As students walk out of school to protest the United States’ current gun laws, more information has surfaced about Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who opened fire at his former Parkland, Florida school. On Valentine’s day, he killed 17 people and injure more with an AR-15 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This week, former classmates and acquaintances have shared disturbing details about Cruz.
In an interview with Good Morning America, former friend Ariana Lopez alleged … “He used to sell knives out of his lunchbox, which I thought was like insane because you can’t have knives … [in] a school,” she said. “He would talk about how he sympathized with Syrian terrorists and how people who opposed them should be killed.”
Lopez revealed his supposed history of violence and said she reported him to the school multiple times. “He talked about killing our parents, our friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends,” she said. “He would hit [his ex-girlfriend], he would threaten her, he would threaten her family and her friends, for talking to other guys.”
CNN additionally learned about alleged group messages Cruz sent using anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist language. In one message, he reportedly said he hated “jews, ni**ers, immigrants” and used violent language to talk about Mexicans and African-Americans. To learn more about the group chats, visit CNN.