Florida school shooter contemplated massacre for years

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz told a prosecution psychiatrist he began contemplating mass murder while in middle school. Videos of Dr. Charles Scott’s interviews with Cruz played Monday showed Cruz had extensive knowledge of earlier mass killings at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University and elsewhere. Cruz told Scott he researched those killers to shape his own plans. Cruz pleaded guilty last year to the 2018 murders of 17 at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His trial is only to decide whether he’s sentenced to death or life without parole. Scott is trying to rebut the defense contention that Cruz’s brain was damaged by his birth mother’s heavy drinking.