Tuesday 4 October 2022 02:24 AM Shocking moment Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz told a psychiatrist how he ... trends now
Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz told a prosecution psychiatrist he began contemplating a mass murder during middle school, doing extensive research on earlier killers to learn their methods and mistakes to shape his own plans, video played at his penalty trial showed on Monday.
Cruz told Dr. Charles Scott during a March jailhouse interview that five years before he murdered 17 at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, he read about the 1999 murder of 13 at Colorado's Columbine High School, which sparked the idea of his own mass killing.
Cruz told Scott how Columbine, the 2007 murder of 32 at Virginia Tech University and the 2012 killing of 12 at a Colorado movie theater all played a part in his preparation.
'I studied mass murderers and how they did it,' Cruz told Scott. 'How they planned, what they got and what they used.'
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown at the defense table during the penalty phase of Cruz's trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale
Cruz is shown in a taped interview with forensic psychologist Dr. Charles Scott that was shown while Dr. Scott testified during the penalty phase of Cruz's trial
Dr. Scott was hired by the prosecution as an expert witness to evaluate Cruz and diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder
" class="c7" scrolling="no"
Cruz, pictured, was said to be 'gun obsessed'. He was armed with at least one AR-15 rifle and had 'multiple magazines' when he stormed the school
He learned to watch for people coming around corners to stop him, to keep some distance from people as he fired, to attack 'as fast as possible' and, in the earlier attacks, 'the police didn't do anything.'
'I should have the opportunity to shoot people for about 20 minutes,' Cruz said.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to the murders that happened during a seven-minute attack on February. 14, 2018 - the trial will only decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole.
A unanimous vote by the seven-man, five-woman jury is required for Cruz to get death. Anything less and his sentence will be life.
Prosecutor Mike Satz hopes Scott's testimony will rebut the defense's contention that heavy drinking by Cruz's birth mother during pregnancy caused fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, putting him on a lifelong path of bizarre and sometimes violent behavior that culminated in the shootings.
" class="c7" scrolling="no"
Gena and Tom Hoyer are shown in the courtroom gallery as video is played of Cruz discussing how he planned the 2018 attacks. The Hoyer's son, Luke, was killed in the shootings
The defense also tried to show that his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, became overwhelmed after her husband died when Cruz was five and never got him complete treatment for his mental health issues. She died less than three months before the shootings.
Scott, a University of California, Davis, forensic psychiatrist, testified Monday that his examinations of Cruz and his school and mental health records don't support the defense findings.
He diagnosed Cruz with antisocial personality disorder, saying the 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student can control his behavior but chooses not to because he has no regard for others. For example, Scott pointed to Cruz's 14-month employment as a cashier at a discount store with no incidents.
He also said Cruz did well in alternative education classes taken after he was expelled from Stoneman Douglas a year before the shootings, getting a perfect score in a course on violence and guns.
He said Cruz's behavior spiraled after a girlfriend broke up with him 18 months before the killings.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz looks at Assistant Public Defender Nawal Bashimam's computer screen during the penalty phase of his trial
Cruz is seen inside the school in an image released during the investigation. The building's
