Florida School Shooting: Prosecutor Seeks Death Penalty

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Accused Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will face the death penalty, according to the Broward State Attorney's Office. The troubled 19-year-old was arrested hours after the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which he is accused of killing 17 students and faculty members in a murderous rampage with his AR-15 assault rifle that he purchased legally. Broward State Attorney Michael J. Satz filed a notice of his intent to seek the death penalty on Tuesday.

Cruz is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

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His public defender has said Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table, a move that would instead give Cruz a life prison sentence. Prosecutors had 45 days to decide whether they wanted to seek the death penalty.

"Death by injection is too easy in my eyes," said Andrew Pollack in an interview with Local 10 News in Miami. Pollack's 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, was killed in the attack and he reportedly plans to honor her memory with a $1 million playground.

But not everyone agreed on what should be done with Cruz if he is convicted.

"I personally think that it's the right thing," a Stoneman Douglas student told the same news crew with respect to the death penalty.

Cruz appeared briefly before a Broward County judge on Friday, who ordered that he remain in jail without bond.

The case has reignited a national debate on gun control and inspired a number of teenage survivors from the school to take up the issue in their state legislature and in Washington, D.C. A massive school walkout is planned at secondary schools across the nation on Wednesday and additional walkouts are expected in the coming weeks.

Court documents pointed to a number of "aggravating factors" in calling for the death penalty. Officials said that Cruz knowingly "created a great risk of death to many persons" and that the case was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel."

Photo courtesy Broward County Sheriff's Office