Testimony: School shooter witnessed dad’s death at age 5

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A family friend says Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz as a small child witnessed his adoptive father’s sudden death. Finai Browd testified Monday that Cruz was almost 6 when his father died of a heart attack at the family home. She said Cruz ran past his mother crying. When she asked if his father had yelled at him, he turned and replied, “No, Daddy is dead.” He didn’t get grief counseling for four years. Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. The trial is to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole.