Case against Florida taking pictures suspect returns to court docket

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — The felony case against the gunman accused within the Florida highschool taking pictures returns to court docket Tuesday with prosecutors trying for hair samples, fingerprints, DNA and photos of the suspect.

Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of execute, is no longer going to appear in court docket because he waived his gorgeous to support the hearing. He’s being held without bail at the Broward County Detention center.

In a separate court docket topic, Cruz’s attorneys are attempting for to disqualify a maintain from presiding over the case. The protection says in court docket papers that Circuit Court docket Judge Elizabeth Scherer is biased in desire of prosecutors, threatening Cruz’s gorgeous to a ultimate trial.

Cruz, who’s nineteen, signed an affidavit in a barely legible printed scrawl that resembled the writing of a young child.

As the case moves thru the courts, it has fueled a debate over gun clutch an eye on within the halls of the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, hours from where the taking pictures took field at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland.

On Monday, a command Senate committee authorized a bill Monday to clutch the age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 and imposing a three-day waiting length for all gun purchases. The bill would additionally allow academics to lift guns in colleges if their college district approves and the lecturers undergo law enforcement coaching and are deputized by the local sheriff’s place of work.

About 300 gun security advocates packed the room and dozens pleaded with senators to embrace an assault weapons ban within the bill. That thought was rejected on a 6-7 vote.

Stoneman Douglas college students Katherine Guerra and Bela Urbina, both 15, stood collectively to argue for a ban on assault-type rifles.

« This weapon has killed so many folks. It is a militarized weapon that we make no longer want. We make no longer want civilians to bear it, » Urbina said.

In reference to trying, Guerra added, « Invent you maintain that your sport is more crucial than human lives? And can bear to you watched that, you like to reassess yourselves. » The college students received thunderous applause.

A same Dwelling bill was going to be idea to be by a committee on Tuesday.

Bused in from across the command, protesters wore orange T-shirts saying #GunReformNow. One held a sign with a image from the movie « The Sixth Sense, » with the phrases « I SEE DEAD PEOPLE … THANKS TO THE GOP AND NRA. » One other said « Hi there Lawmakers! Take hold of the Pledge. No NRA Money. »

Students are scheduled to reach support to college Wednesday, for the critical time for the explanation that Feb. 14 taking pictures.

The Florida Dwelling is anticipated to subpoena information from Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and several other companies that interacted with Cruz. Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s place of work has asked the Florida Division of Law Enforcement to investigate the police response, and the company confirmed it might maybe initiate up the probe without extend.

Additionally Monday, the attorney for the sheriff’s deputy assigned to give protection to the highschool said that his client never entered the building to confront the suspect because he believed the gunfire was coming from initiate air.

Scot Peterson has been known as a coward and worse for failing to terminate the massacre. The criticism intensified as President Donald Trump blasted the deputy and utterly different officers who had been there, saying they « weren’t exactly Medal of Honor winners. »

If he had been there, Trump said, he would bear raced into the college throughout the assault even supposing he had been unarmed.

Peterson’s attorney issued his first public commentary about the assault, saying it was « patently spurious » that the deputy didn’t meet sheriff’s division requirements or acted with cowardice at the scene of the Feb. 14 assault. He resigned after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he felt in heart-broken health to his abdominal over his deputy’s failure to intervene.

« Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he might maybe bear averted the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his coronary heart goes out to the families of the victims of their time of want, » attorney Joseph DiRuzzo said within the commentary.

The sheriff’s narrative of Peterson’s actions that day was a « contaminated oversimplification » of the events, the attorney said.

The sheriff’s place of work declined to commentary, explaining that Peterson’s habits is being investigated by its internal affairs division. Below command law, the company is illegal from discussing the topic till that investigation has concluded.

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Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro and Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida; Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; contributed to this document.