US jurors see Florida school shooter’s violent Internet posts

The YouTube comments associated with Cruz are shown in court during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US. — Reuters

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz saw evidence on July 27 of his growing obsession to commit a massacre, seeing Internet posts and searches about mass killings in the months before he murdered 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

In an emotionless monotone, Broward County sheriff’s Detective Nick Masters read hundreds of searches and comments Cruz made starting seven months before the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre as prosecutors try to prove he planned it.