Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to killing 17 in high school massacre

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Nikolas Cruz, the ‘cold and calculated’ Parkland school shooter, blamed pot for the 2018 massacre of 14 students and three teachers after pleading guilty and apologizing to the victims’ families as he now faces a possible death sentence. 

Cruz entered guilty pleas in court Wednesday morning to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Valentine’s Day slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Now 23, Cruz was a 19-year-old expelled student with a history of mental health and behavioral issues at the time of the ‘premeditated’ killings, the Broward State’s Attorney Office said in court documents.

At the hearing Wednesday morning, Cruz told the judge he was experiencing ‘anxiety,’ which she then said was ‘normal under the circumstances’.

In his apology to victims’ families he seemingly blamed pot for the deadly attack, saying that the ‘US would do better if everyone stopped smoking marijuana’.

‘I hate drugs and I believe this country would do better if everyone would stop smoking marijuana and doing all these drugs and causing racism and violence out in the streets,’ he added.

Cruz has previously admitted to using a lot of marijuana and had taken a lot of the prescription tranquilizer Xanax.

He told Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that he understood that he would, in the best case scenario, spend life in prison or be sentenced to death, and would not be allowed to appeal his sentence. 

The gun violence on February 14, 2018, left 14 students and three staff dead and 17 others injured. 

At his sentencing Cruz asked whether he could address the victims and their families, who were pictured in court wearing shirts, pendants and jewelry in honor of their late loved ones.

‘May I take off my mask?’ he asked before saying: ‘I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it everyday.

‘If I were to get a second chance I would do everything in my power to help others.

‘I do not care if you don’t believe me,’ he told the court, adding that he now gets ‘nightmares sometimes… and can’t even watch TV anymore.’

Cruz held back tears as he said: ‘I hate drugs and I believe this country would do better if everyone would stop smoking marijuana… I’m trying my best to maintain my composure and I just want you to know that I’m really sorry.’

Back in 2018, the killer admitted to cops that he used a lot of marijuana and Xanax after being diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age three, according to government documents.

Cruz also revealed that on more than one occasion, he used substances to try to intentionally overdose.

He stared down at the podium Wednesday throughout the entirety of his statement. 

‘I know it’s your decision to decide whether I live or die,’ he said to the judge. 

‘What I meant was that I believe that they should have the right to choose – the victims – whether I take life or death,’ Cruz added, although he clarified to the judge that he understands the law, which says a jury will decide Cruz’s fate. 

After making his statement Cruz was seen being handcuffed as an officer took his fingerprints. 

Because prosecutors have vowed to seek the death penalty, his change of plea from not guilty to guilty would open the penalty phase in which a jury would decide whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or death.

In Florida, juries determine whether to impose a death sentence. But if prosecutors are not willing to drop the potential death penalty as part of any plea deal that may be struck with Cruz, then a jury would decide.

After Cruz’s guilty plea and apologetic statement, the victims’ families were seen hugging and consoling each other in the courtroom at Broward County Courthouse. 

Anthony Borges, a then-15-year-old Stoneman Douglas student who was grievously wounded in the attack, also attended the court hearing. 

He was shot five times – twice in his right leg, once in his left leg and twice in his torso – while using his body as a human shield to protect 20 other students as they fled the school. He told reporters afterwards that he accepted Cruz’s apology and noted that it was not up to him to determine the killer’s fate.

Borges said outside of the courthouse: ‘He made a decision to shoot the school. I am not God to make the decision to kill him or not. That’s not my decision. 

‘My decision is to be a better person and to change the world for every kid. I don’t want this to happen to anybody again. It hurts. It hurts. It really hurts. So, I am just going to keep going. That’s it.’

During last week’s hearing, Cruz pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a law enforcement officer in a separate case in which he was accused of kicking, hitting and punching a sheriff’s deputy as well as attempting to remove his taser in a November 2018 jail attack.

Before accepting his plea, Scherer asked him if he understood the impact the assault case could have in the penalty phase of the murder case.

‘Sir, I need to advise you that the state is going to be using this conviction in this case as evidence of an aggravating factor for purposes of arguing in favor of the death penalty. Do you understand that?’ Scherer asked Cruz.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Cruz responded.

Some of the teenagers who survived the deadly rampage formed ‘March for Our Lives,’ an organization that called for gun control legislation such as a ban on assault-style rifles.

In March 2018, the group held a nationally televised march in Washington that sparked hundreds of similar rallies worldwide. 

Cruz was just 18 when he legally purchased the semiautomatic AR-15 rifle – used in the shooting – from a licensed gun dealer.

He was not a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High at the time, having been expelled during the 2016-17 school year. But on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, Cruz ordered an Uber to drop him off at the school.

He entered the building with the AR-15 and multiple magazines, just before classes ended for the day. He activated the fire alarm and then opened fire for a total of six minutes, killing 17 – 14 students and three teachers – and wounding 17 others. 

He fled the scene but was arrested later that afternoon without incident in nearby Coral Springs and reportedly identified himself to police as the gunman responsible.

In a confession later that afternoon Cruz claimed that a voice in his head told him to do violent things, including buying guns, building fire pits and killing birds. 

Judge Scherer has told Cruz’s attorneys to disclose soon whether they intend to pursue an insanity defense. Defense lawyers said all but one of their mental health experts have examined Cruz but no announcement was made on the insanity issue. 

Cruz has a well-documented history of mental problems prior to the shooting. School and government records showed that the killer was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age three.

He told cops that he often used a lot of marijuana and took a lot of Xanax, a prescription tranquilizer. 

He said during the confession that this menacing voice – which he described as a male around his age and called Demon – instructed him to order an Uber a day of the massacre, which he admitted to planning for up to a week before. 

The video also revealed that Cruz attempted to kill himself in an intentional overdose two months before the shooting but failed. It wasn’t his first attempt at suicide but he provided no other details beyond the word ‘alcohol’.

Further chilling information would later emerge, including a cellphone video in which Cruz is heard bragging about his fatal plans.

Taken within days of the massacre, Cruz is heard in one clip saying: ‘When you see me on the news you’ll know who I am. You’re all going to die. Pew pew pew. I can’t wait.’ 

In the confession video – which was 10 hours and 22 minutes long – Cruz also said that Demon distrusted the man interviewing him, Broward County Sheriff’s Detective John Curcio, for being ‘too nice’. 

Curcio said: ‘Personally, I think you’re using the demon as an excuse’ but Cruz insisted: ‘I’m not.’ 

Then, when left alone in the interview room, Cruz was heard saying that he wanted to die.  

Accusations also emerged that he had been abusive to an ex-girlfriend, stalked another girl, was banned from carrying a backpack at school and had previously brought in bullets and knives, hidden in a lunchbox. 

On Tuesday, Scherer rejected a motion by defendant Cruz’s lawyers claiming that intense media coverage jeopardizes his right to a fair trial.

Scherer did not elaborate on her reasons for denial, saying she would detail them in a written order later.

Cruz’s lawyers contended that open hearings might publicly reveal inadmissible evidence that will never be heard at trial and that news coverage could otherwise create bias among jurors.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that pretrial hearings are presumed to be open in most circumstances and can be closed only when there are no alternatives available except moving the trial elsewhere in the state. Prosecutors insist the trial must take place in Broward County.