Two 14-year-old girls also died in the classroom: Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff. “That’s when I saw it wasn’t a drill,” she said. She thought it might be a drill, but then she spotted the body of 14-year-old Alex Schachter, who had been fatally shot at his desk. The students were screaming,” said Hass, who wept and dabbed her eyes with tissue as she testified. The jurors also heard testimony from English teacher Dara Hass, who had three students killed and several wounded in her classroom when Cruz fired through a window in the door. He would be captured about an hour later in a neighborhood 3 miles (5 kilometers) away.
A teacher hiding behind the door poked her to see if she was still alive, but she didn’t move.Ĭruz would soon run past their bodies, out onto the athletic fields and mingle with the fleeing students, speeding past two girls carrying Valentine’s Day balloons. Jaime Guttenberg, 14, made it through the stairwell door before she fell. Peter Wang, 15, fell mortally wounded by the door. Cruz shot them again as he past, killing them. Two girls, 18-year-old Meadow Pollack and 14-year-old Cara Loughran, fell wounded. When he reached the third-floor, the video shows, Cruz found students and teachers in the hallway, preparing to evacuate as the first-floor shots had set off the fire alarm. Cruz then continued through the second floor, where he fired into classrooms but hit no one. McKenna sprinted to the parking lot and alerted Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach who doubled as a security guard.įeis drove his golf cart to the building, but was fatally shot as he opened the door. A friend pulled her away before she could open the door and Cruz killed the boys and 14-year-old Gina Montalto, who had been studying there. Student Ana Martins testified she went to open the door and could see them through the glass. They tried to run into their classroom, but the door was locked. The video shows Cruz opened fire from behind Hoyer, 15, and Duque, 14. McKenna then entered a stairwell and encountered Cruz assembling his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.Ĭruz, who had been expelled from Stoneman Douglas a year earlier, told McKenna, “Get out of here. He exchanged greetings with two students, Luke Hoyer and Martin Duque, as they crossed paths in the first-floor hallway. He had left his English class to use the bathroom. Later, jurors heard testimony from Christopher McKenna, who was a freshman. The jury must decide if he should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nation’s deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury. Prosecutors are using the video to prove several aggravating factors, including that Cruz acted in a cold, calculated and cruel manner.Ĭruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for the Feb. They argued that witness statements of what happened would be sufficient.Ĭircuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer dismissed the objection, saying a video that accurately reflects Cruz’s crimes does not unfairly prejudice his case. The video was played over the objection of Cruz’s attorneys, who argued that any evidentiary value it has is outweighed by the emotions it would raise in the jurors.
Tiafoe offers hope for present and future of US men's tennis Many held hands to their faces as they viewed the 15-minute recording, which has no sound. The 12 jurors and 10 alternates stared intently at their video screens as it played. Cruz kills him with a blast as he passes. In one segment, athletic director Chris Hixon burst through a door to confront Cruz, but was wounded and fell. He shoots many of his victims at point-blank range, going back to some as they lay wounded on the floor to kill them with a second volley of shots. Shown later to reporters, it depicts Cruz crouching and stalking, firing at anything that moves, down the halls and into classrooms. The video, compiled from 13 security cameras inside the building, was not shown to the gallery, where parents of many of the victims sat.
#Point blank kills cold war trial
(AP) - Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz viewed graphic video Tuesday of him murdering 17 people as he stalked through a three-story classroom building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago.
0 kommentar(er)
