A young man who gunned down 17 people at his former high school in Florida went on trial in the southern US state on Monday, with jurors set to hand down either the death penalty or a life sentence.
Nikolas Cruz took an AR-15 assault rifle into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day in 2018 and killed 17 students and staff members.
Cruz, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, has already pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for those wounded during the massacre.
The trial in Fort Lauderdale — a rare instance of a mass shooter facing a jury, as they often either take their own lives or are killed by police — is being held to determine his sentence.