- Title: File footage of 2018 Florida school massacre after shooter pleads guilty
- Date: 20th October 2021
- Summary: NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (FILE - FEBRUARY 16, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL WITH CROSSES REPRESENTING VICTIMS OF SCHOOL SHOOTING WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - FEBRUARY 21, 2018) (REUTERS) STUDENTS MARCHING WITH CAPITOL IN SIGHT STUDENTS CHANTING "WHAT DO WE WANT? GUN CONTROL." STUDENT CROSSING HANDS, WITH "DON'T SHOOT" WRITTEN ON H
- Embargoed: 3rd November 2021 15:16
- Keywords: Florida high school Nicholas Cruz Parkland shooting
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA008EZYT0ZR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Accused shooter Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty on Wednesday (October 20) in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the deadliest ever at a U.S. high school.
At a hearing Wednesday, Cruz, 23, began entering guilty pleas to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Valentine's Day attack. His lawyer, David Wheeler, Broward County's chief assistant public defender, said last week Cruz intended to plead guilty to the charges.
Cruz was a 19-year-old expelled student with a history of mental health and behavioral issues at the time of the "cold, calculated and premeditated" killings, Broward County's State's Attorney Office in Broward County said in court documents.
The gun violence on Feb. 14, 2018, left 14 students and three staff dead and 17 others injured.
Because prosecutors have vowed to seek the death penalty, his change of plea from not guilty would open the penalty phase in which a jury would decide whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or death.
In Florida, juries determine whether to impose a death sentence. If prosecutors are not willing to drop the potential death penalty as part of any plea deal that may be struck with Cruz, then a jury would decide.
Some of the teenagers who survived the deadly rampage formed "March for Our Lives", an organization that called for gun control legislation such as a ban on assault-style rifles.
In March 2018, the group held a nationally televised march in Washington that sparked hundreds of similar rallies worldwide. Cruz was 18 when he legally purchased the AR-15 rifle used in the shooting from a licensed gun dealer.
(Production: Katharine Jackson) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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