WATCH THE INTERVIEW (2.5 HOURS) IN THE VIDEO PLAYER BELOW:
Video and audio of the interview with the accused Stoneman Douglas High School shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was released from the Broward County State Attorney's Office Wednesday afternoon, showing some of the accused shooter's thoughts following the massacre.
"Burn, kill, destroy," Cruz said, in reference to what he said an evil voice tells him to do.
In the video, Cruz is dressed in a hospital gown, sitting face-to-face with Broward County Sheriff's Office Detective John Curcio. The interrogation started just hours after the deadly shooting on Valentine's Day at Stoneman Douglas High School.
"I think you like the demon," Detective Curcio said.
"No I don’t," Cruz said.
"Why didn’t you stop it then?" Curcio said.
"I don’t like the demon. I don’t like the demon. I don’t like the demon. I don’t like the demon," Cruz said.
"That’s if the demon even exists," Curcio said.
19-year-old Cruz spoke softly and talked about about mental and emotional torment throughout his life, including issues with his family and bullies, a history of abusing marijuana and Xanax and two suicide attempts.
He had the most to say about an evil voice he claims to have heard since his dad died more than 10 years ago.
"It’s me and then my bad side," he said.
"I understand. Everybody’s got a quote good and bad side," the detective said.
"No, it’s a voice. The voice is in here," Cruz said. "And then, it’s me. It’s just regular me just trying to be a good person."
Cruz turned down the detective's offer for water at the beginning of the interview saying, "I don’t deserve it."
The details of his account of the shooting were redacted from the interview.
He talks about considering hurting people at a park about a week before the shooting.
He said the voice, a demon, encouraged him to buy guns and do evil things, saying it also tells him "to hurt people."
The only person he said he told about the evil voice was his brother. Six hours into the interview, Zachary Cruz walked in.
"People think you’re a monster now," Zachary told him.
"A monster?" Cruz responded.
Zachary asked Cruz why he did this, but then went on to tell him he loves him.
"This is not who you are. Like, come on. Why did you do this?" Zachary said. "This is, don’t even laugh at me. Dude, this isn’t..."
"I’m sorry dude," Cruz said.
Portions of the interview were redacted and edited out before the Broward County State Attorney's Office released the clip because video of Cruz confessing is not being released right now.
The State Attorney's office intends to seek the death penalty in the case.
