Announcer from nbc news, this is a special edition of today, Florida School shooting, with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb, live from pyeongchang, south korea. Welcome to today on this thursday morning. We are here in olympic park in pyeongchang, south korea, but it goes without saying that our hearts are definitely back home. Theyre back home and our hearts are heavy. Its hard to even imagine that this has happened again. Again. Its happened again. And we want to get right to the latest overnight. The death toll, in a word, is st shootings in american history. At least 14 others were wounded, some of them are in Critical Condition this morning. The suspected gunman is in custody. Officials identifying him as 19yearold nikolas cruz, a former student at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School who had recently been expelled. We are also seeing disturbing images recorded and shared by frightened students as they barricaded themselves in classrooms. Thache went through. This is how it looked, how it sounded and how it felt for them. We are going to show you one of those videos now. We should warn you it is disturbing. Holy [ gunfire oh, my god oh, my god [ gunfire ] [ screaming ] theres something about seeing that video that puts you exactly where those kids were. And we cannot become numb to this. We cant. We have complete coverage for you this morning and were going to talk to one of the students who was wounded. We will begin, though, with nbcs Gabe Gutierrez. He is at the scene in parkland, florida. Gabe, good morning. Reporter hoda, good morning. It is so difficult to watch that video. Just a short time ago the suspect was booked into jail and he is now facing 17 counts of premeditated murder. Authorities say the young gunman began his rampage here outside the school killing three people before going inside through School Security killing 12 more, two later died at the hospital. Students and teachers huddled inside classrooms, recording some of the carnage on social media. Some of them didnt know what to make of this at first because they had a fire drill earlier in the day. But unfortunately, this time it was no drill. Lets go reporter these are the unforgettable images of the horror inside the nations latest school massacre. Authorities say the lone gunman, 19yearold nikolas cruz, was a former student at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School in parkland, florida. Just after 2 30 wednesday afternoon, investigators say he stormed in with an ar15 rifle and magazines of ammunition. We hear gunshots. Reporter freshman brandon corasco is just 14 and yet he saw the unthinkable. I saw two girls dead next to each other holding hands. There was another body in front of me. There was three on the bathroom door. Reporter s. W. A. T. Teams swarmed the building, racing from one classroom of terrified children to the next. Weve got the patient loaded. Were going to get him out of here. Be advised he is stating there are multiple people shot inside the building. Reporter from students barricaded inside came heartbreaking messages to parents and loved ones. She was sending us texts saying i love you, im sorry, because she didnt think she was going to make it. Reporter overnight the fbi interviewed eyewitnesses including senior julian de costi, he and 15 other students crammed into a closet. I cant run i just had surgery. Im hopping to her. I hear gunshots to my. Reporter as authorities cleared sections of the students were marched out of the building. We didnt know what was going on. Once we saw the students running, i started to think whats happening. Then i heard the gunshots and i was like oh, my god. I just ran. I just hope all the other kids are okay. Oh, my god. Reporter President Trump, not speaking on camera but tweeting my prayers and condolences to the families of the victims. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an american school. Among the 17 people killed, a football coach. 14 others were injured. Not all of the victims have been identified. Some of these children had no i. D. , they had no they left their backpacks, there were no cell phones. Reporter investigators say the alleged gunman slipped off campus by mixing in with crowds of students. Police tracked him down to a neighboring city and took him into custody about an hour later. No parent should ever have to send their kids to school and have them not return. Reporter Florida Governor rick scott calling this pure evil. Now, there are no classes here for the rest of the week. Today grief counselors will be on hand at a site nearby. Hoda and savannah, it seems like we say this so often now, but this is now among the Deadliest School shootings in u. S. History. That is heart breaking, gabe, thank you. We turn now to a young woman named samantha grady, a junior in that high school. Samantha was hiding in the classroom and was actually grazed by bullets during that shooting. Samantha, good morning. Its good to see your face. Thank you for being with us. Any time. Thank you for having me. Samantha, first, i want to know how youre feeling. I know you did get some Bullet Wounds and i know your best friend was shot right next to you. Yeah. Do you know how shes doing . Have you been able to hear what happened samantha, we are so were so sorry about that, samantha. So sorry. Are you okay, honey . Im okay. Thank you. Were sending love and prayers to you right now. Thank you. Tell us, if you can, what it was what it was like in that classroom during those moments. Did you hear the gunfire first . What happened . Well, i was doing an assignment for my holocaust class. We were like i was typing. I took my phone out because i wanted to show my friend something. And then i heard two shots. My friend pushed me and said, sma sam, and i ran to the left side of the classroom. Thats where there was a big bookshelf. We all kind of huddled there together. We were all like we call clamped really close tightly together and then students in front of me, there was this cabinet. They pushed it in front of them so that it would deter some of the bullets. And the gunman like there was two people in the hallway that i know, and i believe they were shot. And after those two after i heard those two gunshots, then we started running. Then he came for our classroom. So he came after he shot those other two people. Samantha, as i understood it, the door to your classroom was actually locked but he shot through the glass. Is that what happened . Yeah. Yeah. The door was locked thankfully, but like he shot quite a few bullets into the glass and it hit a few people behind me. Yeah. Sometimes you put anything in front of you that you can to try to protect yourself. We are reading that your friend suggested to you just get a book, hold up a book. Yeah. My friend. Tell me about that. She was she was the one who pushed me. And we were running, like we were already situated in the by the bookshelf. Shes like grab a book, grab a book. So i took a book, it was a tiny book, but i held it up. And i believe maybe the book kind of deterred some of the bullets so it didnt hit me so badly, but she was the one who gave me the idea. She definitely helped a lot. Samantha, i know you were able to get out of the school. You went over to where it was safer by the ambulance. At some point you were able to call your parents and see your parents. They must have been so happy to see you. What was that reunion like . Well, when i first left the school, they didnt know anything happened, so i hid behind a truck and i called them. And i made sure i was kind of calm because i didnt want them to go crazy. So after that i after a long story short, i went to the ambulance and then while i was in the ambulance, they rushed down to the school but their phone died so they borrowed someone elses phone and then i told them, im in the ambulance and im on my way to north broward and i will try and come there and then just ask for me, ill tell them your names. Thats what happened. So they rushed there. I was already taken care of, i was already in the hospital bed. They walked in and my dad was really worried. Like it was etched all over his face and my mom, she was like bawling. As you can imagine, it was pretty scary for both of them. Well, you are such a brave, young woman. Just the fact that you were in that classroom, you had the presence of mind to call 911 and youre worried about your parents feelings. Thats what youre thinking about. Tell us what happened when you got home. Were you able to talk it out with your family . Did you feel like discussing it . Well, we did have i mean a lot of people asked actually at the hospital someone came in and they told me talk about it as much as you can so it can get out of your brain and so we dont have like nightmares about it. So whenever the opportunity came, like whenever someone asked, i freely talked about it because i dont want nightmares. And so like my family, we talked about it at the hospital and then we came back. We had discussions. I told them different Little Details that i didnt tell like other people. I told them specific details, and they like it was an intense moment. My whole family like we came together. It was pretty it was bad. But the support was nice. Samantha, you have been through too much, way too much for a young woman your age, but what bravery you showed. Our hearts are with you and were sending you our love. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Any time. Thank you for having me. Thanks, samantha. As we said, we are now learning more about the suspected shooter. This is new video of 19yearold nikolas cruz. He was arriving at jail this morning. Tom costello has that part of the story. Reporter good morning. Police say the picture thats emerging of the suspect is of a troubled teenager who had a preoccupation with guns. Both of his parents had died. He had been kicked out of the high school last year and then wednesday came to school with a semiautomatic weapon. This morning it appears 19yearold nikolas cruz meticulously planned the attack on his former high school. He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point we believe he had one ar15 rifle. I dont know if he had a second weapon right now. Reporter his intention, Authorities Say, to cause chaos and kill as many people as possible. He wore a gas mask and smoke grenades. He set off the fire alarm so the kids would come out into the hallways. Reporter investigators say cruz had been expelled from the same school last year for behavioral issues, including threatening other students. According to the miami herald Cruzs Instagram page underscored his love of weapons and contained images of cruz wielding knives and showing off a gun. This morning buzzfeed is reporting the fbi was warned last year about the youtube post from a user named nikolas cruz who wrote im going to be a professional school shooter. According to buzzfeed agents with the bureaus Mississippi Field Office spoke with the person who alerted them back in september and asked to follow up once again after yesterdays shooting. Fellow students say cruz was a socially awkward kid who had a preoccupation with guns. I was in the vocational school, the alternate school. He went ahead and showed me his layout of guns and said how hed shoot them for fun. Hes always been a really crazy kid. I heard some people say one day he would have done this. Unfortunately, i think that was today. Reporter since his mother died in november, cruz has been staying with the family of a friend. A lawyer for the family says this all came as a shock. He was a very mildmannered kid, going through some tough times with losing his mom. Reporter the question for investigators, was anyone aware of what he was planning . Veteran fbi agents and Police Chiefs say the m. O. Is all too common. Oftentimes in these incidents that you have a disenfranchised young man who is really outside just to make a name for himself . Theres multiple motivations. Reporter this morning yet another mass murder at an american school. Yet another heavily armed angry young man determined to kill. This is the 18th School Shooting this year alone. Since the sandy hook massacre in 2012 when 26 were killed, there have been 273 more School Shootings. Fbi profilers say there are signs of danger to look for among a potential shooter. Somebody who is brooding, depressed, disenfranchised from other students, making remarks about others online, maybe drawn to firearms and previous mass murders and almost always, say investigators, there are warning signs on social media if anybody is paying attention. Savannah and hoda, back to you. All right, tom costello. Tom, thank you. As we mentioned, the president tweeted about this. He offered his prayers and condolences and hes tweeting again this morning. Lets go right to nbcs national correspondent, peter alexander, who is at the white house. Peter, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning to you. A Senior Administration official telling me this morning there is a strong chance that President Trump will publicly address this tragedy at some point today, but for the moment there are no Public Events on his schedule. On wednesday the president didnt make any oncamera remarks. An aide tells me some advisers recommended he Say Something but he opted not to. You talked about him on twitter. Just moments ago literally the president this morning tweeting so many signs that the Florida Shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities again and again. With parkland, three of the top ten deadliest shootings in u. S. History have now happened during President Trumps time in office. Officials here this morning saying since the shooting the president and staff have been speaking directly with Law Enforcement and local leaders, including floridas governor, rick scott. Connecticut senator chris murphy, an outspoken advocate for gun law reform, especially in the wake of the sandy hook massacre, tweeted this. He wrote dont tell me this isnt the appropriate time to debate gun violence. If youre a political leader doing nothing about this slaughter, you are an accomplice. An interesting note here, the school where the shooting occurred is actually about 40 miles away from the president s maralago estate. This morning a Senior Administration official tells me advisers are discussing whether the president might visit the area when hes scheduled to be in florida this weekend. Savannah and hoda. Peter alexander at the white house, thank you. We will of course continue to cover this throughout the morning. But 7 17, we should get our first check of the weather. Good morning, al. Good morning, guys, on a very difficult morning. Well show you whats happening. First of all, weve got foggy conditions stretching from the gulf coast on into northern florida. Sunshine through southern florida. Foggy and wet conditions through the upper ohio and Mississippi River valleys. Snowy through the northern rockies. Record highs in the Central Plains and heavy rain making its way into the southwest. Were going to get to your local forecast c good morning. Im meteorologist bill henley. Lots of clouds and warm air, too. Philadelphia, cloudy, mild, 63 degrees this afternoon. 64 in the suburbs and new jersey. Up to 65 degrees. I think its going to be dry during the day. Theres a chance well see a light shower, maybe even a sprinkle in delaware this afternoon. High of 62. And plenty of clouds in the Lehigh Valley. But into the 60s with a chance of rain returning tonight. And that is your latest weather. Hoda. All right, al, thanks so much. Just ahead well have much more on the investigation and the victims of that tragic shooting in florida. And then we are going to talk to one of the teachers whos being hailed as a hero this morning. She hid her students in a closet as the gunfire rang out. Well talk to her just ahead. First, this is today on nbc. Just ahead from here in south korea, were going to have more of our visit to the dmz, exclusive access to the areas that are rarely seen by the outside world. After your local news and weather. 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