Death penalty sought for Parkland shooter

The trial of Nikolas Cruz, who shot dead 17 people at his former school on February 14, 2018, began in Florida on Monday. Such a crime has seldom been tried in court.

Nikolas Cruz, now 23, on the first day of his trial in Fort Lauderdale.

Carline Jean/Pool/Reuters

The trial of Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at a school in Parkland on February 14, 2018, began on Monday. The shooter was 19 at the time and now faces the death penalty. The court hearing in Fort Lauderdale in the state of Florida attracts a lot of attention because shooters rarely appear in court and so many details of a school massacre are rolled up. In such cases, the perpetrators usually take their own shots, are shot by the police, or instead of a trial, a deal is made between the prosecution and the defense.

Nationwide protests after the shooting

Cruz broke into his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in the small town of Parkland, South Florida, on Valentine’s Day. With 139 shots from a semi-automatic rifle, he killed 14 students, a gym teacher, another teacher, a coach and injured 17 others. He then threw away his AR-15 and bulletproof vest and fled the school building with the survivors. He bought an iced drink at a nearby Subway fast food joint. Shortly afterwards he was arrested.

The massacre also caused a nationwide stir because the surviving students staged protests against gun violence and called for stricter gun laws. Some parents demanded that the teachers be armed. The movement went well beyond Florida at the time, but ultimately achieved nothing. The perpetrator had legally acquired his gun.

The trial against Cruz comes at a time when gun laws are again being intensely debated in the United States. In May, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, before being shot dead by police. An investigation report published on Sunday revealed “systemic failure” by the police during the operation.

Difficult childhood and expulsion from school

Cruz pleaded guilty in October last year. “I’m very sorry for what I did,” he said at the hearing. “I have to live with it every day.” The public prosecutor wants the death penalty. However, the twelve jurors would have to vote unanimously for an execution. Otherwise, Cruz is likely to be sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of appeal.

The first day of the trial caused emotional scenes, because recordings from the surveillance cameras and cell phones recapitulated the terrible events up close. It was traumatic at times for the survivors and parents of victims present in the courtroom, with some leaving the courtroom or calling for the playback to be stopped. The defense saw procedural violations, but the judge denied the motion.

The process is expected to take months. Cruz’s defense declined to comment on the first day. It is believed that she will plead for mitigating circumstances due to Cruz’s difficult circumstances. Cruz, who was considered an outsider and loner, lost his adoptive father when he was 6 years old. A few months before the shooting, his adoptive mother, an alcoholic, died and Cruz was placed in foster care. A year before the crime, he had been expelled from school for aggressive behavior and then worked in a general store. He had never been in trouble with the law before, but the police had received various warnings that were ignored.

“A great event”

He had planned his crime for months. Three days before the killing spree, he recorded himself with his cell phone. On the video he said: “I will be the next school shooter of 2018. My goal is to meet at least 20 people. It’s going to be a big event and if you see me on the news you’ll know who I am. You will all die.”

Brittany Sinitch, a teacher at the Parkland school, was describing at the trial how she was drawing Valentine’s Day cards with the students when she heard a deafening bang in the hallway. As she had learned to do in such cases, she turned off all the lights and locked the door. Some students huddled in the corners, she herself hid with some others behind the teacher’s desk. When she called 911, the man on the other end of the line could barely hear her from the gunfire.

In another classroom, student Danielle Gilbert also crouched behind a desk. “We sat there like helpless ducks,” she said. Some students wanted to escape through the window, but the teacher called them back. Gilbert recorded what was happening on her cell phone. Cruz shot through the glass in the door, hitting four students, one fatally.

While many of those present burst into screams and tears when the recordings were played, only one remained unmoved – at least outwardly: Cruz was fully occupied with taking notes incessantly.

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