You'll All Know Who I Am,' Parkland Suspect Said in Video
With a chilling lack of emotion and a meticulous plan, the teenager charged with killing 17
people at the high school in Parkland, Fla., he once attended announced his goals on three
short videos recorded on his cellphone before the shooting.
"When you see me on the news, you'll all know who I am," he said.
"You're all going to die."
He mimicked the sound of video game gunfire "pew, pew, pew" and added: "Can't
wait."
The accused gunman, a 19-year-old with a history of mental health and behavior problems, mentioned
four times in just over two minutes of recordings released Wednesday the same aim that has motivated
many youthful perpetrators of mass shootings across the country: He wanted his name to
be remembered.
The first video was recorded on Feb. 8, six days before the shooting.
Another was filmed on Feb. 11.
A third was apparently made the day of the attack.
"Today is the day," he declared.
The video was made public by the Broward State Attorney's Office, which has announced that
it will seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, who faces 34 counts of premeditated
murder and attempted murder in the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Even before the shooting, the suspect had posted a comment on YouTube saying he wished
to be a "professional school shooter."
The videos, found on the accused gunman's cellphone, will bolster prosecutors' efforts
to show that the killings were premeditated.
The recordings show a laughing and sometimes giddy young man with what appears to be a
cast on his arm and wearing a baseball cap, bragging about the horrific crime he said
he was about to commit.
Although he also discussed profound loneliness and feelings of worthlessness, the videos
showed that he took the time to think out the violence, and was hoping to send his classmates
running for their lives.
"All the kids in school will run in fear and hide," he said.
"From the wrath of my power, they will know who I am."
The communiqués bear some of the hallmarks of previous school shooters, many of whom
have carefully studied the details of previous attacks and made attempts to emulate them.
Researchers say that a desire for notoriety has motivated many such perpetrators.
"This is what he wants," Aalayah Eastmond, a junior at Stoneman Douglas, wrote on Twitter.
"Don't let him trend."
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime, 14, died in the massacre, posted on Facebook that
he had read the transcript but had no intention of watching the video.
"He will not achieve his goals," Mr. Guttenberg wrote.
"He will simply rot and die in prison and even that is too good an outcome."
"I think our society needs to make him like a black box with a white X," said Lori Alhadeff,
whose daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the carnage, and who is now running for the local
school board.
"We need to stop giving him a face, because this evil will just continue to happen if
our society keeps glorifying school shooters."
In the recordings, the Parkland suspect starts by introducing himself and announcing: "I
am going to be the next school shooter of 2018.
My goal is at least 20 people."
He described the weapons he planned to use, and said, "I think I can do a good job."
In a second video, he provides more detail, describing his plan to take an Uber to the
school, walk up the stairs, get his "A.R." from his bag an apparent reference to the
A.R.-15 semiautomatic rifle used in the attack and shoot as many people as possible in the
main courtyard of the school.
(The students were shot inside.)
In another recording, the only one in which he sounded as if he were reading from a prepared
statement, he reflected on his own life, saying he lived in "seclusion and solitude."
"I am nothing.
I am no one, my life is nothing and meaningless," he said.
"With the power of the A.R., you will know who I am."
He added that he had had enough of being told what to do, and was tired of being called
"an idiot."
Peter Langman, a psychologist and author of the book "School Shooters: Understanding
High School, College and Adult Perpetrators," said the accused gunman's desire for notoriety
was similar to other cases of mass casualties.
"What's clear is this is very calculated, premeditated, with no obvious signs of emotion
except excitement," Dr. Langman said.
"He shows no emotional distress.
He doesn't even come across full of rage or anguish.
He's just focused on how this is going to enhance his status, how he's going to make
his mark on the world."
Dr. Langman said the "lack of empathy" and "callousness" were noteworthy.
The suspect's lawyer, Gordon Weekes, the chief assistant Broward public defender, could
not be reached for comment.
The chief prosecutor, Michael J. Satz, released the videos without a statement.
At least one student at the school said on Wednesday that the shooting could have been
stopped.
"The shooter from my school clearly was mentally unstable and was an obvious threat
to himself & others," a freshman at Stoneman Douglas, Samantha Deitsch, wrote on Twitter,
responding to a news report about the videos.
"This was easily preventable."
Audra D.S. Burch contributed reporting.
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