Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Prosecutor calls for US school shooter to get death penalty

By AFP 11 October 2022, 6:33 pm Edit
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown at the defense table during jury selection in the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown at the defense table during jury selection in the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at a Florida high school in 2018, planned and carried out a “systematic massacre,” a prosecutor arguing for the death penalty says.

“What he wanted to do, what his plan was, and what he did was to murder children at school and their caretakers,” prosecutor Michael Satz says in closing arguments at the sentencing trial of 24-year-old Cruz.

“It was calculated. It was purposeful. And it was a systematic massacre,” the assistant state attorney said.

“And he picked Valentine’s Day to do it,” he tells a hushed courtroom packed with family members of those gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a town north of Miami.

Cruz pleaded guilty to the shooting and it is now up to a jury to decide whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison.

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