Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz queued up the music video for “Pumped Up Kicks” - a song about a school shooting - as he made his way to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School where he murdered 17 people, according to testimony at his sentencing trial in Florida.
On Monday, family members of the students and staff who were violently slaughtered on Valentine’s Day in 2018 provided heart wrenching victim impact statements about the lives taken by Cruz, now 23, as the trial for the confessed killer moves into its second month of proceedings.
A Broward sheriff’s detective also testified that Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder in October, geared up for his massacre by listening to the Foster the People song “Pumped Up Kicks”, which is written from the perspective of a violent student and includes allusions to targeting unarmed victims, as he rode in an Uber to the school ahead of the attack.
The revelation was included in documents released by the sheriff’s office chronicling Cruz’s internet search history and cell phone activity in the days leading up to the shooting.
The documents showed the then-19-year-old had also searched for the 2010 song on 1 February, followed by “Scenes from shooting video games with “Pumped Up Kicks” playing” on 12 February. He then listened to the song the night before and while at home on the day of the 14 February mass shooting.
In 2019, Foster the People’s lead singer told Billboard that he had plans to retire the controversial song, which topped the music and entertainment magazine’s charts at number three on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2011 and was considered to be the band’s most popular hit.
“I’ve been thinking about retiring the song and just not playing it live anymore. I can’t ask other people not to play it live, but the public made the song what it is — and if the song has become another symbol for something, I can’t control that. But I can control my involvement in it,” he told the magazine, noting how he’d become uncomfortable with how the song had come to be associated with school shootings, such as the Parkland massacre.
“I do have control over whether I’m going to take part in playing it over and over again. It’s like pushing your song in somebody’s wound — I don’t really want to do it,” he added.
Jurors from the seven-man, five-woman panel also saw on Monday the three cell phone videos Cruz made starting six days before his attack.
The former student of the Parkland high school can’t be seen in two of the earlier videos but is heard saying in the first: “Today is the day. Today it all begins. The day of my massacre shall begin.”
In the second, he can be heard stating off screen: “When you see me on the news, you’ll all know who I am. You’re all going to die. ... Can’t wait.”
The final video, which was filmed three days before the deadly assault, shows Cruz donning a baseball cap and while speaking directly into the camera, he says how he is “going to be the next school shooter of 2018,” before closing the video by making gunshot sounds.
Text messages between the mass shooter and a friend and his ex-girlfriend were also submitted as evidence during the death penalty trial on Monday, with some of the messages being sent just minutes before the attack began.
Ninety minutes before the shooting started, a text message sent by Cruz to his ex details his unrequited love for the teen, asking her “Do you want me to go away?” after telling the girl that he loved her.
In the response, she tells Cruz, “You’re scaring me and I want you to leave me alone,” before noting that she had a boyfriend.
Before entering the school, he sent the girl who had been rejecting his advances one last note that he loved her.
Meanwhile, the confessed shooter was also messaging a friend for several hours before the massacre, attempting in the exchange to coordinate a date with another girl the same night of the attack.
His friend, who confirmed that he’d found someone for Cruz to hang out with that night, sent a message just as his Uber ride was pulling up to the high school, prompting Cruz to respond by saying: “Too late man.” Three minutes later, the attack began.
The death penalty trial for the 23-year-old man was projected to stretch into at least October and perhaps into November, with some breaks scheduled into that process. One of the first of those breaks occurred last week, while the next pause in the proceedings will take place over the course of next week.
Jurors will have to decide unanimously for each of the 17 counts brought against Cruz if they believe he should be given a death sentence, otherwise the sentence for that victim is life.
The jurors are told that to vote for death, the prosecution’s aggravating circumstances for that victim must, in their judgement, “outweigh” the defence’s mitigators. A juror can also vote for life out of mercy for Cruz.
During jury selection, the panellists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence. meaning the jury will decide only whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.
Victim impact statements are scheduled to continue Tuesday.
