The assault rifle attack at a Florida high school that killed 17 in 2018 was a “cold, calculated, premeditated” act, the prosecution argued on Monday, at the opening of the trial intended to fix the sentence of his author.
Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty to the murders and the jury must only decide whether to sentence him to capital punishment or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dressed in a big sweater, large glasses and his face covered by an anti-COVID mask, he appeared on Monday in a court in Fort Lauderdale, where several relatives of his victims had taken their seats.
Some let tears flow or took their heads in their hands when the prosecutor carefully unfolded his murderous trip on February 14, 2018, to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he had been expelled a year earlier.
“I’m going to tell you the unspeakable”, warned Mike Satz from his introduction, before recounting how the shooter, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, proceeded methodically in the establishment, firing a total of 139 shots, killing 14 students and three adults.
He then slipped among the fleeing students, had a drink in a fast food restaurant and even asked a young girl to take him home.
Having been refused, he started on foot, but was recognized by a policeman and arrested.
“The murders were particularly atrocious” but also “cold, calculated, premeditated”, insisted the prosecutor, without mentioning, at this stage, the death penalty.
“Nil”
This trial, which should last several months, has a unique character as it is rare in the United States for the perpetrators of such carnage to survive their attack.
It intervenes in a country reeling from a series of bloody shootings in a primary school (21 dead including 19 children), a supermarket (10 dead, all African-Americans) and a National Day parade (7 dead).
The hearings promise to be difficult with the testimonies of relatives of the victims and survivors, as well as the dissemination of videos of the tragedy.
Nikolas Cruz’s lawyers should plead that their client, with a difficult childhood, is suffering from mental disorders. They should also remember that he apologized. “I’m really sorry for what I did, I bear the brunt of it every day,” he said during his guilty plea in October.
The prosecution will insist on the premeditated nature of the crime, relying on a video recorded before the act. “Let my massacre begin today. Let all the frightened children run and hide,” he said.
“My life is nothing and has no meaning,” he added, announcing that he wanted to go to his old school in an Uber vehicle armed with an AR-15 rifle.
Despite his psychiatric history and reports of his dangerousness, Nikolas Cruz had indeed been able to legally buy this rifle, a civilian version of assault rifles.
24,000 dead
The Parkland attack was the worst school massacre in the United States since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 in which 26 people were killed.
It had sparked a record mobilization led by several young survivors and the parents of victims. On March 24, 2018, the “March for Our Lives” brought together 1.5 million people across the country, the largest national demonstration for better control of firearms in the history of the United States.
Despite protesters’ hopes, no legislative reform had been passed in Congress, and gun sales have continued to rise in recent years in the United States, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They have killed more than 24,000 people, including 13,000 suicides, since the beginning of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archives website.
The recent dramas have been followed by the adoption of a modest federal law, which mainly plans to strengthen the funds allocated to school safety and mental health.