Florida Shooting: Nikolas Cruz Confessed to Police That He Began Shooting Students ‘in the Hallways’<br />Asked whether he understood the circumstances in which he found himself, Mr. Cruz whispered two words: “Yes, ma’am.”<br />He’s mournful,” his public defender, Melisa McNeill, said after Mr. Cruz’s court appearance.<br />On Wednesday, Mr. Cruz and the Sneads’ son were texting until 2:18 p.m., Mr. Lewis<br />said — about five minutes before the first 911 calls about the shooting.<br />Mr. Lewis said that the family had seen signs of depression in Mr. Cruz, but nothing indicated that he was capable of this kind of violence.<br />Mr. Lewis said that Mr. Cruz explained his reluctance by saying something to the effect of “It’s Valentine’s Day.<br />That included Mr. Lewis encouraging Mr. Cruz to attend adult education courses, work toward his G.<br />Mr. Jereb also said Mr. Cruz had “trouble with a girl” and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t a coincidence.<br />The gunman, Mr. Santorio said, “has gone to his new home.”<br />Ben Bennight, a bail bondsman in Mississippi, said in an interview<br />that he reported a suspicious comment left on his YouTube channel last fall by a user named “nikolas cruz.”<br />“I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” the Sept. 24 comment said.<br />Gino Santorio, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Broward Health, said the hospital where Mr.<br />Cruz was taken, Broward Health North, enacted safety protocols when the shooting suspect arrived on Wednesday.
