FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A mental health expert is weighing in on the Nikolas Cruz interrogation video.
The interrogation footage released this week revealed Cruz’s mental state in the hours after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
The Feb. 14 shooting left 17 students and faculty members dead, and the new video shows the self-confessed gunman’s bizarre behavior.
“You’re dealing with someone who has trouble regulating his emotions and has been known to engage in self harming behavior in the past,” said Dr. Daniel Bober.
Bober is a forensic psychiatrist who practices in South Florida.
“I’m board certified in adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry and addiction medicine,” he said.
Despite never meeting the admitted school shooter, he was able to make some sense as to what may be happening inside Cruz’s head.
At one point in the video, Cruz is seen mimicking a gun with his hand and shooting himself multiple times before punching himself several times.
“He’s so overwhelmed in his current situation,” Bober said, “that the only way that he knows how to deal with it is to physically act out against himself.”
Cruz is also seen sitting with his arms folded, barely making eye contact.
“He just feels totally resigned in his situation and has given up and is just completely sort of in his own world,” Bober said.
The video ends with his brother Zachary Cruz comforting him, as the confessed gunman began uncontrollably sobbing.
Bober believes people who watch this portion of the video may begin to feel for Cruz, and while he may not merit it, he said it’s a reminder that he’s just as human as anyone else.
“When they think of it, they literally think of this monster who is a cold-blooded psychopathic killer,” he said, “but when they see him sitting in this room with his brother, they realize that this is a guy who had a family. This is a guy who lost his father when he was 6 and recently lost his mother, that he’s a human being with feelings, and he just did a horrible thing.”
Cruz remains at the Broward County Main Jail.
The judge in the case said she wants it to go to trial next September, but both the prosecution and defense said they need more time.
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