FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The gunman in the Parkland school shooting left at the scene at least 180 rounds of ammunition inside magazines that bore Nazi swastika symbols, sources said.
Along with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the gunman abandoned at least six magazines, each containing 30 bullets, at the site of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It could have been more than twice as bad if he had kept going," one source said.
The magazines of ammunition had swastikas scrawled or etched into them, the sources said.
Nikolas Cruz is accused of firing more than 100 rounds, killing 17 people and injuring 16. There have been reports that Cruz stopped firing because the rifle may have jammed.
But some gun experts have questioned whether that would have stopped an experienced shooter who wanted to continue shooting.
"If that particular type of gun jams, an AR-15, it takes about one second to get it working again," said one law enforcement official. "If you know how to load and fire an AR-15, you would know how to clear that jam."
Witnesses, who were in the school building after the attack, said the shooter tried to fire rounds through an upper-level window but that the hurricane panes stopped the bullets.
Records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show that Cruz's mother said she had forced him to remove hate symbols from his backpack in the past.
Cruz's mother told investigators that the markings included a Nazi symbol and the words "I hate N*s" that were drawn on his backpack.
A Section on 03/04/2018