Testimony: Florida school shooter was intellectually slow

By TERRY SPENCER and FREIDA FRISARO
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A preschool administrator and a neighbor both say that as a toddler, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was intellectually and physically behind other children. The women testified at his penalty trial Tuesday. They said his developmental issues caused him to isolate himself and hit and bite to get what he wanted. Cruz’s attorneys began the second day of their defense by building on testimony that his birth mother’s cocaine and alcohol abuse during pregnancy left him severely brain damaged. They say that put him on a road that led to him murdering 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.