Parkland mass shooting trial: What they’re saying

FORT LAUDERDALE — The trial for confessed mass shooter Nikolas Cruz is a rare event, since most accused mass killers don’t reach a courtroom. The pre-trial jury selection and motion hearings started in April, and the trial itself is expected to last well into October.

The first day of the trial, and the scheduled opening statements, showed just how much interest there is in the South Florida proceedings. More than a dozen camera crews were set up outside the Broward County Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Monday morning. The congestion closed down Southeast Sixth Street and prompted curiosity from the public.

Passers-by — some aware of the Cruz trial, some not — took in their surroundings. Their chatter floated through the building’s outdoor breezeway.

“You see all that news right there?”

“What floor is the trial on?”

“I just want to get over this whole nonsense.”

Other statements of note coming out of the courtroom of the confessed Parkland gunman as the trial begins:

“I can’t take the word of someone I’ve never met with a juror I’ve spent hours with. The juror has never been anything but forthcoming.”

—  Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, after questioning a juror prior to the start of the trial

“I’m going to speak to you about the unspeakable.”

—  Lead prosecutor Mike Satz’s first statement to the jury, launching into a carefully rehearsed recitation of the crime

“He had been planning to be a school shooter long before he went to live with the Sneads, long before his adoptive mother died.”

—  Assistant State Attorney Mike Satz

“Cold. Calculative. Manipulative. And deadly.”

—  Assistant State Attorney Mike Satz, in the last words of his opening statement

“I’m OK. I’m OK.”

—  Fred Guttenberg, father of Parkland victim Jaime, listening to details of the mass shooting

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