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Nikolas Cruz Trial: Jurors shown AR-15 rifle used by shooter, Uber driver says he was anxious

Uber driver Laura Zecchini stated he was highly nervous and extremely anxious throughout the 13-minute drive

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA: On the sixth day of Nikolas Cruz's trial, jurors in the Parkland shooting incident, which happened in February 2018, viewed the AR-15 rifle used by Cruz for the mass shooting. Lead prosecutor Mike Satz presented the rifle by removing its black semi-automatic part. Broward Sheriff's Office Sgt Gloria Crespo, one of the case's witnesses, said it was found on the third-floor stairwell of the school building.

The defense stated it was unnecessary and prejudicial and questioned placing the evidence far from the jurors. However, circuit judge Elizabeth Scherer rejected these objections. The prosecutors successfully stated the relevance of presenting the evidence in such a heinous crimes. Cruz, who has pleaded guilty in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, is charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder, and the jury is yet to decide on a sentence to death or life without parole as the punishment.

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Meanwhile, Uber driver Laura Zecchini, who drove Cruz to the school the day he carried out the shooting in February 2018, stated he was highly nervous and extremely anxious throughout the 13-minute drive. He apparently told her that he was going to music class. Sgt Crespo also testified that Cruz had fired more than 100 shots from the building and also kept 5 gun magazines in his vest. Cruz was a former student of Stoneman Douglas High School who had been expelled a year earlier. Crespo managed to carry five bodies of student from the third floor of the school building; images of this act was shown to the jury evaluating the case. Detective Miguel Suarez exhibited bullet casings collected at the scene, along with accounts of the shooting from former Stoneman High School student Justin Colton, who was shot in the back and arm during the incident. 

The AR-15 rifle has been in the news in recent times and has gained a bad reputation. Recently, at the Robb Elementary School, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school premises with the rifle and killed 21 people, including 19 children and two teachers.

Cruz is one of the deadliest mass shooters in the history of the US. There have been other 9 cases in recent times. Another case on similar lines is of Patrick Wood, who in the year of 2019 at the age of 21 shot and killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.