Under questioning by Cruz’s attorney, Masters said all of the posts were on public forums and many were in his name. Victims’ parents and family members at the gallery gasped audibly as they saw the leaflets, some shaking their heads. Some of the seven men and five women on the jury and their ten alternate scribbles crazily scribbled as Cruz’s words were posted on the video screens in front of them. He researched the school’s opening hours and pulled out a map of the campus.įinally, less than 24 hours before the massacre, he searched for “How long does it take for a policeman to show up at a school shooting?” He ran away from school after seven minutes. In posts on YouTube, Cruz wrote, “I want to kill people,” “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” “I have no problem shooting a girl in the chest,” and “No mercy.” He wrote, “It’s a pleasure to see people die,” followed by a smiley face emoji and “I love seeing families suffer.”Ībout two months before his attack, Cruz shifted his focus toward Stoneman Douglas, the school he regularly attended before he was expelled in early 2017.
In the comments, Cruz praised Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in 2014 before committing suicide, and became a touchstone among troubled young men who are known to be “involuntary celibates” or “going down” because women won’t date them.
Searches have included mass shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, a suburban movie theater in Denver in 2012, Virginia Tech in 2007, a South Carolina black church in 2015, and a country music concert in Las Vegas in 2017.
In a monotonous, emotionless tone, Broward County Mayor Detective Nick Masters read out hundreds of searches and comments Cruz made seven months before the February 14, 2018, massacre, as prosecutors try to prove he planned it.
Jurors in the criminal trial of Parkland school shooter Nicholas Cruz saw evidence Wednesday of his growing obsession with massacre, seeing Internet posts and searches about the mass killings in the months before the 17 people were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.