The expelled South Florida high school gunman who slaughtered 17 teachers and students arrived at the shooting scene in an Uber, diabolically shot up five classrooms, then tried to "blend in" with students "running for their lives" before winding up at a Subway and McDonald's, authorities said Thursday.
The new timeline from Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel gives a chilling, surreal context to the Wednesday rampage by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"An Uber car dropped off the suspect at 2:19 p.m." at the school, Israel said, adding the driver was clueless as to who his passenger was — or what he had in mind.
"The driver is not complicit in any way, shape, or form," he added later. "The driver just picked up a fare and dropped the fare off at the high school. He walked into the school, and I don't know that anybody recognized him or knew who he was at that point."
Israel said once Cruz was at the school, he entered the east stairwell of Building 12 "with a rifle inside a black soft case . . . [he] pulled the rifle out of the case."
"At 2:21 hours and 33 seconds, the suspect readied the rifle and began shooting into rooms 1215, 1216, 1214, went back to 1216, back to 1215, and then to 1213," Israel continued. "The suspect then took the west stairwell to the second floor and shot one victim in room 1234 on the second floor."
"The suspect then took the east stairwell to the third floor. He dropped the rifle and backpack, ran down the stairs. He exited Building 12 and ran toward the tennis courts and took a southbound turn on foot."
Israel said from that point, Cruz "crossed fields and ran west, along with others who were fleeing, and tried to mix in with the group that was running away fearing for their lives."
The shooter then bizarrely stopped to buy a drink at the Subway restaurant inside a Walmart, and proceeded "to McDonald's, [and] sat down for a short period of time" at 3:01 p.m.
Forty minutes later, Cruz was "taken into custody without incident" by a Coral Springs officer, Israel said.