Hours after he shot and killed 17 people at a Parkland high school, Nikolas Cruz sat in a Broward Sheriff’s police interrogation room. He was not defiant. Instead, he cast himself as dejected.
He spoke so softly a homicide detective could barely hear him. Cruz said he did not “deserve” a bottle of cold water offer by police. When a detective left the room, Cruz muttered to himself: “Kill me. Just f***ing kill me.”
His demeanor was detailed in a transcript of his police interview released Monday, more than a week after a Broward judge ruled a redacted version of it could be unveiled to the public. The reasons for the redactions: Under Florida law, anything deemed “substance of a confession” can be shielded from the public until a trial or the case is closed.
That means Cruz’s detailed account to homicide detectives of the planning and execution of the worst school shooting in Florida history will still remain secret, for now. Much of the 217-page document was blacked out. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]A newly released report has revealed that the 19-year-old gunman who shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February asked for help months before he went on the rampage, but the school district failed to act on his request.
According to The Daily Beast the shooter was told that “he could transfer to Cross Creek, a school tailored for students with special needs; sue the Broward school district; or stay at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School without any special counseling.”
The Sun-Sentinel noted that the investigation found that the school district “did not follow the requirements of Florida statute or federal laws governing students with disabilities” in two specific instances:
— School officials misstated [the shooter’s] options when he was faced with being removed from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School his junior year, leading him to refuse special education services.
— When [the shooter] asked to return to the therapeutic environment of Cross Creek School for special education students, the district “did not follow through,” the report reveals.– READ MORE
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