FLORIDA – Suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz said he heard “demons” to police officers moments after getting caught following the 2018 Parkland school shooting, according to body camera footage released Friday.
The two-minute video shows Cruz handcuffed on the ground as an officer questions him with helicopters heard hovering in the sky.
“What’s going on today, bro?” an officer asked Cruz.
“Demons man,” Cruz responded.
Cruz added he heard “voices.”
Broward State Attorney’s Office released the video Friday, according to the Miami Herald.
Cruz said in an interrogation hours after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14, 2018, that he had heard voices when his dad died around 15 years earlier. He said they got worse when his mom died of pneumonia in November 2017, The Associated Press reported.
The demons statement could potentially be used as an insanity defense, but Cruz’s attorneys have not said whether they will use it. Cruz could face the death penalty if convicted. A trial is set for early 2020, according to the AP.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting left 17 dead.
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