Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in Wednesday's Florida high-school shooting, confessed to committing the massacre on Thursday, a police report said.

He arrived at the high school in an Uber vehicle and visited a Walmart and a McDonald's after the shooting, the sheriff said.

Cruz is being held without bond on 17 counts of premeditated murder.



Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect in the Florida high-school shooting, has confessed to committing the massacre that killed 17 on Wednesday, a Broward County Sheriff's Office report said Thursday.

Sheriff Scott Israel laid out a timeline of the shooting, telling reporters that Cruz arrived at the school about 2:19 p.m. ET in an Uber vehicle.

Cruz then entered the school carrying his legally purchased AR-15 rifle in a black, soft case, Israel said. He walked up the east stairwell, where, Israel said, he opened fire in several classrooms before shooting another victim in the west stairwell.

According to the sheriff's report, Cruz told the officers interrogating him that he "began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds."

Israel said Cruz eventually dropped his rifle and backpack with ammunition on the third floor, ran down the stairs, and exited the building, blending himself into the crowds of fleeing students.

Cruz then visited a Walmart and bought a drink at the Subway inside the Walmart, sat down in a McDonald's, and then left on foot and was arrested by local police officers about 3:41 p.m., according to Israel.

Cruz was ordered to be held without bond on 17 counts of premeditated murder in his court appearance on Thursday. Cruz's public defender, Melisa McNeill, told reporters that Cruz was remorseful for his actions and a "broken human being."

Sheriff says no connection to white nationalist militia

People being brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday after the shooting, which left 17 people dead. Joe Raedle/Getty Images More confusion emerged Thursday after media outlets reported that Cruz may have been a member of a white nationalist militia.

The leader of the Republic of Florida, Jordan Jereb, told the Associated Press that Cruz belonged to the group and had participated in at least one paramilitary drill in Tallahassee.

Jereb told the AP that he didn't know Cruz personally and that Cruz "acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he's solely responsible for what he just did."

But Tallahassee authorities told the Tallahassee Democrat that they've found no connections between Cruz and the militia so far.

Lt. Grady Jordan of the Leon County Sheriff's Office told the AP that deputies had arrested Jereb at least four times in the past four years and that they closely monitored the group's members.

He said his office has "very solid" information on ROF and found "no known ties that we have that can connect" Cruz to the militia.