Nikolas Cruz massacred 17 people in the deadliest high school shooting in US history - with sickening details of his life emerging after his horrific nine-minute attack.
The 'gun crazy outcast' gunned down 14 students and three members of staff at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a suburb of Miami, Florida, in 2018.
The evil killer, who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, multiple magazines of ammunition, a gas mask and smoke grenades, had been expelled from the school for 'disciplinary reasons' the year before.
"Some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing," said investigators looking at his social media posts - and soon shocking stories about the killer began to emerge.
'Crazy about guns'
As a high school freshman, Cruz was part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp programme at the school.
Jillian Davis, who was a recent graduate at the time and former fellow JROTC member at Stoneman Douglas High, recalled his "strange talking sometimes about knives and guns" and said "no one ever took him seriously".
After the attack, former classmate Eddie Bonilla told CBS Miami he knew Cruz before he got kicked out of school.
"He got kicked out of school last year," said Bonilla. "He always had guns on him and stuff like that.
"Honestly a lot of people a lot of people were saying it was going to be him.
"We actually, a lot of kids threw jokes around Iike that, saying that he's the one to shoot up the school, but it turns out everyone predicted it. It's crazy."
Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, described Cruz as "kind of an outcast" who was known for unruly behavior at school, including a penchant for pulling false fire alarms, and was "crazy about guns".
Expelled from school
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the teenager had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School the year before his attack for "disciplinary reasons".
Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled after a fight with his ex's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.
School officials said Cruz was attending another school in Broward County after his expulsion.
Broward County School District Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters he did not know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school.
"Typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," Mr Runcie said.
"I would be speculating at this point if there were, but we didn't have any warnings. There weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."
A teacher told the Miami Herald that Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat to other students.
Jim Gard, a maths teacher who said Cruz was in his class the year before the shooting, said he believed the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz should not be allowed on campus with a backpack.
"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Mr Gard said.
Strange behaviour
Cruz was described by former classmates as "weird", "a little off" and a "loner".
Shelby and Richie Speno moved onto the street where the Cruz family lived in 2005.
Shelby Speno said she heard rumours Cruz had bitten a child and stolen neighbours' post, saying he once threw eggs at her husband's car while he was driving.
Trevor Hart, 16, who knew Cruz from Marjory Stoneman, said they ate together once in a while in the cafeteria and that the gunman talked about shooting chickens, lizards, squirrels and frogs.
Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled the attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. He recalled Cruz as a shy student.
"He was that weird kid that you see...like a loner," he added.
Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but had not seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.
"He started progressively getting a little more weird," he said.
He recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.
"He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there," Mr Mutchler said. "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."
Family life
The woman who raised Cruz from birth reportedly paid £36,000 to adopt him from his drug addict biological mum.
Lynda Cruz also adopted Nikolas' younger brother Zachary for £10,000 when he was born almost 18 months later, a family friend claimed.
Both brothers were born out of one night stands, according to Trish Devaney, who was friends with the boys' adoptive parents and lived next to the family from 1999 to 2002.
Lynda reportedly paid $50,000 to adopt Nikolas from hospital when he was just three days old.
When she learned that his birth mother had fallen pregnant again, she adopted Zachary, who turned 18 last week, for $15,000 so Nikolas would have a biological brother.
Cruz's adoptive mother Lynda died three months before the gun massacre at age 68 from pneumonia, while adoptive dad Roger died from a heart attack when the boys were much younger.
After Lynda died, Cruz and his brother lived with a family friend in Palm Beach County.
Chilling brag
Before the horrific shooting, Cruz laid out his plans on three sickening mobile phones videos.
He chillingly bragged about trying to kill at leats 20 people and held an assault-style rifle.
"I'm gonna go take Uber in the afternoon before 2:40 (pm)," he boasted.
"From there I'll go into, onto school campus, walk up the stairs, unload my bags and get my AR and shoot people down at the man, what is it? The main courtyard, wait, and people will die."
Investigators discovered the chilling videos on Cruz's phone, which was taken into evidence after the shooting.
In another film, he said: "My name is Nick, and I'm gonna be the next school shooter of 2018."
Speaking directly into the camera, Cruz said: "My goal is to kill at least 20 people with an AR-15 and a couple tracer rounds", referring to the assault-style rifle he is seen holding in the footage.
"When you see me on the news, you'll know who I am."
Brandishing the rifle, he added: "You're all going to die. Pew, pew-pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. Ah yeah, can't wait."
Mental health problems
Shortly after the shooting, former schoolmate Alex Azar told CBS Miami he remembered Cruz.
"He always seemed like the unstable type, the type who would do this sort of thing," Mr Azar said.
"He was always in the office. He was always in trouble, very unstable. He had that look to him, kind of sinister."
Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said Cruz had treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but had not been to the clinic for more than a year.
"It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him," Mr Furr said.
"We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected. Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid."
A 217-page transcript of police interviews revealed Cruz has said he heard voices in his head which he claimed told him to buy guns and "burn, kill, destroy".
Cruz's defence have argued that he suffers from severe mental health issues brought about by foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, caused my his mother's drinking when she was pregnant.
Melisa McNeill, the lead public defender, said: "In a civilised, humane society, do we kill brain-damaged, mentally ill, broken people?"
Sentencing
Cruz's fate was decided by a 12-person jury - and it was announced he would not face the death penalty.
In Florida, an unanimous decision is needed for the death penalty to be issued, so if a single juror disagrees, the defendant will be sentenced to life in prison instead.
Cruz pled guilty to all charges against him - 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder - a year before the jury made their decision last month.
The family of victims packed into the public gallery, with their anger and upset growing as repeated life sentence verdicts were read out as many wanted him to face the death penalty.
After pleading guilty in October 2021, Cruz removed his face mask and apologised to the victims of the shooting saying he is "sorry" and that he has to live with "nightmares" every day.
"I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day," he said.
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