Parkland school shooter, Nikolas Cruz covers his ears as prosecutors
play audio of him saying he would be the next school shooter (Watch)
Nikolas Cruz, 20,
who gunned down 17 people last year when he opened fire at a school in Florida,
was unable to face what he had done and had to cover his ears
as prosecutors played an audio where he said he would be the next
school shooter.
Cruz, who was 19 at
the time, opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland,
Florida, on Valentine's Day in 2018.
The attack was well
planned by Cruz and in an audio recording played in court, he is heard telling
a friend that he would "be the next school shooter of 2018".
As the audio was
played in court yesterday by Florida prosecutors arguing for access to
mental health and medical records of Cruz, the school shooter
covered his ears and bent his head.
The face of 18-year-old
'hero' student killed after tackling school shooter
Kendrick
Castillo, 18, has been named as the student who was killed when two students
opened fire at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado. Details of his
heroic act to save his fellow classmates has now emerged.
The attack was carried out on Tuesday, May 7, just three days before
the last day of school. The students were in an English class for the
last period of the day, watching "The Princess Bride" when one
of their classmates walked in late and pulled out a gun.
"Don’t you move," the shooter reportedly said to his
classmates.
As other students were rooted to their seats in shock, Kendrick Castillo,
a gentle teenager fascinated by cars and engineering, lunged to stop the gunman
and was shot dead, The New York Times reports. Eight other students were
wounded in the shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch on Tuesday afternoon,
which the authorities said was carried out by two fellow students.
Nui Giasolli, an 18-year-old senior who was in the class at the time of
the shooting, said Kendrick's split-second decision to lunge for the
gunman gave the other students a precious few seconds of cover to dive under
their desks or rush the gunman. Ms. Giasolli said a cluster of boys then
tackled the gunman, allowing her and others to flee the classroom.
"I don’t have enough words," Ms. Giasolli said in her
living room on Wednesday. "They didn’t have to risk their lives to save
the 15 of us who were left."
Kendrick's action has been described as an act of
self-sacrifice.
Speaking after his son's death, Kendrick Castillo's
father, John Castillo told NBC News on Wednesday that he had actually
discussed with his son what to do if he was ever confronted by a gunman.
"You don’t have to be the hero," John Castillo said he had
warned his son.
But Kendrick, who hoped to study electrical engineering in college,
rejected that advice, telling his dad he wouldn't think twice about acting to
save others if ever face-to-face with an armed intruder.
" "You raised me this way. You raised me to be a good person.
That’s what I’m doing,' " John Castillo quoted his slain son as
saying.
