/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elespectador/RWYJ5GPVURBOBN7D34O7WV4YOU.jpg "Nikolas Cruz, perpetrator of Parkland shooting, to plead guilty to murder")
Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 students and employees at Marjory Soneman Douglas High School, awaits his conviction.
The former student accused of perpetrating a shooting at Parkland High School, Florida, on February 14, 2018, is going to plead guilty to murdering 17 people that day, his lawyer said in court on Friday.
Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and employees with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Center, from where he had been expelled a year earlier for “disciplinary reasons”.
He was 19 years old when he carried out the massacre, one of the worst at a school in the United States since the 2012 one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. On that occasion, 26 people died, including 20 small children.
Cruz, now 23, was charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, for the injuries he left behind during the attack.
"We intend to record a change of statement . for all charges," attorney David Wheeler, whose client had initially pleaded not guilty to the murders, told a judge before a judge.
The magistrate called a hearing next Wednesday for the accused to confirm his decision. The Parkland shooting sparked an unprecedented mobilization to limit arms sales in the United States.
But, more than three and a half years later, the polarized US Congress has yet to vote on any meaningful reform on gun ownership.
📄 You may be interested in: Maduro adjusts plan to free himself from Colombian “terrorist groups”, what will he do?
Psychiatric history
Cruz was able to easily acquire a semi-automatic rifle, despite having a history of mental problems.
The young man was known for his obsession with guns and had been singled out as a possible threat to his classmates.
After the shooting, the US federal police, the FBI, indicated that they had been alerted months before about a message posted on the YouTube social network.
🌎 We recommend: Female pension up for debate, should children and care be taken into account?
A user named Nikolas Cruz then promised: "I am going to be a professional shooter in a school."
On the day of the attack, the young man arrived at the institute in Uber, quickly entered the building and began shooting. He left school nine minutes later.
The police recovered videos on his phone, where he claimed that he was going to murder "at least 20 people" at his old school.
Cruz told an agent, after his arrest, that he heard demons ordering him to "buy weapons, kill animals and destroy everything."
When he was indicted on March 13, 2018, Cruz pleaded "not guilty." But his lawyers made it known that he would change that statement if he could thus avoid the death penalty. The Prosecutor's Office made it clear, however, that it would request the death penalty for Cruz in any case.
This Friday it was not clear if an agreement had been reached between the defense and the Prosecutor's Office. Reacting to the news, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the attack, asked people to "remember the victims."
"Remember Jaime," he wrote on Twitter.
A conviction to be defined
Cruz appeared this Friday in a second court hearing to plead guilty to assaulting a prison official, after state attorneys assured a Broward County judge, Elizabeth Scherer, that the young man had been judged mentally competent.
The defendant appeared in court thin, with short hair and a mask against covid-19. He was wearing a blue sweater and khaki pants.
"I'm fine," he said when Scherer asked him how he felt. "I don't think he has any problems," he answered a question about his mental health.
📄 See also: In pictures: with drones they feed dogs surrounded by lava on La Palma
When asked if he understood all four charges related to the assault, he answered yes, and confirmed that he pleaded guilty to each of them.
The charges of assault on the prison guard could mean a minimum of 14 months and a maximum of 26 years in prison if they are served consecutively, the judge explained. The court set the formal hearing to declare the murder charges for October 20.
Afterwards, the court will begin to choose the jurors to debate the sentence, which could focus on the choice between execution or life imprisonment.
👀🌎📄 Are you already aware of the latest news in the world? We invite you to see them at Infotive techno latest world news.
0 Comments
Any Queries , You May Ask