Sentencing trial begins for Parkland shooter
A prosecutor arguing for the death penalty denounced the "unspeakable" murders of 17 people at a Florida high school as the sentencing trial began on Monday for the troubled young man who admitted to carrying out the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting. Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A jury is to decide whether the 23-year-old should receive the death penalty or a life sentence for what lead prosecutor Mike Satz called a "cold, calculated, manipulative and deadly" massacre. "I'm going to speak to you about the unspeakable, about this defendant's goal-directed, planned, systematic murder, mass murder, of 14 children, an athletic director, a teacher and a coach," Satz said in opening arguments. He told the jury that three days before the shooting, Cruz made a cellphone video in which he said: "I'm going to be the next school shooter of 2018. "My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and some tracer rounds," Cruz said in the video. "It's going to be a big event and when you see me on the news, you'll know who I am." The brown-haired Cruz, who was wearing large glasses and a gray-, purple- and black-striped sweater, listened impassively as the prosecutor recounted the day of the shooting in excruciating detail. Parents of some of the victims were in the public gallery. They wept, clasped hands and shook their heads as the prosecutor spoke. Satz said that Cruz, after fleeing the school, ordered a drink at a Subway sandwich shop and then went to a McDonald's, where he asked the brother of a girl he had just shot for a ride. The boy, who was not aware at the time that Cruz was the assailant, declined. Cruz was arrested shortly afterwards. The trial in Fort Lauderdale is the rare instance of a mass shooter facing a jury, as they often either take their own lives or are killed by police. The death penalty requires a unanimous decision by the jury. Cruz will otherwise be handed life without parole. The Florida shooting stunned a country accustomed to gun violence and sparked new efforts, led by students from the school itself, to get lawmakers to pass tougher gun control laws. Parkland survivors founded "March for Our Lives," organizing a rally that drew hundreds of thousands of people to the nation's capital, Washington, in 2018. Thousands turned out for demonstrations organized by the group last month following two other mass shootings: one at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, and another at a New York supermarket that left 10 Black people dead. (AFP)