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Warning: The above video is live and may be graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised.Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz viewed graphic video Tuesday of him murdering 17 people as he stalked through a three-story classroom building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago.The video, compiled from 13 security cameras inside the building, was not shown to the gallery, where parents of many of the victims sat. Prosecutors say it shows Cruz shooting many of his victims at point-blank range, going back to some as they lay wounded on the floor to kill them with a second volley of shots.The 12 jurors and 10 alternates stared intently at their video screens. Many held hands to their faces as they viewed the 15-minute recording, which has no sound.Some started squirming. One juror looked at the screen, looked up at Cruz with his eyes wide and then returned to the video.Cruz looked down while the video played and did not appear to watch it. He sometimes looked up to exchange whispers with one of his attorneys.The video was played over the objection of Cruz’s attorneys, who argued that any evidentiary value it has is outweighed by the emotions it would raise in the jurors. They argued that witness statements of what happened would be sufficient.Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer dismissed the objection, saying a video that accurately reflects Cruz’s crimes does not unfairly prejudice his case. Prosecutors are using the video to prove several aggravating factors, including that Cruz acted in a cold, calculated and cruel manner.Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder, and 17 more counts of attempted murder for those he wounded. The jury must decide if he should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nation’s deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury.Later on day two of the trial, jurors heard testimony from Christopher McKenna, who was a freshman during the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting. He had left his English class to go to the bathroom and exchanged greetings with two students, Luke Hoyer and Martin Duque, as they crossed paths in the first-floor hallway. McKenna then entered a stairwell and encountered Cruz assembling his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.”He said get out of here. Things are about to get bad,” McKenna recalled.McKenna sprinted out to the parking lot as Cruz went into the hallway and began shooting. McKenna alerted Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach who doubled as a security guard. Feis drove McKenna in his golf cart to an adjacent building for safety, and then went to the three-story building McKenna fled from.By then, the sounds of gunfire were already ringing out across the campus. Feis went in and was fatally shot immediately by Cruz, who had already killed Hoyer, 15, and Duque, 14, and eight others. Cruz then continued through the second floor, where he fired into classrooms but hit no one. When he reached the third-floor, he killed six more.The jurors also heard testimony from English teacher Dara Hass, who had three students killed and several wounded in her classroom when Cruz fired through a window in the door.”The sound was so loud. The students were screaming,” said Hass, who wept and dabbed her eyes with tissue as she testified. She thought it might be a drill, but then she spotted the body of 14-year-old Alex Schachter, who had been fatally shot at his desk.”That’s when I saw it wasn’t a drill,” she said. Two 14-year-old girls also died in the classroom: Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff.When police arrived and evacuated her students, Hass said she did not want to leave but officers convinced her.”I wanted to stay with the students who couldn’t go,” she said, referring to Schachter, Petty and Alhadeff.One student in her class, Alexander Dworet, said he originally thought the loud bangs were the school’s marching band, but then he felt a “hot sensation” on the back of his head where he had been grazed by a bullet and “I realized I was in danger.”Dworet’s 17-year-old brother, Nick, was across the hall in his Holocaust studies class. Cruz fired into that classroom, too, killing him. Jury selectionThe jurors currently on the main panel are two banking executives and two technology workers, a probation officer, a human resources professional and a Walmart store stock supervisor. Also included are a librarian, a medical claims adjuster, a legal assistant, a customs officer and a retired insurance executive. The jury selection was filled with setbacks and possible mistrials over the questioning of possible jurors and COVID-19 cases on the defense. The defense asked to delay the trial because of the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead. McNeill’s team argued that the shooting has again raised emotions in Broward County and makes it impossible for Cruz to get a fair trial currently.Many of the possible jurors were not able to hold seat because of the time commitment for the lengthy process.Full Recap: Jury sworn in to sentencing trial for Parkland high school shooterPleading guilty to all chargesCruz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the deadly shooting.Legal analysts said Cruz’s plan to plead guilty to all charges in the Parkland shooting — along with the guilty plea in a battery on a jail guard charge — is a calculated move by his attorneys for him to avoid the death penalty.Video below: Cruz pleads guilty in courtBy pleading guilty to killing 17 people and attempting to kill 17 more in 2018, legal experts said Cruz is hoping to convince the jury that he is taking some responsibility for his actions.”He’s trying to save his life, and the only way to do that is to take responsibility and not put all these poor people through a trial,” criminal defense attorney Marc Shiner said. Death penalty trials in Florida and much of the country often take two years to start because of their complexity, but Cruz’s was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive legal wrangling.If Cruz is sentenced to death, that will still not be the end of the process. Death sentences in Florida are given automatic priority review by the Florida Supreme Court. Trial preparationsTrial preparations were extensive for what was expected to be the biggest murder trial in Broward County history for one of the most infamous crimes in Florida history.Cruz was arrested about an hour after the attack with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Valentine’s Day 2018.Video below: Body camera of arrest of Nikolas Cruz releasedHis lawyers repeatedly offered to plead guilty in return for a guaranteed sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors refused to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.Video below: Cruz interrogation video releasedMuch of the penalty phase is expected to focus on Cruz’s mental condition at the time of the slayings, with prosecutors emphasizing their horrific nature and Cruz’s intensive planning beforehand. Victims of the Parkland school shootingSeventeen students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Seventeen others were injured.Can’t see the graphic? Click here.Settlement with Broward School DistrictThe Broward County School District will pay more than $26 million to the families of the victims.Board members approved the two legal settlements on in December 2021.A total of $25 million will be shared by 51 plaintiffs, including families of the 17 dead as well as students and staff who were injured. Another $1.25 million will be paid in one lump sum to Anthony Borges, who suffered some of the most severe injuries.Video below: Nikolas Cruz outlines shooting plan in video recordingFour years after shootingFor many families, they said there will never be closure for the loss of their loved ones.Students and families turned into activists.’I still can’t believe this is my reality’: Parkland parent creates way to track school violence after son is killed in school shootingJim Gard, a math teacher that day, said they were all victims.”These kids that were in the class, just because they weren’t hit doesn’t mean they weren’t hit,” he said.And since that day, so many of those victims have refused to just sit back and do nothing. In the days following the shooting, a movement called March For Our Lives was born.David Hogg was one of the founders.”When we started doing the march, we thought there would be about 90 people that we could get up to D.C.,” Hogg said. “We got near a million.”Video below: Father of Parkland victim hangs banner in view of White House four years after shootingFour years later, March For Our Lives is still going strong with chapters across the country.They’ve helped pass state laws designed to keep guns away from violent offenders. They’ve worked to get more federal funding to control gun violence.’I have to accomplish her dream’: Hunter Pollack changes career path after sister is murdered in Parkland massacreIt’s become a full-time job nobody wants.”We want our job to be done so we can go back to being college students or high school students and young people and young professionals,” Hogg said.When they watched the Parkland shooter plead guilty to the murders he committed, both Hogg and Gard are pleased to see this chapter end.Video below: School safety changes made following Parkland school shootingThey just ask you not to call it closure.”It’s the parents of the kids, the parents who lost their children, I don’t know if there can ever be closure on that,” Gard said. “I know for a lot of the people that I talked to, families that I talked to, there is not closure that can come. There’s nothing that will ever bring their kids back, their siblings back, their best friends back.”If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, call 211 or the National Suicide Hotline at 988.The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Warning: The above video is live and may be graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised.
Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz viewed graphic video Tuesday of him murdering 17 people as he stalked through a three-story classroom building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago.
The video, compiled from 13 security cameras inside the building, was not shown to the gallery, where parents of many of the victims sat. Prosecutors say it shows Cruz shooting many of his victims at point-blank range, going back to some as they lay wounded on the floor to kill them with a second volley of shots.
The 12 jurors and 10 alternates stared intently at their video screens. Many held hands to their faces as they viewed the 15-minute recording, which has no sound.
Some started squirming. One juror looked at the screen, looked up at Cruz with his eyes wide and then returned to the video.
Cruz looked down while the video played and did not appear to watch it. He sometimes looked up to exchange whispers with one of his attorneys.
The video was played over the objection of Cruz’s attorneys, who argued that any evidentiary value it has is outweighed by the emotions it would raise in the jurors. They argued that witness statements of what happened would be sufficient.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer dismissed the objection, saying a video that accurately reflects Cruz’s crimes does not unfairly prejudice his case. Prosecutors are using the video to prove several aggravating factors, including that Cruz acted in a cold, calculated and cruel manner.
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder, and 17 more counts of attempted murder for those he wounded. The jury must decide if he should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nation’s deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury.
Later on day two of the trial, jurors heard testimony from Christopher McKenna, who was a freshman during the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting. He had left his English class to go to the bathroom and exchanged greetings with two students, Luke Hoyer and Martin Duque, as they crossed paths in the first-floor hallway. McKenna then entered a stairwell and encountered Cruz assembling his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
“He said get out of here. Things are about to get bad,” McKenna recalled.
McKenna sprinted out to the parking lot as Cruz went into the hallway and began shooting. McKenna alerted Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach who doubled as a security guard. Feis drove McKenna in his golf cart to an adjacent building for safety, and then went to the three-story building McKenna fled from.
By then, the sounds of gunfire were already ringing out across the campus. Feis went in and was fatally shot immediately by Cruz, who had already killed Hoyer, 15, and Duque, 14, and eight others. Cruz then continued through the second floor, where he fired into classrooms but hit no one. When he reached the third-floor, he killed six more.
The jurors also heard testimony from English teacher Dara Hass, who had three students killed and several wounded in her classroom when Cruz fired through a window in the door.
“The sound was so loud. The students were screaming,” said Hass, who wept and dabbed her eyes with tissue as she testified. She thought it might be a drill, but then she spotted the body of 14-year-old Alex Schachter, who had been fatally shot at his desk.
“That’s when I saw it wasn’t a drill,” she said. Two 14-year-old girls also died in the classroom: Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff.
When police arrived and evacuated her students, Hass said she did not want to leave but officers convinced her.
“I wanted to stay with the students who couldn’t go,” she said, referring to Schachter, Petty and Alhadeff.
One student in her class, Alexander Dworet, said he originally thought the loud bangs were the school’s marching band, but then he felt a “hot sensation” on the back of his head where he had been grazed by a bullet and “I realized I was in danger.”
Dworet’s 17-year-old brother, Nick, was across the hall in his Holocaust studies class. Cruz fired into that classroom, too, killing him.
Jury selection
The jurors currently on the main panel are two banking executives and two technology workers, a probation officer, a human resources professional and a Walmart store stock supervisor. Also included are a librarian, a medical claims adjuster, a legal assistant, a customs officer and a retired insurance executive.
The jury selection was filled with setbacks and possible mistrials over the questioning of possible jurors and COVID-19 cases on the defense.
The defense asked to delay the trial because of the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead. McNeill’s team argued that the shooting has again raised emotions in Broward County and makes it impossible for Cruz to get a fair trial currently.
Many of the possible jurors were not able to hold seat because of the time commitment for the lengthy process.
Full Recap: Jury sworn in to sentencing trial for Parkland high school shooter
Pleading guilty to all charges
Cruz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the deadly shooting.
Legal analysts said Cruz’s plan to plead guilty to all charges in the Parkland shooting — along with the guilty plea in a battery on a jail guard charge — is a calculated move by his attorneys for him to avoid the death penalty.
Video below: Cruz pleads guilty in court
By pleading guilty to killing 17 people and attempting to kill 17 more in 2018, legal experts said Cruz is hoping to convince the jury that he is taking some responsibility for his actions.
“He’s trying to save his life, and the only way to do that is to take responsibility and not put all these poor people through a trial,” criminal defense attorney Marc Shiner said.
Death penalty trials in Florida and much of the country often take two years to start because of their complexity, but Cruz’s was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive legal wrangling.
If Cruz is sentenced to death, that will still not be the end of the process. Death sentences in Florida are given automatic priority review by the Florida Supreme Court.
Trial preparations
Trial preparations were extensive for what was expected to be the biggest murder trial in Broward County history for one of the most infamous crimes in Florida history.
Cruz was arrested about an hour after the attack with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Valentine’s Day 2018.
Video below: Body camera of arrest of Nikolas Cruz released
His lawyers repeatedly offered to plead guilty in return for a guaranteed sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors refused to drop their pursuit of the death penalty.
Video below: Cruz interrogation video released
Much of the penalty phase is expected to focus on Cruz’s mental condition at the time of the slayings, with prosecutors emphasizing their horrific nature and Cruz’s intensive planning beforehand.
Victims of the Parkland school shooting
Seventeen students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. Seventeen others were injured.
Can’t see the graphic? Click here.
Settlement with Broward School District
The Broward County School District will pay more than $26 million to the families of the victims.
Board members approved the two legal settlements on in December 2021.
A total of $25 million will be shared by 51 plaintiffs, including families of the 17 dead as well as students and staff who were injured. Another $1.25 million will be paid in one lump sum to Anthony Borges, who suffered some of the most severe injuries.
Video below: Nikolas Cruz outlines shooting plan in video recording
Four years after shooting
For many families, they said there will never be closure for the loss of their loved ones.
Students and families turned into activists.
‘I still can’t believe this is my reality’: Parkland parent creates way to track school violence after son is killed in school shooting
Jim Gard, a math teacher that day, said they were all victims.
“These kids that were in the class, just because they weren’t hit doesn’t mean they weren’t hit,” he said.
And since that day, so many of those victims have refused to just sit back and do nothing. In the days following the shooting, a movement called March For Our Lives was born.
David Hogg was one of the founders.
“When we started doing the march, we thought there would be about 90 people that we could get up to D.C.,” Hogg said. “We got near a million.”
Video below: Father of Parkland victim hangs banner in view of White House four years after shooting
Four years later, March For Our Lives is still going strong with chapters across the country.
They’ve helped pass state laws designed to keep guns away from violent offenders. They’ve worked to get more federal funding to control gun violence.
‘I have to accomplish her dream’: Hunter Pollack changes career path after sister is murdered in Parkland massacre
It’s become a full-time job nobody wants.
“We want our job to be done so we can go back to being college students or high school students and young people and young professionals,” Hogg said.
When they watched the Parkland shooter plead guilty to the murders he committed, both Hogg and Gard are pleased to see this chapter end.
Video below: School safety changes made following Parkland school shooting
They just ask you not to call it closure.
“It’s the parents of the kids, the parents who lost their children, I don’t know if there can ever be closure on that,” Gard said. “I know for a lot of the people that I talked to, families that I talked to, there is not closure that can come. There’s nothing that will ever bring their kids back, their siblings back, their best friends back.”
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, call 211 or the National Suicide Hotline at 988.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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