FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — There’s something very different about the Parkland gunman in videos that were shown most recently to the jury deciding his fate.
Until the prosecution began presenting its rebuttal case on Sept. 27, jurors had heard the voice of confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz only once, in three brief video clips he recorded as he was planning the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
In the earlier videos, Cruz spoke slowly, deliberately, almost theatrically, fully aware the videos would later be seen by a wide audience. But in the new videos, Cruz is disarmed, literally and figuratively — he speaks candidly, off the cuff, about issues as varied as chess, military entrance exams, rifles and the JROTC program, and the war between Russia and Ukraine. He talks about books he’s read and games he’s played.
