Washington: US President Donald Trump will travel to south Florida on Friday to meet family members of the victims of this week’s school shooting that left 17 dead.
“I will be leaving for Florida today to meet with some of the bravest people on earth – but people whose lives have been totally shattered,” Trump tweeted on Friday.
The President plans to fly to West Palm Beach, Florida, to spend the weekend with his family at his Mar-a-Lago private club, located just 60 km north of Parkland, Florida, where the shooting occurred on Wednesday at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Efe news agency reported.
It is unclear whether Trump will visit the victims’ relatives on Friday or over the weekend.
In a White House address to the American people on Thursday, Trump pledged to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health” and said he would hold a meeting with state Governors “where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority”.
Trump, however, made no mention of possible further gun-control measures.
The suspect in the attack has been identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who has had a history of mental illness and has been booked into the main Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, having been charged on Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
The massacre, which also left 15 people injured, was the 17th school shooting in the US so far in 2018, according to non-profit gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
–IANS