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Monday, August 6, 2018

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Today, the Broward County Police Department near Parkland, Florida, publicly issued a 217-page police interrogation transcript from February 12, 2018 with the Stoneman Douglas Majority High School mass shooting’s main suspect, Nickolas Cruz. The mass shooting claimed 17 lives and 18 injuries during the 6-minute active shooter situation.

Conducting the interrogation was the Broward Sheriff Office’s Detective John Curcio starting at 18:20 EST (22:20 UTC) after Sheriff’s Deputy Geiger escorted Cruz instructing him how to sit moments earlier and would never re-enter the room. Preliminary questions like Cruz’s name, date of birth, residence, and location of birth were difficult as indicated by Curcio because they were inaudible and repeatedly requested a louder response.

Curcio left Cruz, fetching two bottles of water during which time Cruz stated, “Kill me. Just fucking kill me. Fuck”. After being asked several times about any drug history, including prescribed medication, Cruz eventually stated the use of Xanax, Marijuana, and a failed suicide attempt using Advil. The Advil suicide attempt was, according to Cruz, a response to his mother Lynda Cruz’s death with Curcio sympathizing with Cruz.

An unusual piece of dialog began on page 34-39 indicated Cruz was not read his Miranda Rights requiring Curcio to Mirandized Cruz before going forward with the interrogation. When his Miranda Rights were beginning to be read by Curcio, Cruz stated, “I don’t deserve it”. He also had difficulty comprehending the rights by either saying he did not understand or nods head in the negative indicated in the transcript. No legal counsel was present during the interrogation up to the admission of not being Mirandized or after, nor did Cruz asked for legal counsel until 9 hours later.

Redacted from the transcript was a large section regarding remorse. Surrounding text suggests Cruz either forgot his actions, which were answers for many questions, leading up to the shooting or had some diminished capacity recalling events. A number of times Curcio asked him to keep his head up to answer the questions adding, “Oh fuck, dude. This is hard”.

Curcio’s attempted, as stated in the transcript, was to get to know Cruz but was difficult from the short or inaudible answers, multiple timeline discrepancies, emotional moments requiring Curcio asking him to calm down, and non-answers. This interrogation follows the court ordered release of his official statement 3 days earlier. Charged with 17-counts of 1st Degree Premeditated Murder and 17-counts 1st Degree Attempted Murder, Cruz is awaiting trial being held without bail.

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