School shooter chose Valentine’s Day to ruin it forever

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz calmly told a psychologist he picked Valentine’s Day for his massacre to ruin the holiday for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students forever. In video played at his penalty trial Thursday, he told a prosecution psychologist that’s why he killed 17 at the Parkland school four years ago. Prosecutors are trying to bolster their contention that Cruz wasn’t driven to kill by a mental disorder he couldn’t control, but planned his attack and chose to carry it out. Cruz pleaded guilty a year ago. The jury will only decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.