Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was in court again on Friday as he responded to his grand jury indictment.
The 19-year-old was indicted on Wednesday on 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder by a Broward County grand jury.
When asked to give his plea to the charges in court on Friday, the teen decided to ‘stand mute’ – which is the same as a not guilty plea except it doesn’t formally deny the charges.
The judge ordered Cruz held without bond.
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Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz appeared in court for a hearing on Friday. He’s pictured in the orange jumpsuit, next to one of his attorneys
Cruz was asked to give a plea for the 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder he was indicted on Wednesday. He ‘stood mute’ – which is the same as pleading not guilty except you don’t formally deny the charges
Judge Kim Mollica (pictured) ordered Cruz held without bail on Friday
Meanwhile, the Sun Sentinel published a report detailing the accounts of dozens of officers who responded to the February 14 shooting.
The accounts came from a new batch of reports released by Coral Springs PD, who asked 38 of their officers who responded to the shooting to give a summary of what they went through.
The officers detailed walking by dead children, seeing windows pierced with bullets and an atmosphere of tension as they tried to evacuate the children and keep their parents away from the campus when the shooter still was at large.
Sgt Stefan Wiesing was one of the many officers to enter the 1200 building, where the shooting happened. He described seeing a male victim on the ground and bullet holes puncturing a third-floor glass window.
Another officer, Ryan Liss, helped medics treat two students who were shot and brought to the grass outside the school.
Detective Mark Mitter grabbed his rifle as soon as he arrived at the school and stood look out in the parking lot ‘in the event the suspect exited the building or in case shots were fired from a elevated position from the building’.
Officer Luis Coldros did the same thing when he arrived at the school, grabbing both his rifle and his first-aid kit and trauma bag as he left his car.
He started inspecting cars in the parking lot one by one ‘looking for the suspect and victims’.
Meanwhile, a new report was published Friday detailing the accounts of dozens of officers who responded to the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida. Above, officers leading students to safety after the attack
Also on Friday, 911 calls were released revealing that the school resource officer who was fired for his cowardly response to the shooting, lied to authorities when he claimed he didn’t know the location of the shooter.
Scot Peterson was the only officer at the scene in Parkland, Florida, when Nikolas Cruz opened fire on Valentine’s Day at around 2:20pm.
Instead of running into the building to try to take down the shooter, Peterson remained outside the freshman building.
He was fired for the cowardly move but has tried to defend himself by saying he thought the shooter was outside.
In the 911 audio, it’s evident that Peterson knows where the shooter when he says: ‘Do not approach the 12 and 1300 building. Stay at least 500ft away at this point.’
That call was at 2.27pm, by which point gunman Nikolas Cruz had finished killing and had dumped his AR-15 rifle inside to flee in a crowd of scared students.
Peterson’ s attorney did not respond to questions on the 911 call on Friday. He earlier released a statement on his behalf defending his behavior.
‘Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the seventeen victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need.
‘However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue.’
They said that he believed the shooter was outside because he had listened to others on the police radio saying that the gunman was ‘outside’ and near the ‘football field’.
Scot Peterson (above left) has defended not going into the school by saying that he thought the shots were coming from outside. Also under scrutiny is captain Jan Jordan (right) who ordered deputies to ‘stage a perimeter’ around the school before going inside
The 911 calls show that deputies do make reference to the football field as the shooter’s possible location but Peterson is heard afterwards saying it was ‘inside’ the freshman building.
His first radio call went out at 2.23pm.
‘Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired —1200 building,’ he said.
Once he had made his way there, he radioed again to confirm the location of the shooting but did not specify whether the shots were coming from inside or outside the building.
‘All right… We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200,’ he said at 2.25pm.
Panicked as the shots intensified, he then said: ‘Get the school locked down gentleman!’
Jeff Bell, the president of BSO’s police union, said the audio proved Peterson was cowardly on the day of the shooting.
‘It certainly backs up that he never went into the school. At one point he says to keep back 500 feet.
‘Why would he say that?’ he told The Miami Herald.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office and its handling of the shooting has faced intense scrutiny. It is now the subject of a House Committee investigation.
Sheriff Scott Israel condemned Peterson’s response as cowardly, as has President Trump.
There are also questions over why captain Jan Jordan, who was issuing commands on the day of the shooting, ordered deputies to form a perimeter once they had arrived at the school instead of telling them to go inside straight away.
The first SWAT teams did not enter the school until 2.47pm, 15 minutes after Jordan’s perimeter request and 24 minutes after Peterson’s first call which referenced ‘firecrackers’.
Other harrowing calls from students and parents were also released on Thursday.
‘It’s going to be fine. Can you hide somewhere? Can you play dead? You need to do it.
‘If he shoots, you need to play dead … Tell her to pray. Tell her to pray for strength.’
The dispatcher then told her: ‘Be quiet, be quiet, keep the phone line open.
‘Don’t move. Just stay hidden.’
The calls began at 2.21pm, a minute before Peterson’s first one.
Cruz was dropped off at the school by an Uber at 2.19pm and began shooting within seconds of entering the school.