Parkland shooter was born with "permanent brain damage"

The perpetrator of the February 14, 2018 shooting at a Parkland Florida high school, Nikolas Cruz, who shot 17 people faces trial with only two possible outcomes: the death penalty or life imprisonment. The defense brought up that his "brain has been permanently damaged" since before his birth because his biological mother drank and used drugs. At a time when the role of guns in the incidence of massacres is being debated, Cruz's case shows the importance of an adequate social policy.

In addition, it came to light that Cruz developed violent behaviors at home when he was a child. He was allegedly assaulted by his brother Zachary. Both brothers overwhelmed the adoptive mother to the point of leading her to seek help from the authorities to get them under control. Newsmax noted that despite being younger than his brother by a few months, Zachary "was bigger and stronger and relentlessly raged" at Nikolas.

Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last year to murdering the 17 people who were students and staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

In total, the Broward County Sheriff's Office had 43 contacts with the Cruz family in the years leading up to the Parkland massacre. The two brothers generated a violent environment in which they frequently destroyed walls, furniture, televisions and physically assaulted each other to the point that their adoptive mother had to ask for help from the authorities.

The profile of a future murderer

Nikolas Cruz's defense wants to show that from birth to the time of the massacre, the shooter never received the help he needed, even as he became increasingly out of control. After being placed for adoption by his birth mother, Nikolas was adopted by Lynda and Robert Cruz, ages 50 and 61, respectively. Lynda Cruz wanted to be a mother "so once she got Nikolas, she felt like her family was complete," her friend Trish Davaney-Westerlind told Fox News. "He was a cute baby. She was going to get him all these sailor suits. She was the happiest I've ever seen her," Davaney-Westerlind detailed. The couple later adopted Nicolas' brother Zachary.

From the age of three, Nikolas Cruz showed unusual behavior. Neighbors and teachers testified that he hit and bit other children and did not socialize. "He was anxious and couldn't use utensils. Nikolas started seeing psychiatrists and psychologists and didn't fully talk or potty train until he was four."

Nikolas' adoptive father passed away when Nikolas turned five years old. The child witnessed the exact moment when Robert Cruz had a heart attack. The family's financial difficulties began from that moment on.

The Parkland killer was obsessed with violent online video games, and would spiral out of control when he lost, to the point of damaging and breaking everything in his path to drain his anger. When Nikolas was nine years old, he hit a boy in the head, causing the victim's mother to call the police. On the other hand, when his dog died after eating a poisonous toad, he set out to kill all toads. In high school, his outbursts would disrupt classes and he would fill his homework with racist slurs, swastikas and obscenities.

Teacher Carrie Yon, who taught language classes to Cruz when he was 15 years old, noted that she was very concerned about his behavior. She kept the booklet in which Nikolas wrote: "I'm bad. I want to kill!" She also added that in a homework assignment he also wrote: "I hate you. I hate America. Life sucks. All it brings is pain and death. There is no point in living." Yon spoke to her superiors and gave them copies of the notebook, but the school authorities did not do enough to prevent further problems.

The Independent reported that Nikolas Cruz developed an "obsession with firearms" and that his mother bought him a BB gun and some time later went with him to a store to buy his first firearm. Lynda Cruz died less than four months before the massacre perpetrated by Nikolas.

Death penalty or life imprisonment

Zachary Cruz visited his brother several times after the massacre. There is a video in which the Parkland shooter can be seen breaking down in tears after receiving a hug. The defense is trying to appeal to emotions to avoid the death penalty in this controversial case, in which according to testimonies, the shooter expressed several times his desires to kill and claimed to hear voices.

Under current Florida law, the vote for the death penalty must be unanimous. If one juror votes no, Cruz's sentence would be reduced to life imprisonment.

"I planned killing spree for years"

Cruz testified to a psychiatrist last week that he planned the shooting when he was a high school student, five years before he murdered those 17 people.

Footage broadcast from the courtroom showed Dr. Charles Scott during a jailhouse interview. Nikolas acknowledged having analyzed the way other similar killings were carried out in the country. "I studied the killers and how they did it (...) How they planned, what they got and what they used," Cruz confessed.

The shooter calmly explained to the psychologist why he chose Valentine's Day to carry out the killing spree because no one loved him. His idea was to ruin the holiday forever for the people associated with the school.

Prosecutors played the video of the jail interviews in hopes of showing that he would not have been driven to kill by a mental disorder he could not control, but that he planned his attack and decided to carry it out.