FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Just before the Parkland killer picked up his brand new Smith & Wesson M&P 15 semi-automatic rifle at a gun store in Sunrise, the seller asked him what he planned to do with it.
“‘I go shooting with my friends on the weekend,” the young man replied. He was four months past his 18th birthday. The sale was legal and raised no suspicions. Nikolas Cruz paid $618.17 for the rifle. It was February 2017.
A year later, he would use that rifle to kill 17 and injure 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018.
