The Latest on the school shooting that killed 17 people in Florida (all times local):
10:05 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he’s heading to Florida, where a community is in mourning after a shooting at a high school killed 17 people.
In a Friday morning tweet, Trump said “I will be leaving for Florida today to meet with some of the bravest people on earth — but people whose lives have been totally shattered.”
He also said he’ll be working with Congress “on many fronts.”
Authorities said Nikolas Cruz, a volatile 19-year-old who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, opened fire there Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen others. Cruz was ordered held without bond Thursday.
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10 a.m.
Funeral services are being scheduled for victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Meadow Pollack and Alyssa Alhadeff will be buried in the Garden of Aaron at Star of David Memorial Gardens in North Lauderdale after separate funerals on Friday.
Fourteen-year-old Alyssa was among the youngest victims of Wednesday’s shooting that killed 17 people. Her mother screamed on CNN, demanding that President Donald Trump take action.
Eighteen-year-old Meadow was a senior planning to attend Lynn University in Boca Raton.
Another funeral service is scheduled Sunday for 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg.
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7 a.m.
Jimmy Kimmel opened his late night show by replaying clips from President Donald Trump’s statement about the killings of 17 people by a teenager with an AR-15 assault weapon at a Florida high school — including the part where Trump said “no parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning.”
Kimmel said he agrees, “and here’s what you do to fix that. Tell your buddies in Congress, tell Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio, all the family men who care so much about their communities, that what we need are laws, real laws, that do everything possible to keep assault rifles out of the hands of people who are going to shoot our kids. Go on TV and tell them to do that!” he said to strong applause.
Kimmel called on Trump to “force these allegedly Christian men and women who stuff their pockets from the NRA to do something, now. Not later, now. And don’t you dare let them say it’s too soon to be talking about it.”
Kimmel urged people to write their representatives, call them, “and if they don’t listen, vote them out of office.”
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1:20 a.m.
At least 1,000 people attended a candlelight vigil near the school Thursday night, some openly sobbing as the victims’ names were read aloud. At one point, people began chanting, “No more guns! No more guns!”
Some held flowers. Others held signs asking for action, including gun control, against school violence.
“Kids don’t need guns. No guns under 21,” read one sign.
Authorities said Nikolas Cruz, a volatile 19-year-old who became an orphan when his mother died in November and had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, legally bought the AR-15 assault weapon he used to kill 17 people and wound more than a dozen others.
Cruz was ordered held without bond Thursday. His lawyer called him a “broken human being” and Executive Chief Public Defender Gordon Weeks said he was under a suicide watch.
