Wearing only a pair of shorts and ane of Donald Trump's infamous 'Make America Neat Once more' baseball caps, high school killer Nikolas Cruz does target do in his backyard.

The chilling footage obtained by CNN was taken by a neighbour only months before Cruz, 19, brought an AR-xv attack rifle to his former school and slaughtered seventeen staff and students.

Cruz fires a few rounds with what appears to be a BB gun then walks back into his house.

It comes amid growing outrage in America at how Cruz was able to legally obtain a gun despite a cord of warnings about his background.

The deranged loner had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Loftier Schoolhouse and was reportedly banned from campus.

He had been treated for mental health bug and the FBI had been contacted about a post he fabricated on YouTube under his existent proper noun saying: "I'g going to be a professional person schoolhouse shooter."

Donald Trump speaks to the American people about the Florida gun massacre (

Epitome:

AFP)
Trump was given house back up by the NRA, the most powerful gun lobbyist grouping in America (

Image:

AFP)

The leader of a local white supremacy group also claims Cruz was a member and that his paramilitary training may accept fabricated him a "more effective" killer.

In a speech from the White House, President Donald Trump emphasised schoolhouse rubber and mental health but failed to make whatever mention of gun policy.

"Information technology is not enough to simply have actions that make u.s. feel like we are making a divergence," Trump said.

"Nosotros must actually make that divergence."

Cruz, 19, doing target practise with a BB gun in his backyard months earlier the massacre (

Image:

CNN)
Cruz is wearing one of Donald Trump'due south infamous Brand America Great Over again caps (

Image:

CNN)

Merely Trump is likely to face more than questions over his links to the tragedy when he visits Florida on Fri.

The shooting has renewed claims that Trump'due south anti-immigrant slurs have emboldened white supremacists and gun fanatics.

The President was firmly endorsed by powerful gun lobbyist group the National Burglarize Clan (NRA) during his campaign.

And Jordan Jereb, the leader of the Republic of Florida (ROF),claimed Cruz was a fellow member of the white nationalist organisation because he is a "normal, disenfranchised, young white homo".

Jereb claimed Cruz had trained with other ROF members in the Tallahassee area.

Local police are looking into the claims simply accept and so far found no show to support Jereb'south claims.

"I know he knew full well he was joining a white separatist paramilitary proto-fascist system," Jereb told the Daily Beast.

White supremacist grouping Republic of Florida claims Cruz was a member (

Prototype:

ADL)
The moment Cruz was captured after the shooting (

Image:

Twitter/@JoshCohenRadio)
Cruz was a "troubled" teen obsessed with guns, classmates said (

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Internet Unknown)

Jereb insisted neither he nor his organisation had encouraged Cruz to comport out the shooting, but speculated that either "feminism" or anti-Seminism may accept played a office.

"I'k not trying to glorify it, merely he was pretty efficient in what he did," Jereb connected.

"He probably used that preparation to exercise what he did yesterday.

"Nobody I know told him to do that, he only freaked out."

Constabulary in Parkland have notwithstanding to offer any motive for the gun rampage at the schoolhouse where Cruz had been a pupil until he was expelled.

Cruz threw smoke grenades into the corridors, setting off the fire alarm then opened fire on students and staff every bit they left classrooms.

Cruz appeared in courtroom charged with 17 counts of murder (

Image:

AFP)
Cruz faces the death penalty in Florida (

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Getty)

He was armed with a legally purchased AR-15-style assault rifle in the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.s. history.

The FBI confirmed today it had been warned about an ominous online comment made by Cruz terminal September.

"No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a fourth dimension, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment," FBI Special Agent in Accuse Robert Lasky told reporters.

Investigators were unable to detect the commenter, he added.

The FBI is conducting an all-encompassing review of how it handled that tip to see if mistakes were fabricated, a federal police force enforcement official told Reuters.

Wed's shooting was the 18th in a U.Southward. school this twelvemonth, co-ordinate to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

It stirred the long-simmering U.Due south. fence on the correct to conduct arms, which is protected past the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Gina Montalto, 1 of the seventeen victims (

Image:

Facebook)
Athletics coach Chris Hixon too died in the slaughter (

Image:

Facebook)

Broward County schools superintendent Robert Runcie called for action on gun laws.

"Now is the time for this land to have a real chat on sensible gun control laws," Runcie told a news conference.

Democrats in the U.Due south. House of Representatives criticised the Republican leadership for refusing to have up legislation on tightening background checks for prospective gun buyers.

Cruz was a member of a white supremacy group, it is claimed (

Paradigm:

Broward County Sheriff'south Office)

"It'southward appalling," Representative Mike Thompson told reporters.

"Xxx people every day are killed by someone using a gun, and the all-time we tin do is say we need more information?"

The Republican-controlled Congress terminal year revoked Obama-era regulations meant to go far harder for those with severe mental disease to pass FBI background checks for guns, saying the rule deprived the mentally ill of their gun rights.

At least 1 member of Trump'southward cabinet called for action.

"Personally I retrieve the gun violence, it'south a tragedy what we've seen yesterday, and I urge Congress to look at these issues," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Fifteen people were injured in Wednesday's shooting, according to local hospital officials.

Cruz'due south court-appointed lawyer said he had expressed remorse for his crimes.

"He's a cleaved homo being," public defender Melisa McNeill told reporters.

"He's sad, he's mournful, he's remorseful."

Cruz loved guns and had been expelled from high schoolhouse for disciplinary reasons, police and old classmates said.

Cruz told law that he had carried out the attack, co-ordinate to an arrest document released on Thursday, which noted that he made that admission later on existence advised of his correct non to incriminate himself.

The document noted that Cruz took an Uber to the schoolhouse and carried extra loaded ammunition clips.

In a cursory court appearance, Cruz spoke simply two words, "Yeah ma'am," when a gauge asked him to confirm his proper noun.

He was ordered held without bond.

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Cruz had recently moved in with some other family afterwards his mother's death in November, according to Jim Lewis, a lawyer representing the family unit, bringing his AR-15 forth with his other property.

The family believed Cruz was depressed, simply attributed that to his mother's death, not mental illness, Lewis said.

Victims included an assistant football motorbus who sheltered students, a social science teacher and multiple students.

People who live on same street as Cruz said he alarmed them by shooting squirrels and rabbits in the neighborhood as well equally chickens beingness raised in a nearby backyard. Several times a twelvemonth, they observed law enforcement officials at his house.

"Killing animals was no problem for this young homo," said Rhonda Roxburgh, 45, who lived on the cake for several years and whose parents go on to alive there.