Alleged Parkland school shooter, Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people in February this year. On Wednesday (8th August), a video was released that showed snippets of his confession. In it, he claimed that "demons" made him do it. He also punched himself in the face, hit at himself and pleaded for someone to kill him. However, the dramatic footage is suspected by some people to be a pretence and some victims just don't buy it.
Cruz video released despite Defense attorneys objections
The video was released despite the objections of defence attorneys, according to AOL.com.
They were concerned that the video footage may "jeopardize potential jurors." The video was not the full confession and snippets were taken from the original 11-hour long process and condensed into a short clip. It showed Cruz with his brother Zachary, Cruze alone and Cruze being questioned.
The clip opens with Cruz apparently alone in the room
The video clip opens with Cruz alone in an interrogation room. He's wearing a hospital gown and has one leg shackled. Alone, he speaks to himself, saying, "kill me....just kill me." Then he makes a pistol of his hand and puts it to his head, before curling up in a ball and scratching frantically at his right arm. He also said that he deserved to die because he was "worthless." It looks like he is weeping, or perhaps not actually in tears, rather than in torment.
The New York Post (NYP) noted that he also punched and slapped at himself.
The next segment of the confession video
In the next segment, ABC noted that a detective sits in front of Cruz while he says he attempted to kill himself, "killed small animals, and heard a demon voice inside his head for years." When he was questioned further, he claimed that demon voices had talked to him, the night prior to the shooting.
When asked what the demons told him to do, he replied, "burn, kill, destroy." Questioned on what he had to burn and kill and destroy, Cruz replied, "Anything." It's a disturbing piece of footage as he replies without any apparent remorse or the emotion evinced when he was alone in the room. He also said that he purchased the AR-15 as it was "cool looking."
The brother, Zachary
Nikolas Cruz asked to see his brother Zachary, who asked him what their mother would think of what he'd done.
But Cruze did not reply to that. Zachary then spoke about how he shouldered some responsibility as growing up he was not very nice to him. At one stage, Zachary held him.
Not all the victims buy it
It seemed that Nikolas Cruz was trying to say that he was schizophrenic “The voice is, is in me,” Cruz said. “To me, it’s me and then my bad side … It’s a voice. The voice is in here and then it’s me, it’s just regular me, just trying to be a good person.” But some of the victims just don't buy it. The families of the dead are just as much victims as their loved ones who had their lives taken that day. The NYP reported that Andrew Pollack the father of Meadow, who was killed, said, " I don’t buy it that he’s schizophrenic," and he's "a sick sociopathic criminal.” He believes Cruz is not mentally ill and that he was hamming it up, like an actor in a play.
Fox News reported that Pollack also noted what else was known about Nikolas that pointed to premeditation by the alleged killer. This included, him saying, "It was pre-meditated...there’s plenty of videos of what he posted before — that he was gonna plan it, everyone was going to know his name and that he was going to be famous … I think he’s just trying to avoid getting the needle.”
Meanwhile, another father, Ryan Petty, said to Local 10 News that “It’s painful" and that he doesn't like to "think about that day." But he feels it's necessary so that they can at least try and "understand."
Nikolas Cruz faces the death penalty if found guilty of the murders of 17 students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. His attorneys requested a life sentence if he pleaded guilty, which was denied by the court.
