERT: Chris Murphy, Laura, isn't really qualified to, A, assess threat, and, B, he's not qualified to manage risk. This is a security issue. It's not a weapon issue. That kid had parents. Where's the parents? Who raised this kid? What was going on in the house? That's the first place I would be looking. Pardon me for my voice.

There is a mental health epidemic here that's being confused with a gun problem. I don't want that to sound political, but it's the truth. Your last guest talked about how Israel managed to completely squash all of the school shootings in the '70s which were a result of terrorism. The reason why we were able to do that is because we took a realistic approach to the security for the schools, which meant multi-layering.

The weapon, just to go back to your first point, the AR stands for ArmaLite. It's very important for people to understand, it doesn't stand for automatic rifle. ArmaLite is the company that manufactured it for the military. Now there's dozens if not hundreds of companies that manufacture AR's and sell them around the country. It's a semiautomatic rifle. That means every time you press the trigger if fires one bullet. It's no different than a handgun. It works on the same exact principle as the handgun. In fact, the round is even smaller. It's a 22-caliber round if you were to break it down, which is the 223 rifled rounds.

The other difference is it doesn't and will never be legally purchased to fire without a federal firearms license on fully automatic. The M4, which the AR is modeled after, is a fully automatic rifle deployed primarily in the military by SWAT units, by law enforcement, for fully automatic firing. You cannot fire this AR on full auto. I think there is some grandiosity after being at war for the last 15 years, which makes kids and people want to associate with this weapon. But the fact is it looks like a menacing M4. Not even close.

INGRAHAM: It's a semiauto weapon, but the magazines, the clips can hold more bullets, correct?

COHEN: Correct.

INGRAHAM: That's what the California tackled with limiting the clip size and so forth. So that's what Chris Murphy will say, not only, it's not just the way the weapon looks. It's the fact that the clip holds as many bullets, and he didn't have a clip that held that man bullets he couldn't have done that much damage. He had a lot of clips in his possession apparently. But this weapon is a popular weapon.

COHEN: It's all over the country because it's a really good self-defense weapon. I would have one in my home for home defense. Thousands of people have them in their home because it shoots very straight. You can carry more ammunition in it. And it's actually safer because you're going to a lower -- you have to pardon me. I'm teaching a course in Hebrew right now so I'm all over the place. You have a less likelihood of sporadic fire or hitting innocent people if you're using it for home defense because it shoots really straight. So it's actually a very safe weapon. It's easier to shoot than a pistol. It's got more points of contact for stability.

But in the hands of the wrong person -- and again, where was the parents? What was the home life of this child? There's so much more involved here than the weapon. Chris is so far out of left base.

INGRAHAM: Aaron, there are some things we learned. His mother died last year. He was adopted. His parents, Linda and Roger Cruz. He's followed, apparently according to Trace Gallagher, the Iraqi fighters online and the Syrian resistance. Maybe he was just following I guess because he was curious. We don't know more, but there's something going on there. So we'll learn more about that.

One more question for you, given your experience with Israel and the schools, and the Beslan massacre in Russia, remember, that, 100 people died. What could these schools in the United States do today beyond having one security guard and a buzzer and some bulletproof glass on the front, what else could they do?

COHEN: Thank you for asking me this important question. The difference between Israeli security and American private security is that we invest in a security guard. We physically train them to be able to look at behavior to predict violence, which means the average security guard is trained in, a, being able to respond to an active shooter, which means they're all armed in the schools. Two, open the jacket and check the bag. This kid has his jacket open, the bag was opened. You're not getting in with an AR. You're not getting in with a pistol. You're not getting in with a bomb. It works for any kid who's poorly raised and it works for terrorists.

And not only do we have a mental health problem, but we have a terrorism problem in this country. So we check the bags, open the jackets, but we train the security. We invest in the individual security guard so he can predict behavior. There's 21 different red flags someone's going to do when they're about to commit an act of murder. You can train them in that. Just spend the money on the training. Teach them what to look for.

INGRAHAM: Aaron, thank you so much for the insights tonight. Take care of that voice. Stay right there. We have late breaking details from the shooting scene in Broward County. We're learning more details by the moment. We're going to get them all to you. Don't go away.

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INGRAHAM: More on the top story in the nation tonight, the high school shooting that killed 17 and wounded at least a dozen more in Broward County, Florida. For the latest, we go once to FOX's Phil Keating who is on the ground in Parkland, Florida. Phil?

PHIL KEATING, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Laura, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the scene of today's horrific mass shooting, 17 fatalities, a crime scene about a quarter-mile off in the background here, 12 fatalities remain in the school, five fatalities yet to be I.D. or in the process of being positively identified. No missing students reported by the sheriff. Everybody has been accounted for, but they are just trying to get the exact I.D. of those remaining five victims so that family members can be properly notified.

I can tell you there were 12 bodies shot and killed inside the school around 2:30 this afternoon. This after investigators say the suspect, 19- year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former students from this high school who was expelled last year for disciplinary reasons allegedly came back to school armed with magazines full of bullets and an AR-15 assault rifle, pulled a fire alarm while wearing a gas mask and also possessing smoke grenades on his person, then started shooting as students and teachers started fleeing the classrooms, heading into the hallways for the fire alarm going off. It was not a drill, as many students and teachers suspected. It was for real.

There's also a report from the Palm Beach Post north of here by a couple of counties, that there is another crime scene involving possibly an explosive device they are investigating that could be related to today's high school shooting. More on that as the hours unfold. Laura?

INGRAHAM: Phil, thanks so much. And we are going to begin to unpack the social media accounts of this individual. We hate even putting up his photo. We haven't done that yet tonight. There's a lot of screwed up people who want to get their final moments of glory. We are not going to give it to them tonight. But when we return, I'm going to share with you some of my final thoughts on today's horrific tragedy.

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INGRAHAM: Tonight we pray for the souls of the 17 people killed in a high school shooting in south Florida, and we pray that their families will be consoled in the very difficult days, weeks, and months ahead. And we also pray for the recovery of the dozen or more people who have been wounded. We think about this on this Valentine's Day, on this Ash Wednesday. Self- sacrifice, the brevity of our own lives are at the forefront of our minds.

We also think about this. There are some distinguishing characteristics of these young, twisted killers. Many of them, most of them have few friends. They have little real social interaction. Many of them are members of broken or damaged families. Mental illness obviously is part of this oftentimes. And look, we can't explain these tragedies like this fully and we can't discount the power of evil.

There is a massive disregard for human life and people in some segments of our society today. From the womb to the tomb, we have seen a loss of basic concern for the lives of our fellow man. We are going to have to wait for more information about the shooter, and no doubt we will learn a lot more in the days ahead, but in the meantime, think about this. Let's focus on the human dimension. The Broward county sheriff said this earlier today. If you see something, say something. If you see someone alone, maybe share a bit of human concern for them.

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