Chilling surveillance footage has captured the moment that Nikolas Cruz calmly entered a McDonald’s and sat next to a student – just minutes after he had shot the boy’s sister in one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
On day four of Cruz’s sentencing trial, jurors were shown footage of the gunman in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018.
After murdering 17 innocent students and staff and wounding dozens more, Cruz fled the school grounds by hiding in plain sight among the terrified students.
He then casually walked to a nearby Subway for a drink and then onto a McDonald’s, where – unbeknown to both at the time – he sat directly opposite the brother of one of the innocent students he had just shot.
Surveillance footage from inside the McDonald’s captured the encounter between Cruz and John Wilford inside the fast food joint around 30 minutes after the mass shooting.
In the video, played in court on Thursday, Mr Wilford is seen entering the restaurant and sitting in a booth on his own.
Minutes later, Cruz calmly strolls inside and sits in the same booth directly opposite Mr Wilford – despite there being several empty booths and tables all around them.
After a few moments, the two appear to exchange words.
Mr Wilford testified in court that he had no idea at the time that the man sitting with him was the person responsible for carrying out the horrific mass shooting that left 17 dead.
Mr Wilford was in ninth grade in the school at the time. His sister Madeleine Wilford was also a student at the school.
He told the court how he was sat in class that afternoon when the fire alarm went off.
At first, he thought it was simply a typical fire drill and he and his classmates evacuated the school, following fire safety protocol.
Then, he said police arrived and told him and his fellow students to leave the area.
Mr Wilford testified that he walked away from the school with a friend and desperately tried to call his mother and sister.
He managed to get in touch with his mother and they arranged to meet at the McDonald’s.
When he arrived at the McDonald’s, he sat down in the booth to wait for his mother to arrive to pick him up in her car.
“Then Nik Cruz came and sat down right next to me,” he said.
Mr Wilford said that he had never met Cruz before and didn’t think too much about him sitting there at the time as he was too busy worrying about his sister.
“I didn’t think much of it as I was panicked,” he said.
Mr Wilford said he assumed Cruz was also a student at the school because he was wearing a Douglas JROTC shirt.
He said he started speaking to Cruz about what had happened saying “this is so chaotic” and asking him “what do you think this could be”.
Cruz “didn’t really say much” and just sat with his “head down”, he said.
When Mr Wilford went to leave, he said Cruz started talking to him and asked him for a ride.
He told Cruz no, testifying that he was worried about his sister and just wanted to get home.
“He was pretty insistent on it. I wasn’t really thinking much of it. I just wanted to get home and my sister wasn’t answering her phone,” he said.
The footage also captured this moment, showing Cruz getting up and following Mr Wilford out of the restaurant.
Surveillance cameras outside picked up the two appearing to speak to each other before Mr Wilford walked away.
He told the court that he got in the car with his mother and they drove away.
He later spotted Cruz again walking along a nearby road, he recalled.
During this time, Mr Wilford’s sister was in grave condition after Cruz had shot her four times with his AR-15.
Madeleine, who was 17 at the time of the attack, testified in court on Wednesday how she was “shot four times in my right arm, my right lung, some of my ribs on my right side and I had surgery on the right side of my abdomen”.
On Thursday, the court was also shown surveillance footage from inside the Subway.
In the chilling footage, Cruz is seen calmly strolling into the Subway restaurant and approaching the counter to buy a drink – just 25 minutes after he stopped shooting.
After buying a cherry and blue ice drink, he casually walks out of the restaurant again drinking it.
The court heard testimony from Carlos Rugeles, the manager of the Subway store, who recalled serving Cruz that day.
Some of the families of the victims were seen shaking their heads and wiping their eyes as they watched the calm demeanour of the man who moments earlier had murdered their loved ones.
The court also saw footage of Cruz’s arrest later that day and heard testimony from the officers who took him into custody after spotting him strolling along a nearby road.
Officer Michael Leonard of the Coconut Creek Police Department recalled how he was driving around the area on the lookout for the mass shooter after a description of the killer had been circulated to law enforcement.
Officer Leonard said he spotted someone matching the description and pulled over in his car.
Cruz “turned around and looked at me”, he said, and the officer began shouting commands at him.
The police officer said that Cruz followed all his instructions and commands and told him his name when asked.
A second officer revealed that Cruz was carrying more than $300 in cash at the time of his arrest.
Cruz was arrested around one hour after he carried out the massacre.
Thursday’s court session lasted only a half day ending at around 11.30am.
After the jury left the courtroom for the day, the prosecution and the defence argued briefly about the conditions around the panel visiting the site of the massacre.
Jurors will take a tour of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School as part of the sentencing trial.
The school has been preserved as it was that day with dried blood, abandoned Valentine’s Day gifts and bullet holes still in place.
On Thursday, prosecutors pushed back at a motion put forward by the defence requesting that jurors are not allowed to enter the classrooms of the school.
“Victims were killed, victims were shot in those classrooms,” said prosecutors, saying that they object to jurors not being able to go inside the rooms.
The two sides were also meeting with the judge on Thursday afternoon to discuss a motion about Cruz’s brother and his brother’s roommate who will be called as defence witnesses.
Zachary Cruz and Richard Moore filed a motion asking the judge to block the prosecution from asking them certain questions.
Last October, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of first-degree murder.
Now, 12 jurors will decide whether to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole or to give him the death penalty.
The trial will resume at 10am ET on Friday morning.
