Parkland Shooter Nikolas Cruz' Chilling Confession Video Released

The Florida State Attorney’s Office has released hours of footage of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz’s confession during a police interrogation.

The footage shows Cruz admitting to carrying out the massacre, in which he killed 17 students and faculty members of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and left more than a dozen others injured. It also shows disturbing evidence of Cruz’s severe mental fragility. At one point, Cruz says that a “demon” in his head urged him to commit the massacre. He claims that the voice insisted he “Burn. Kill. Destroy.”

The footage also features Cruz’s brother, Zachary, talking to him in the interrogation room. “People think you’re a monster now,” he tells Nikolas.

WARNING: DISTURBING FOOTAGE

Cruz, who had previously been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was described by one of his former classmates as “troubled” and someone who frequently discussed killing animals.

Following the shooting the FBI admitted that it had, in fact, been warned about Cruz’s “gun ownership, desire to kill people, [and] erratic behavior,” as well as the fact that he posed the potential to become a school shooter. He was also reportedly well known to local law enforcement, who had been called to his home nearly 40 times over the previous seven years. In spite of his obvious warning signs, Cruz was nevertheless able to legally purchase the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle used in the attack.

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, students from Stoneman Douglas launched a massive—and sustained—effort to combat gun violence. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has proposed putting more firearms in the classroom by way of armed teachers and other school personnel.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of murder in what was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Broward County prosecutors have stated that they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.