Parkland Shooter Had Cell Phone Video of His Massacre Plans

There is no doubt that Nikolas Cruz, the 19 year old Parkland, Florida school shooter, is a troubled young man.

“Troubled” does not mean he gets off the hook for what he did.

On February 14, 2018 Cruz entered his old school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, armed with an AR-15, then roamed the hallways of the 1200 building, shooting into classrooms and hallways on the first and second floors.

In all, seventeen people lost their lives that day. Just as many were injured, and we may never have a clear picture as to what set Cruz off, to the point he felt taking innocent life was the only way.

Maybe.

Apparently, there were videos. Nikolas Cruz wanted his plans memorialized on video. Authorities are now reporting that they have recovered three videos from Cruz’s phone, where he boasts of what he was planning for the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

From the newly released transcripts:

“I’m gonna go take Uber in the afternoon before 2:40 (p.m.). From there I’ll go into — onto school campus, walk up the stairs, unload my bags and get my AR and shoot people down at the man — what is it? — the main courtyard, wait, and people will die,” he says.

Cruz’s adoptive father had passed away in 2004. His adoptive mother passed away in November 2017, after an illness, but these things weren’t the beginning of his problems. There was a long list of complaints against him, and he’d even spent some time in a program that was meant to keep troubled kids from being referred to law enforcement.

There’s some question as to if he completed that program, or if the program, itself, is helpful, overall.

There was also some indication in the videos that maybe the already-troubled young man was lashing out, and that losing his mom may have been the final straw.

In the videos, the gunman says he wants to massacre at least 20 people with his semiautomatic rifle and he will become notorious and well-known. He describes himself in one recording as being alone and his life as “meaningless.”

Some of the reports that have emerged since Cruz’s arrest link him to private social media groups, where he allegedly expressed racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic views.

Given the evidence that points to intent on the recovered videos, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of wiggle room for his defense.

“He knew what he was doing,” said Andrew Pollack, father of Meadow Pollack, a senior who was killed. Pollack said that Cruz, whom he refers to as “18-1958” (Cruz’s case number), won’t be able to claim at trial that he was insane or that he didn’t know what he was doing. “It’s all premeditated murder.”

Pollack, who had not seen the recordings at the time of his CNN interview, said of the killer: “He was going to be laughing while he was doing it. He laughed in the videos (according to the transcripts).

“And he just planned how he was going floor to floor and shoot these, shoot my daughter, and shot her nine times.”

Cruz confessed to the crimes, and in March, a grand jury indicted him on 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree, and 17 counts of attempted murder in the first degree.

A judge entered a not guilty plea on Cruz’s behalf.

Prosecutors with Broward County are seeking the death penalty, and at 19 years old, this would make Nikolas Cruz the youngest inmate on death row, should they get their way.