Florida high school shooting: What we know so far

At least 17 people were killed last week in a mass shooting at a high school in southeastern Florida. 

Police say a gunman opened fired shortly before the school day ended. According to officials, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student, confessed to carrying out the shooting rampage. 

The shooting has galvanise students and thousands of others to organise near-daily protests, demanding stricter gun control laws. 

Here's what we know so far about the shooting and protests that followed: 

What happened and where?

• A gunman began shooting outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday just before dismissal.
• The gunman arrived at the school at 2:19pm local time (19:19 GMT)  
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• At least two people were killed outside the building and one person was killed in the street. 
• The fire alarm went off inside the school.
• The gunman entered one of the school buildings where, according to police, he continued his shooting rampage with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. 
• He eventually fled the scene. 
• The suspected gunman was later taken into custody in a neighbouring town. According to police, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz confessed to carrying out the shooting. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. 
• Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that an armed police deputy who was assigned to the school arrived at the building where the shooting took place about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired. The deputy then stood outside for four minutes while the rampage continued inside. According to Israel, the shooting lasted for a total of six minutes. 
• "I am devastated," Israel told reporters. "Stick to my stomach, he never went in."
• The shooting took place in the town of Parkland. It is about an hour drive from Miami in southeast Florida. 
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a public school with about 3,000 students. 

How many people were killed? 

• At least 17 people were killed, including 14 students and three adults who worked at the school. 
• Three people were killed outside the school, while 12 were shot dead inside one of the buildings. Two died from their injuries at the hospital. 
• The school's American football coach and athletic director are among the dead.
• At least 15 others were injured.  

Who is Nikolas Cruz?

• The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. 
• He was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday morning. 
• According to police documents, he admitted to the shooting.  
  
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• Police say Cruz was armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and carried "multiple" magazines with him. He was also equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades. 
• According to officials, Cruz was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary issues. They did not specify when he was expelled or the specifics of his expulsion. He was enrolled in a different high school, local reports said. 
• Officials have begun going through Cruz's social media accounts and have found "disturbing" posts. 
• " We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing," Sheriff Scott Israel said late on Wednesday. 
• Police said they are investigating possible links between Cruz and a white supremacist group in Florida.  
• The FBI acknowledged that it did not follow its own investigative procedures after it failed to act on a tip about Nikolas Cruz. In January, the agency received a report from "a person close" to Cruz, who said the 19-year-old displayed a "desire to kill people", "erratic behaviour" and "disturbing social media posts". 
• According to local media, the FBI was warned about a post on YouTube last September by someone with the name Nikolas Cruz that said: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter". A video blogger alerted the FBI to the comment and was then questioned by the agency. Local reports said the FBI did not alert local police about the comment. Investigators are trying to determine the true identity of the individual who posted the comment.

'I just ran': What have witnesses said?

• A number of unverified videos from inside the school at the time of the shooting have been circulating on social media. 
• In one video, people are screaming "Oh my God!" as gunshots rang out. 
• Students at the school have described the "chaotic" scene to local media. 
• "I just ran. I had my book bag on my back, just in case I got shot in the back," one student told CNN. 
• "I saw some bodies. It wasn't good," another student told West Palm Beach's WPTV.
• "We hear bullets coming closer and closer to us, and then we just hear kids screaming," a ninth-grade student told Miami's WPLG news station. "This teacher was apparently trying to help a student and got shot," the student added.