Jurors see graphic video of Parkland school shooting as gunman’s death penalty trial continues

Jurors who will decide whether or not Nikolas Cruz receives the death penalty for murdering 17 folks at his Parkland, Florida, excessive school were shown graphic video footage of the bloodbath in court docket on Tuesday. 

The ultimate stage of the gunman’s sentencing trial, during which jurors will resolve if the 23-year-old ought to face a death sentence or life in jail with out parole, started this week after he pleaded responsible final October to 17 counts of homicide and 17 counts of tried homicide for the killings of 14 college students and three employees members inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. 

Video taken from safety cameras that recorded components of the Parkland shooting confirmed the defendant stalking a three-story constructing and shooting victims a number of instances, attorneys stated Tuesday. The video was not proven to the gallery, the place dad and mom of many of the victims sat. 

Prosecutors stated the video confirmed the defendant shooting many of his victims at point-blank vary, including that in some cases, the shooter returned to a wounded particular person and killed them with a second volley of pictures.

The 12 jurors and 10 alternates stared intently at their video screens. Many held arms to their faces as they seen the 15-minute recording, which has no sound.

Some began squirming. One juror regarded on the display, regarded up on the defendant together with his eyes extensive after which returned to the video.

The defendant regarded down whereas the video performed and didn’t seem to observe it. He typically regarded as much as trade whispers with one of his attorneys.

The video was performed over the objection of the protection, who argued that any evidentiary worth it has is outweighed by the feelings it might elevate within the jurors. They argued that witness statements of what occurred can be enough.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer dismissed the objection, saying a video that precisely displays the defendant’s crimes doesn’t unfairly prejudice his case. Prosecutors are utilizing the video to show a number of aggravating components, together with that the defendant acted in a chilly, calculated and merciless method. 

While referencing movies the defendant recorded on his private cellphone days earlier than the shooting, the place he articulated his intent to hold out the bloodbath, lead prosecutor Mike Satz described him as “cold, calculated, manipulative and deadly” in his opening statements Monday morning.

This is the deadliest mass shooting to go earlier than a jury in U.S. historical past. 

Later throughout day two of the trial, jurors heard testimony from Christopher McKenna, who was a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas when the shooting occurred. He had left his English class to go to the toilet and exchanged greetings with two college students, Luke Hoyer and Martin Duque, as they crossed paths within the first-floor hallway. McKenna then entered a stairwell and encountered the defendant 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 car parking zone as the defendant went into the hallway and started shooting. McKenna alerted Aaron Feis, an assistant soccer coach who doubled as a safety guard. Feis drove McKenna in his golf cart to an adjoining constructing for security, after which went to the three-story constructing McKenna fled from.

By then, the sounds of gunfire have been already ringing out throughout the campus. Feis went in and was fatally shot instantly by the defendant, who had already killed Hoyer, 15, and Duque, 14, and eight others. Cruz then continued via the second flooring, the place he fired into school rooms however hit nobody. When he reached the third-floor, he killed six extra folks.

The jurors additionally heard testimony on Tuesday from two college students who have been wounded as they sat of their English class when the shooter fired via a window within the door.

William Olson was writing an essay when “all of a sudden I hear a bunch of noise in the hallway. I did not know what it was.”

Olson stated he regarded over and noticed one other freshman draped over a desk, blood pouring out of him as he died.

At that time, Olson stated he and different college students scrambled subsequent to the trainer’s desk.

“While I’m laying in front of the desk I realize there’s blood all over me,” he stated. He had suffered arm and leg wounds.

Alexander Dworet stated he initially thought the loud bangs have been the school’s marching band, however then he felt a “hot sensation” on the again of his head the place he had been grazed by a bullet. “I realized I was in danger,” he instructed the court docket.

Dworet’s 17-year-old brother, Nick, was throughout the corridor in his Holocaust research class. The defendant fired into that classroom, too, killing him.