Tag: School violence

Girl killed at St. Louis high school was ‘wonderful, joyful’

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ST. LOUIS — The teenager killed in a school shooting in St. Louis was a “joyful, wonderful” girl who loved to dance, her father said.

Alexandria Bell, 16. died Monday morning when Orlando Harris broke into Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and began shooting. Teacher Jean Kuczka also died and seven other students were injured. Police killed Harris in an exchange of gunfire minutes after they arrived.

Bell’s death was confirmed by her father, Andre Bell of Los Angeles, in interviews with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KSDK-TV.

“Alexandria was my everything,” Andre Bell told the TV station. “She was joyful, wonderful and just a great person.”

Alexandria, a 10th grader, was outgoing, loved to dance and was a member of the school’s junior varsity dance team.

“She was the girl I loved to see and loved to hear from. No matter how I felt, I could always talk to her and it was alright. That was my baby,” Andre Bell said.

The attack forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety. One terrorized girl said she was eye-to-eye with the shooter before his gun apparently jammed and she was able to run out. Several people inside the school said they heard Harris warn, “You are all going to die!”

Harris, 19, graduated from the school last year. The FBI was assisting police in trying to determine a motive, but Police commissioner Michael Sack said at a news conference that mental health issues may have been a factor.

Authorities did not name the victims, but the Post-Dispatch identified the dead teacher as Jean Kuczka, 61. Her daughter said her mother was killed when the gunman burst into her classroom and she moved between him and her students.

“My mom loved kids,” Abbey Kuczka told the newspaper. “She loved her students. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom.”

The seven injured students are all 15 or 16 years old. All were listed in stable condition. Sack said four suffered gunshot or graze wounds, two had bruises and one had a broken ankle.

The school in south St. Louis was locked, with seven security guards near each door, St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said. A security guard initially became alarmed when he saw the gunman trying to get in one of the doors. He was armed with a gun and “there was no mystery about what was going to happen. He had it out and entered in an aggressive, violent manner,” Sack said.

That guard alerted school officials and made sure police were contacted.

Harris managed to get inside anyway — Sack declined to say how, saying he didn’t want to “make it easy” for anyone else who wants to break into a school.

Sack offered this timeline of events: A 911 call came in at 9:11 a.m. alerting police of an active shooter. Officers — some off-duty wearing street clothes — arrived at 9:15 a.m. Police located Harris at 9:23 a.m. and began shooting at him. Harris was shot at 9:25 a.m. He was secured by police at 9:32 a.m.

Harris was armed with nearly a dozen 30-round high-capacity magazines, Sack said.

“This could have been much worse,” Sack said.

Central Visual and Performing Arts shares a building with another magnet school, Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. Central has 383 students, Collegiate 336.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th this year resulting in injuries or death, according to a tally by Education Week — the most in any year since it began tracking shootings in 2018. The deadly attacks include the killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May, when 19 children and two teachers died. Monday’s St. Louis shooting came on the same day a Michigan teenager pleaded guilty to terrorism and first-degree murder in a school shooting that killed four students in December 2021.

Taniya Gholston said she was saved when the shooter’s gun jammed as he entered her classroom. “All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” the 16-year-old told the Post-Dispatch. “I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed.”

The gunman pointed his weapon at Raymond Parks, a dance teacher at the school, but did not shoot him, Parks said. The kids in his class escaped outside and Parks tried to stop traffic and get someone to call the police. They came quickly.

“You couldn’t have asked for better,” Parks said of the police response.

Ashley Rench said she was teaching advanced algebra to sophomores when she heard a loud bang. Then the school intercom announced, “Miles Davis is in the building.”

“That’s our code for intruder,” Rench said.

The gunman tried the door of the classroom but did not force his way in, she said. When the police started banging, she wasn’t sure at first if it really was law enforcement until she was able to glance out and see officers.

“Let’s go!” she told the kids.

Kuczka, the slain teacher, taught health at Central for 14 years and recently began coaching cross-country at Collegiate, her daughter said. “She was definitely looking forward to retirement though. She was close,” Abbey Kuczka said.

Kuczka’s biography on the school website said she was the married mother of five and a grandmother of seven. She was an avid bike rider and was part of a 1979 national championship field hockey team at what is now Missouri State University.

“I cannot imagine myself in any other career but teaching,” Kuczka wrote on the website. “In high school, I taught swimming lessons at the YMCA. From that point on, I knew I wanted to be a teacher.”

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October 25, 2022
Father of teen killed in school shooting says he has to plan a funeral instead of the girl’s sweet 16 | CNN

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CNN
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Alexandria Bell was just a month away from her 16th birthday – a milestone she was supposed to celebrate with her father, who lives out of state.

“My daughter was planning on coming out here to California and celebrate her birthday with me on November 18,” Andre Bell told CNN affiliate KSDK.

“But now we have to plan her funeral.”

Alexandria was one of two people killed Monday at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis.

Teacher Jean Kuczka, 61, also was killed when a gunman armed with almost a dozen high-capacity magazines opened fire in the school.

“I really want to know: How did that man get inside the school?” Bell told KSDK.

“It’s a nightmare,” he said. “I am so upset. I need somebody – police, community folks, somebody – to make this make sense.”

As the shooting unfolded in St. Louis, a Michigan prosecutor who just heard the guilty plea of a teen who killed four students last fall said she was no longer shocked to hear of another school shooting. “The fact that there is another school shooting does not surprise me – which is horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

“We need to keep the public and inform the public … on how we can prevent gun violence. It is preventable, and we should never ever allow that to be something we just should have to live with.”

Alexandria was a member the Saint Louis Dazzling Diamonds dance group. Her fellow dancers created a poster with Alexandria’s image that is now part of a growing memorial in front of the school.

Her friend Dejah Robinson said the two were planning to celebrate Halloween together this weekend.

“She was always funny and always kept the smile on her face and kept everybody laughing,” Robinson said, fighting back tears.

The slain teen’s father said his daughter could make every day better.

“Alexandria was my everything. She was joyful, wonderful and just a great person,” Bell told KSDK.

“She was the girl I loved to see and loved to hear from. No matter how I felt, I could always talk to her, and it was alright. That was my baby.”

Robinson, who attends another school, said she wants lawmakers to act on gun control.

“They been knowing what’s happening, and they could have been did something,” she said. “But clearly they ain’t doing nothing and they won’t.”

Kuczka, a health and physical education teacher, was looking forward to retiring in the next few years, her daughter Abigail Kuczka said.

“Jean was passionate for making a difference and enjoyed spending time with her family,” her daughter said in a statement sent to CNN.

Alexis Allen-Brown was among the alumni who fondly remembered Kuczka’s impact on her students. “She was kindhearted. She was sweet. She always made you laugh even when you wasn’t trying to laugh,” Allen-Brown said.

“She made you feel real, inside the class and out. She made you feel human. And she was just so sweet.”

In her biography on the school’s website, Kuzcka said she had worked at Central VPA High School since 2008. “I believe that every child is a unique human being and deserves a chance to learn,” she wrote in her bio.

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October 25, 2022
Michigan teen pleads guilty to killing 4 in school shooting

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PONTIAC, Mich. — A teenager pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism and first-degree murder in a Michigan school shooting that killed four students and may be called to testify against his parents, who’ve been jailed on manslaughter charges for their alleged role in the tragedy.

Ethan Crumbley, 16, pleaded guilty to all 24 charges, nearly a year after the attack at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. In the gallery, some relatives of the victims wept as assistant prosecutor Marc Keast described the crimes.

“Yes,” Crumbley replied, looking down and nodding in affirmation, when asked if he “knowingly, willfully and deliberately” chose to shoot other students.

The prosecutor’s office said no deals were made ahead of Monday’s plea. A first-degree murder conviction typically brings an automatic life prison sentence in Michigan, but teenagers are entitled to a hearing where their lawyer can argue for a shorter term and an opportunity for parole.

“We are not aware of any other case, anywhere, in the country where a mass shooter has been convicted of terrorism on state charges,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

The teenager withdrew his intent to pursue an insanity defense, and repeatedly acknowledged under questioning by Judge Kwame Rowe that he understands the potential penalties.

His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are jailed on charges of involuntary manslaughter, accused of making the gun accessible to their son and ignoring his need for mental health treatment. Ethan Crumbley’s lawyer, Paulette Michel Loftin, said it’s possible he could be called upon to testify against them. She said they’re under a no-contact order, and he has not spoken to his parents.

Ethan Crumbley was 15 at the time of the shootings and had no discipline issues at the school, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit, but his behavior earlier that day raised flags.

A teacher had discovered a drawing with a gun pointing at the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” There was an image of a bullet with the message: “Blood everywhere.”

James and Jennifer Crumbley declined to take their son home on Nov. 30 but were told to get him into counseling within 48 hours, according to investigators.

Ethan Crumbley had brought a 9mm Sig Sauer handgun and 50 rounds of ammunition to school in his backpack that day. He went into a bathroom, pulled out the weapon and began shooting. Within minutes, deputies rushed in and he surrendered without resistance.

A day earlier, a teacher had seen Ethan Crumbley searching for ammunition on his phone. The school contacted Jennifer Crumbley, who told her son in a text message: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Parents have rarely been charged in school shootings, though the guns used commonly come from the home of a parent or close relative. Jennifer Crumbley referred to the gun on social media as a “Christmas present” for her son.

Ethan Crumbley admitted under questioning Monday that his own money was used to purchase the gun, which his father bought for him on Nov. 26, a few days before the shooting. He also said the gun was “not locked” in a container or safe the morning he took it to the school.

Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters Monday that Ethan Crumbley still had 18 rounds of ammunition when he was arrested.

“It’s my belief he would have fired every one of those had he not been interrupted by deputies going immediately in,” said Bouchard who also called Ethan Crumbley “a twisted and evil person.”

“I hope he gets life without parole,” the sheriff added. “He has permanently taken lives away from four lovely souls and he’s permanently affected many, many more.”

Prosecutors earlier this year disclosed that Ethan Crumbley had hallucinations about about demons and was fascinated by guns and Nazi propaganda.

“Put simply, they created an environment in which their son’s violent tendencies flourished. They were aware their son was troubled, and then they bought him a gun,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

His parents said they were unaware of their son’s plan to commit a school shooting. They also dispute that the gun was easy to grab at home.

Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling were killed, while six students and a teacher were wounded. In addition to the counts of first-degree murder and terrorism causing death, Ethan Crumbley admitted guilt to seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony.

The judge set Feb. 9 for the start of hearings to determine if he’ll be sentenced to life without parole or get a shorter sentence due to his age, and a chance at release. His lawyers will be able to argue a variety of mitigating circumstances, including family life and mental health. Prosecutors didn’t signal in court if they will argue for a no-parole sentence.

Loftin said the teenager is remorseful: “He’s taking accountability for his actions,” she said. As for the victims, she said “I don’t think there are any words that could make them feel any better.”

Meghan Gregory, whose son, Keegan, was hiding in a school bathroom with Justin Shilling when Shilling was fatally shot, told reporters after the hearing that it was tough to see Crumbley for the first time in person.

She said her son did not want to attend, but did ask for a link to the livestream so he could watch the hearing from afar.

“He struggles with the thought of being in the same room,” Gregory said. “I mean, he was held hostage by him for almost six minutes.”

Detroit attorney Ven Johnson, who is suing the Oxford school district and the Crumbley family on behalf of several victims’ families, said Monday’s plea “is one small step forward on a long path towards obtaining full justice for our clients.”

“We will continue to fight until the truth is revealed about what went wrong leading up to this tragedy, and who, including Crumbley’s parents and multiple Oxford Community Schools employees, could have and should have prevented it,” Johnson’s statement said.

Wolf Mueller, another lawyer representing victims’ families, said it was “pretty incredible to hear” and “a stunning development” that Ethan Crumbley acknowledged he purchased the gun with his own money.

“It was cold-blooded what he did,” Mueller said. “And, while he may have been dealt a bad set of cards with the parents, it’s still a choice that he made to do the harm and bring the tragedy to Oxford.”

———

Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.

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October 24, 2022
Police: 3 killed in shooting at St. Louis high school

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ST. LOUIS — St. Louis police say three people are dead, including the shooter, after a shooting at a high school Monday morning.

Speaking at a news conference, Police Commissioner Michael Sack said the three dead included a woman, a teenage girl and the shooter, described as a man about 20 years old.

The shooting just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety.

Sack said security officials initially became alarmed when the shooter tried to get into the locked school building. He declined to say how the man got inside, armed with what he described as a long gun.

Officers “ran to that gunfire, located that shooter and engaged that shooter in an exchange of gunfire,” killing him, Sack said.

Sack declined to name the victims and did not say if the woman who was killed was a teacher.

Six other injured people were hospitalized. Sack said some suffered gunshot wounds, while others were struck by shrapnel. He did not provide any information on their conditions.

One student, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she was in a room when the shooter entered.

“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” Gholston said. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”

Another student, ninth-grader Nylah Jones, told the Post-Dispatch she was in math class when the shooter fired into the room from the hallway. The shooter was unable to get into the room and banged on the door as students piled into a corner, she said.

Sack said the shooting happened at 9:10 a.m. Crime tape was placed around the school and some parents arrived to pick up kids and check on their safety. The district, in a tweet, said students could be picked up at another school building or a nearby grocery store.

Central Visual and Performing Arts High School is a magnet school specializing in visual art, musical art and performing art with about 400 students. The district website says the school’s “educational program is designed to create a nurturing environment where students receive a quality academic and artistic education that prepares them to compete successfully at the post-secondary level or perform competently in the world of work.”

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October 24, 2022
2 students injured in school shooting in St. Louis, suspect in custody police say | CNN

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Two students were injured in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday morning, according to a tweet from the district, and police report the suspect is in custody.

“Police are on site … following reports of an active shooter and both CVPA and Collegiate are on lockdown,” St. Louis Public Schools tweeted, referring to the adjacent Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.

The “shooter was quickly stopped by police inside CVPA,” the post said.

The St. Louis Police Metropolitan Police Department reporting the active shooter on Twitter, and about 45 minutes later, tweeted, “At this time, the scene is secure and there is no active threat.”

The high school is a magnet school about 6 miles southwest of downtown.

Students were being evacuated from campus “to safe and secure sites,” the district said. People are being asked to avoid the area, and parents have been informed they can pick up their children at Gateway Stem High School, about a mile and a half north of CVPA.

Word of the shooting comes on the same day Michigan teen Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to murder charges in a Michigan school shooting last year that left four people dead and seven injured. On November 1, Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced for the February 2018 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people died.

As the shooting in St. Louis was unfolding, a Michigan prosecutor addressed the nation’s gun violence in the wake of Crumbley’s guilty plea.

“It’s not just about sharing with other departments. Gun violence is preventable. That’s what I’ve learned, and the fact that there is another school shooting does not surprise me – which is horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “It is preventable, and we should never, ever allow that to be something we just should have to live with.”

The FBI’s St. Louis field office is assisting local law enforcement in its response to the shooting, spokesperson Rebecca Wu said. The Kansas City, Missouri, field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive is assisting as well, spokesperson John Ham said in a statement.

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October 24, 2022
Teen pleads guilty to 24 charges including terrorism and murder in Michigan school shooting that killed 4 students

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Teen pleads guilty to 24 charges including terrorism and murder in Michigan school shooting that killed 4 students

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October 24, 2022
Ethan Crumbley is expected to plead guilty Monday in shooting at Michigan high school that killed 4 students, prosecutors say | CNN

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A teenager accused of killing four students and wounding seven others at a Michigan high school last year is expected to plead guilty to murder charges Monday, prosecutors said.

Ethan Crumbley is set to plead guilty to all 24 charges against him, including one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder, for fatally shooting the four students at Oxford High School on November 30, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Crumbley, who was 15 when the shooting happened, previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, but is expected to change his plea at a hearing in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Crumbley will receive no plea deal, according to Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams.

CNN has reached out to Crumbley’s attorneys for comment.

The teenager’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter related to the shooting after prosecutors accused them of giving their son easy access to a gun and ignoring signs that he was a threat before the shooting.

Prosecutors argued Jennifer and James Crumbley played “a much larger role than just buying their son a gun,” and there were many things the parents could have done, other than simply locking up the gun, which could have prevented the tragedy.

The parents have pleaded not guilty, and their attorneys have argued in court documents the charges have no legal justification and the couple should not be held responsible for the killings their son is accused of committing.

The trial for the parents was initially scheduled to begin Monday but was postponed last month to start in January. Meanwhile, Jennifer and James Crumbley remain in custody at a county jail.

James Crumbley had purchased the gun used in the shooting just four days before the deadly attack, prosecutors have said.

During the teenager’s arraignment, prosecutors described Ethan Crumbley “methodically and deliberately” walking the hallways, aiming a gun at students and firing at close range after emerging from a school restroom holding the firearm.

Students and teachers relied on tactics they’d learned in active shooter drills to protect themselves. When the gunfire erupted, frightened students barricaded doors, turned off the lights, and called for help. Some of the children armed themselves with scissors, in case they needed to fight back.

Four students died that day: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Six other students and one teacher were injured.

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October 23, 2022
Man fatally shot after California high school football game

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man died in a California shooting Friday night in a Sacramento parking lot after a high school football game, police said.

Investigators believe the shooting broke out after a disturbance involving about 20 people near the end of the game at Grant Union High School. Officers found a firearm and shattered glass in a school parking lot.

Police said the shooting victim — a man in his mid-20s — was able to get to a nearby hospital but later died.

Police provided no information on a suspect or motive.

The Sacramento Bee reported that about 2,000 people attended the game and police believe those involved in the disturbance were not students, though that information is preliminary.

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October 22, 2022
Authorities: Shooting near Louisiana university injures 11

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BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana shooting injured 11 people at a fraternity house near Southern University’s campus, which is in the midst of celebrating its homecoming festivities, and two people are in custody, Baton Rouge police said.

Authorities initially said nine people were injured early Friday at the party held just off campus. At a news conference late Friday, Deputy Chief Myron Daniels confirmed that two others were wounded, The Advocate reported. Police said the 11 victims have injuries that are not life-threatening.

The two men arrested were identified as Daryl Stansberry, 28, and Miles Moss, 24, and each faces 11 counts of being accessories after attempted first-degree murder and illegal use of weapons, news outlets reported. It was unknown if either were represented by an attorney who could speak on their behalf. They’re being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail.

A motive for the shooting was not released, but Daniels said investigators believe it was “an isolated incident.” A police spokesman said it appeared to have resulted from something that happened at an annual party, hosted by Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and not as a result of an ongoing feud.

It’s not the first time the “Kappa Luau” ended in gunfire. In 2018, LSU basketball player Wayde Sims was shot dead during an altercation at the off-campus party.

Southern University released a statement hours after Friday’s shooting, emphasizing that the party was not a school-sponsored event and that the shooting did not happen on the university’s grounds.

Southern University police said officers would beef up security at remaining homecoming events that included Saturday’s homecoming game against Virginia-Lynchburg. The game kicks off at 4 p.m.

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October 22, 2022
Texas state police fire first officer over Uvalde response

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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety has fired an officer who was at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre and becomes the first member of the state police force to lose their job in the fallout over the hesitant response to the May attack.

Sgt. Juan Maldonado was served with termination papers Friday, said Ericka Miller, a department spokeswoman. The firing comes five months after the shooting at Robb Elementary School that has put state police under scrutiny over their actions on the campus as a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two teachers.

Body camera footage and media reports have shown that DPS had a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest after the May 24 shooting. State troopers were among the first wave of officers to arrive but did not immediately confront the gunman, which experts say goes against standard police procedure during mass shootings.

Instead, more than 70 minutes passed before officers finally stormed inside a fourth-grade classroom and killed the gunman, ending one of the deadliest school attacks in U.S. history. Nearly 400 officers in all eventually made their way to the scene, including state police, Uvalde police, school officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Maldonado could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Seven DPS troopers were put under internal investigation this summer after a damning report by lawmakers revealed that state police has more 90 officers at the scene, more than any other agency.

Steve McCraw, the DPS director, has called the law enforcement response an “abject failure” but put most of the blame on former Uvalde school police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired in August and can be seen on body cam video searching in futility for a key to the classroom door that may been unlocked the entire time.

But the Uvalde mayor, parents of the victims and some lawmakers have accused DPS of trying to minimize its own failures.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, reacted to news of the firing by saying that accountability in the department should not end there.

“Ninety more to go, plus the DPS director,” he said.

Gutierrez has sued DPS in an effort to obtain documents surrounding the response to the shooting. Several media outlets, including The Associated Press, have also asked courts to compel authorities and Uvalde officials to release records under public information laws.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, has stood by McCraw and said during a September debate there needed to be “accountability for law enforcement at every level.” A spokesperson for Abbott did not return messages seeking comment about the firing.

One of the DPS troopers put under internal investigation was Crimson Elizondo, who resigned and later was hired by Uvalde schools to work as a campus police officer. She was fired less than 24 hours after outraged parents in Uvalde found out about her hiring.

———

More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas:

https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting

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October 21, 2022
Guilty plea due in Michigan school shooting that killed 4

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DETROIT — A teenager accused of killing four fellow students and injuring more at a Michigan high school is expected to plead guilty to murder next week, authorities said Friday.

Ethan Crumbley had created images of violence during a classroom assignment last November but was not sent home from Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. He pulled out a gun a few hours later and committed a mass shooting.

Authorities have pinned some responsibility on Crumbley’s parents, portraying them as a dysfunctional pair who ignored their son’s mental health needs and happily provided a gun as a gift just days before the attack. They also face charges.

Crumbley, 16, is due in court Monday.

“We can confirm that the shooter is expected to plead guilty to all 24 charges, including terrorism, and the prosecutor has notified the victims,” said David Williams, chief assistant prosecutor in Oakland County.

A message seeking comment was left for the boy’s lawyers.

Crumbley was 15 when the shooting occurred at Oxford High, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit.

His parents had been summoned to school that day to discuss the teen’s ominous writings. A teacher had found a drawing with a gun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” There was an image of a bullet with the message: “Blood everywhere.”

James and Jennifer Crumbley declined to take Ethan home but were told to get him into counseling within 48 hours, according to investigators.

A day earlier, a teacher saw Ethan searching for ammunition on his phone. The school contacted his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, who then told her son in a text message: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Ethan Crumbley was charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and 12 counts related to use of a gun.

A first-degree murder conviction typically brings an automatic life prison sentence in Michigan. But teenagers are entitled to a hearing where their lawyer can argue for a shorter term and an opportunity for parole.

Separately, James and Jennifer Crumbley are facing involuntary manslaughter charges — a rare case of prosecutors trying to make parents accountable for a school shooting. They are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan and neglecting his need for mental health care.

“Put simply, they created an environment in which their son’s violent tendencies flourished. They were aware their son was troubled, and then they bought him a gun,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

The Crumbleys said they were unaware of Ethan’s plan. They also dispute that the gun was easy to get at home.

Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling were killed, while six students and a teacher were injured.

Sheriff Mike Bouchard said a guilty plea from Ethan Crumbley would be a relief for families and witnesses.

“At least not to have to go through the pain of painstakingly seeing every bit of evidence, every bit of video and all of the things that would be horrific” at a trial, Bouchard told WDIV-TV.

In court documents, prosecutors have revealed portions of Ethan Crumbley’s personal journal. He said his grades were poor and that his parents hated each other and had no money.

“This just furthers my desire to shoot up the school or do something else,” the teen wrote.

All three Crumbleys are being held at the Oakland County jail, though Ethan is kept away from adults.

Ven Johnson, an attorney who is suing the Oxford school district, said parents of the shooting victims would withhold comment until after the court hearing.

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AP reporter Corey Williams contributed to this story.

———

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

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October 21, 2022
Radioactive waste found at Missouri elementary school

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FLORISSANT, Mo. — There is significant radioactive contamination at an elementary school in suburban St. Louis where nuclear weapons were produced during World War II, according to a new report by environmental investigation consultants.

The report by Boston Chemical Data Corp. confirmed fears about contamination at Jana Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District in Florissant raised by a previous Army Corps of Engineers study.

The new report is based on samples taken in August from the school, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boston Chemical did not say who or what requested and funded the report.

“I was heartbroken,” said Ashley Bernaugh, president of the Jana parent-teacher association who has a son at the school. “It sounds so cliché, but it takes your breath from you.”

The school sits in the flood plain of Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated by nuclear waste from weapons production during World War II. The waste was dumped at sites near the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, next to the creek that flows to the Missouri River. The Corps has been cleaning up the creek for more than 20 years.

The Corps’ report also found contamination in the area but at much at lower levels, and it didn’t take any samples within 300 feet of the school. The most recent report included samples taken from Jana’s library, kitchen, classrooms, fields and playgrounds.

Levels of the radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium and other toxins were “far in excess” of what Boston Chemical had expected. Dust samples taken inside the school were found to be contaminated.

Inhaling or ingesting these radioactive materials can cause significant injury, the report said.

“A significant remedial program will be required to bring conditions at the school in line with expectations,” the report said.

The new report is expected to be a major topic at Tuesday’s Hazelwood school board meeting. The district said in a statement that it will consult with its attorneys and experts to determine the next steps.

“Safety is absolutely our top priority for our staff and students,” board president Betsy Rachel said Saturday.

Christen Commuso with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment presented the results of the Corps’ study to the school board in June after obtaining a copy through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“I wouldn’t want my child in this school,” she said. “The effect of these toxins is cumulative.”

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October 16, 2022
4 wounded in shooting outside Atlanta university library

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Authorities say four people were shot, including three students, during Clark Atlanta University’s homecoming outside a campus library early Sunday

ATLANTA — Four people were shot, including three students, during Clark Atlanta University’s homecoming outside a campus library early Sunday, authorities said.

A large group of people were listening to a DJ near Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library around 12:30 a.m. when officers on patrol in the area heard gunshots, Atlanta police said.

A preliminary investigation found three students and another person were wounded when shots were fired from a vehicle, Clark Atlanta University said.

One of the victims was grazed and refused medical attention, Atlanta police said. Three others were taken to a hospital, though they were conscious and alert.

Clark Atlanta is part of Atlanta University Center’s consortium of historically Black colleges.

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October 16, 2022
Indiana teacher with ‘kill list’ charged with intimidation

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EAST CHICAGO, Ind. — A fifth-grade teacher at a school in northwestern Indiana was charged with felony intimidation Friday after allegedly telling a student she had a “kill list” of students and staff, authorities said.

Angelica Carrasquillo, 25, of Griffith communicated “a threat to commit murder,” Lake County court documents said.

Officials at her school, St. Stanislaus in East Chicago, immediately confronted her and escorted her from the building once they learned of the threat Wednesday afternoon, the Diocese of Gary said in a message to parents.

When Carrasquillo was asked Wednesday why she wanted to kill herself and others, she reportedly told school officials, “I’m having trouble with my mental health, and sometimes the kids do not listen in the classroom. I also have trauma caused when I went to high school.”

It wasn’t clear whether Carrasquillo has an attorney who might comment on the allegations against her.

The threats came to light when a counselor overhead a fifth-grader say while being escorted to her classroom for recess detention, “I heard Ms. Carrasquillo wants to kill herself and has a list.”

The student reportedly said Carrasquillo voiced the threat to him directly and told the student he was on the list.

The principal and an assistant principal said Carrasquillo gave them the name of one student on the “kill list,” but she did not reveal all the names, a court document said.

Carrasquillo allegedly told school officials “she was only joking about it all.”

Classes were held remotely Friday, and students were offered access to a school counselor, the diocese said.

“We are deeply saddened by this event,” the diocese said. “School safety is a paramount concern of our schools.”

East Chicago police said they are obtaining an emergency detention order for the teacher from the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office. She was taken into custody at her home Thursday morning.

She was not in custody Friday, online court records showed.

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October 14, 2022
Parkland shooter prosecutors call for probe of juror threat

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Prosecutors in the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are calling for an investigation after a juror said she felt threatened by another member of the jury during deliberations that ended Thursday with a life sentence for Cruz’s murder of 17 people.

The motion calls for law enforcement to interview the unnamed juror after she told the state attorney’s office about what “she perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror while in the jury room.” No further details were given. A hearing is set for Friday afternoon.

A divided jury spared Cruz the death penalty and instead decided to send him to prison for the rest of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears. Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members, and wounding 17 others, at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

Florida criminal defense attorneys Richard Escobar and David Weinstein, who are both former prosecutors, said that even if a threat was made, the jury’s decision will not be overturned because of double jeopardy, or trying the same defendant twice for the same crime.

Weinstein pointed to a 1990s case involving two drug kingpins who bribed a jury and were acquitted. Even under that circumstance, prosecutors couldn’t retry the duo for drug trafficking, but did convict them on charges stemming from the bribery.

Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. The 12-person jury unanimously agreed there were aggravating factors to warrant a possible death sentence, such as agreeing that the murders were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”

But one or more jurors also found mitigating factors, such as untreated childhood problems. In the end, the jury could not agree that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones, so Cruz will get life without parole. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the life sentences Nov. 1. Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak.

The jurors pledged during the selection process that they could vote for a death sentence, but some victims’ parents, some of whom attended the trial almost daily, wondered whether all of them were being honest.

Juror Denise Cunha sent a short handwritten note to the judge Thursday defending her vote for a life sentence and denying she intended to vote that way before the trial began.

“The deliberations were very tense and some jurors became extremely unhappy once I mentioned that I would vote for life,” Cunha wrote. She did not explain her vote and it is unknown if she is the juror who complained to the state attorney’s office.

Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told local reporters that three jurors voted for life on the final ballot. Two were willing to reconsider, but one was a “hard no” for the death penalty.

“It really came down to a specific (juror) that he (Cruz) was mentally ill,” Thomas said. He did not say whether that person was Cunha.

———

Izaguirre reported from Tallahassee, Florida.

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October 14, 2022
Jury recommends life without parole for Nikolas Cruz | CNN

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The parents of Alyssa Alhadeff speak at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.
(CNN)

The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, who was among the 17 people killed in the Parkland massacre, said they were “disgusted” with the jury’s decision to recommend life in prison over the death penalty for the gunman.

Lori and Ilan Alhadeff spoke to reporters shortly after the recommendation was read in court.

Ilan said his family was “beyond disappointed with the outcome,” adding it “should have been the death penalty — 100%.”

“I’m disgusted with our legal system,” the visibly angry father said outside court. “I’m disgusted with those jurors.”

Both parents questioned the purpose of the death penalty in Florida’s legal system if not for the case of a mass school shooter.

“What is the death penalty for?” Lori asked.

She also called on law enforcement to do more to prevent school shootings, and to act more aggressively to stop them.

“Law enforcement needs to do their job,” the mother said. “Your job as a police officer is to go in, engage and take down the threat. And if you can’t do that, don’t do the job.”

The Alhadeffs said they will continue to work through their nonprofit, Make Schools Safe, to advocate for tougher school safety policies.

Ilan thanked the state for its prosecution of the Parkland gunman, while condemning the trial’s outcome.

“The system continues to fail us,” he said.

About Alyssa Alhadeff: Alyssa, 14, was a student at Stoneman Douglas and a soccer player for Parkland Travel Soccer.

“Alyssa Alhadeff was a loved and well respected member of our club and community,” Parkland Travel Soccer said on Facebook. “Alyssa will be greatly missed.”

Lori told HLN she dropped her daughter off at school the day of the shooting and said, “I love you.” When the mother heard about the attack, she hustled to school, but was too late.

“I knew at that point she was gone. I felt it in my heart,” she said.

You can read about all of the victims here.

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October 13, 2022
Jury reaches decision on sentence of Parkland school shooter

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A jury said Thursday that it has reached a decision on whether to recommend that Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz be executed for the 2018 massacre that killed 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The recommendation was not immediately released and came in the second day of deliberations, 15 minutes after jurors arrived and examined the gun Cruz used.

The decision promises an end to a three-month trial that included graphic videos, photos and testimony from the massacre and its aftermath, heart-wrenching testimony from victims’ family members and a tour of the still blood-spattered building.

The jury’s decision must be unanimous if it intends to recommend the death penalty, and if that happens, it will be up to Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to make a final decision. If all jurors can’t agree on recommending death, then Cruz would get life in prison.

The jury of 12 people had asked late Wednesday to see the AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, but the Broward County Sheriff’s Office security team objected, even though the gun has been made inoperable and Cruz’s ammunition would be removed from the jury room.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz, who has more the five decades of experience, pointed out that in every murder case he has tried or knows, jurors got to examine and handle the weapon in their room — and he said a knife or machete is more dangerous than a gun without a firing pin. Security has never been an issue, he said.

Cruz’s attorneys had no objection to jurors seeing the gun.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others on Feb. 14, 2018. Cruz said he chose Valentine’s Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again. The jury will determine only if Cruz is sentenced to death or life without parole. For Cruz to get a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous.

During the prosecution’s rebuttal case, Satz and his team argued that Cruz’s smooth movements with the gun and his ease in reloading helps show he does not have any neurological disorders, as claimed by his attorneys.

Lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team have never disputed that Cruz committed a horrible crime, but they say his birth mother’s excessive drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and put him on a path that led to the shooting.

The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an E l Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial.

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October 13, 2022
Jury indicates verdict reached in Alex Jones’ trial

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WATERBURY, Conn. — Jurors indicated Wednesday they have reached a verdict in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Connecticut defamation trial.

Their decision was expected to be announced shortly.

Jones and his company were found liable for damages last year. The six-person jury is tasked with determining how much the Infowars show host should pay to 15 plaintiffs — including victims’ families and an FBI agent — for calling the 2012 massacre a hoax.

The jury has been instructed to arrive at two compensatory damages amounts per plaintiff: one sum for defamation damages and another for emotional distress damages. Jurors also will decide whether Jones should pay punitive damages; the judge would decide the amounts later.

Each compensatory damages amount has to be at least $1, but there is no cap. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have suggested total damages could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Jones has bashed the trial as a “kangaroo court,” described it as an affront to free speech rights, and called the judge a “tyrant.” His lawyer told the jury that any damages awarded should be minimal.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Jurors revisited testimony from the husband of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim as a third full day of deliberations began Wednesday in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Connecticut defamation trial.

At the jury’s request, court began with a replay of a roughly hourlong audio recording of William Sherlach’s trial testimony. His wife, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, was among the 26 people killed in the 2012 shooting.

Her husband is among the lawsuit’s 15 plaintiffs, who include victims’ relatives and an FBI agent. All testified about being harassed by people who say the shooting was staged in a plot for more gun control.

Jones and his company were found liable for damages last year. The six-person jury is tasked with determining how much the Infowars show host should pay to the plaintiffs victims’ families and the FBI agent for calling the massacre a hoax.

William Sherlach, who goes by Bill, testified that he worried for his and his family’s safety because of the shooting deniers’ vitriol.

Sherlach testified that he saw online posts falsely positing that the shooting was a hoax; that his wife never existed; that she didn’t have the credentials to be a school psychologist; that his family was actually named Goldberg and lived in Florida; and that he was part of a financial cabal and somehow involved with the school shooter’s father.

Sherlach didn’t testify about receiving any harassing messages directly, though he also said that he didn’t have social media accounts or use email. Nor did he mention anything that Jones said specifically.

The jury has been instructed to arrive at two compensatory damages amounts per plaintiff: one sum for defamation damages and another for emotional distress damages. Jurors also will decide whether Jones should pay punitive damages; the judge would decide the amounts later.

Each compensatory damages amount has to be at least $1, but there is no cap. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have suggested total damages could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The plaintiffs include an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight victims who died. Twenty children and six educators were killed.

Jones has bashed the trial as a “kangaroo court,” described it as an affront to free speech rights, and called the judge a “tyrant.” His lawyer told the jury that any damages awarded should be minimal.

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October 12, 2022
EXPLAINER: What next in the Florida school shooter trial?

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The jurors who will decide whether Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is sentenced to death or life without parole are expected to begin their deliberations Wednesday, concluding a three-month trial.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. The trial has only been to determine his sentence.

Cruz’s massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial.

The jurors will be sequestered during their deliberations, which could take hours or days — no one knows. They have been told to pack for at least two nights.

Here is a look at the case, how the seven-man, five-woman jury will come to their decision and what will happen after that.

WHAT DID CRUZ DO?

Cruz, by his own admission, began thinking about committing a school shooting while in middle school, about five years before he carried it out. He purchased his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle almost exactly a year before the shooting and his planning became serious about seven months in advance. He researched previous mass shooters, saying he tried to learn from their experience. He bought ammunition, a vest to carry it and a bag to hide it. He picked Valentine’s Day to make sure it would never be celebrated at the school again.

He took an Uber to the school, arriving about 20 minutes before dismissal. He went inside a three-story classroom building, shooting down the halls and into classrooms for about seven minutes. He returned to some wounded to kill them with a second volley. He then tried to shoot at fleeing students from a third-floor window, but the thick hurricane glass thwarted him. He put down his gun and fled, but was captured about an hour later.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TRIAL?

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz kept his case simple. He played security videos of the shooting and showed gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos. Teachers and students testified about watching others die. He took the jury to the fenced-off building, which remains blood-stained and bullet-pocked. Parents and spouses gave tearful and angry statements.

Cruz’s lead attorney Melisa McNeill and her team never questioned the horror he inflicted, but focused on their belief that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Their experts said his bizarre, troubling and sometimes violent behavior starting at age 2 was misdiagnosed as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, meaning he never got the proper treatment. That left his widowed adoptive mother overwhelmed, they said.

WHAT’S REQUIRED FOR CRUZ TO GET A DEATH SENTENCE?

The jurors will be voting 17 times — once for each victim. For the jurors to recommend a death sentence for a specific victim, they first must unanimously agree that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing involved at least one aggravating circumstance as proscribed under Florida law.

This part should not be difficult — the listed aggravating circumstances include knowingly creating a great risk of death to numerous people, committing murders that were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” or committed in a “cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.” They then must unanimously agree that the aggravating factors warrant consideration of the death penalty.

They then must determine whether the aggravating circumstances “outweigh” the mitigating factors that the defense argued such as his birth mother’s drinking, his adoptive mother’s alleged failure to get him proper psychiatric care and his admission of guilt.

If they do, the jurors can then recommend a death sentence — but that’s not required. A juror can ignore the weighing exercise and vote for life out of mercy for Cruz.

A death sentence recommendation requires a unanimous vote on at least one victim. If one or more jurors vote for life on all victims, that will be his sentence.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE JURY RECOMMENDS A DEATH SENTENCE?

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will schedule a sentencing hearing, likely months from now. Cruz’s attorneys will have an opportunity to persuade her to override the jury and impose a life sentence, but that rarely succeeds. If sentenced to death, he will be sent to Florida’s Death Row while his case goes through appeals. It will be years before he is executed, assuming the death sentence isn’t overturned and a retrial required.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE JURY IMPOSES A LIFE SENTENCE?

If the jury cannot unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed for at least one victim, he will be sentenced to life without parole — Scherer cannot overrule the jury. She could sentence him immediately or schedule a future hearing.

After he is sentenced, the Florida Department of Corrections would assign him to a maximum security prison where he would be part of the general population. McNeill, in her closing argument, alluded that could be an exceedingly dangerous place for someone like Cruz.

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October 11, 2022
Attorneys argue over school shooter’s fate: death or prison

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The prosecutor and defense attorney for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz agreed Tuesday that his 2018 attack that killed 17 people was horrible, but disagreed in their closing arguments on whether it was an act of evil worthy of execution or one of a broken person who should be imprisoned for life.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz and his defense counterpart, Melisa McNeill, painted for the 12 jurors competing pictures of what drove Cruz’s attack at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day.

For Satz, Cruz was driven by antisocial personality disorder — in lay terms, he’s a sociopath. He deserves a death sentence because he “was hunting his victims” as he stalked a three-story classroom building for seven minutes. He fired his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle into some victims at close range and returned to wounded victims as they lay helpless “to finish them off.”

Satz pointed to Cruz’s internet writings and videos, where he talked about his murderous desires such as when he wrote, “No mercy, no questions, double tap. I am going to kill a … ton of people and children.”

“It is said that what one writes and says is a window into their soul,” Satz said as the three-month trial neared its conclusion. The killings, he said, “were unrelentlessly heinous, atrocious and cruel.”

McNeill said neither Cruz nor herself has ever denied what he did and that “he knew right from wrong and he chose wrong.” But she said the former Stoneman Douglas student is “a broken, brain-damaged, mentally ill young man,” doomed from conception by the heavy drinking and drug use of his birth mother during pregnancy. She argued for a sentence of life without parole, assuring them he will never walk free again.

“It’s the right thing to do. Mercy is what makes us civilized. Giving mercy to Nikolas will say more about who you are than it will ever say about him,” McNeill told the jury.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others.

The jury will only decide his sentence, and a unanimous vote is required for death. Jurors can vote for death if they believe the prosecution’s mitigating factors such as the multiple deaths and the planning outweigh the defense’s mitigating factors such as his birth mother’s drinking. They can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. Deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday.

Cruz, dressed in an off-white sweater, sat impassively during the presentations, occasionally exchanging notes with his attorneys. A large number of the victims’ parents, wives and family members packed their section of the courtroom, many of them weeping during Satz’s presentation. The mother of a murdered 14-year-old girl fled the courtroom before bursting into loud sobs in the hallway. Just minutes earlier, the families had greeted each other with smiles, handshakes and hugs.

Satz meticulously went through the murders, reminding the jurors how each victim died and how Cruz looked some in the eye before he shot them multiple times.

“They all knew what was going on, what was going to happen,” Satz said.

As he had during the trial, Satz played security videos of the shooting and showed photos. He talked about the death of one 14-year-old girl. Cruz shot her and then went back to shoot her again, putting his gun against her chest.

“Right on her skin. She was shot four times and she died,” Satz said. He then noted a YouTube comment, which jurors saw during the trial, in which Cruz said: “I don’t mind shooting a girl in the chest.”

“That’s exactly what he did,” Satz said.

His voice breaking, Satz concluded his two-hour presentation by reciting the victims’ names, then saying that for their murders “the appropriate sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty.”

McNeill during her presentation acknowledged the horror Cruz inflicted and said jurors have every right to be angry, “but how many times have we made decisions based solely on anger and regretted it?”

She focused on her belief that heavy drinking by his birth mother, Brenda Woodard, during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. She said that accounts for his bizarre, troubling and sometimes violent behavior starting at age 2.

“There is no time in our lives when we are more vulnerable to the will and the whims of another human being than when we are growing and developing in the wombs of our mothers,” McNeill said. Woodard “poisoned him in the womb. He was doomed in the womb.”

She said Cruz’s increasingly erratic personality left his widowed adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, overwhelmed. He punched holes in walls when he lost video games, destroyed furniture and killed animals. Visitors described the home as “a war zone,” McNeill said.

She pleaded with the jurors to give Cruz a life sentence, telling them that even if they are the only holdout they shouldn’t fear what the reaction will be from the families or the community.

Gesturing toward the victims’ families, she said, “There is no punishment you could ever give Nikolas Cruz that would ever make him suffer as much as those people have and as much as they will continue to suffer every single day.”

“Sentencing Nikolas to death will not change that. It will not bring back those 17 dead people. Sentencing Nikolas to death will literally serve no purpose other than vengeance,” she said. Instead, she said, “Look into your heart. Look into your soul. The right thing here, not the popular thing, is a life sentence.”

Cruz’s massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial.

———

Associated Press reporters Freida Frisaro in Miami and Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.

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October 11, 2022