Missing letter allegedly warned psychiatrist of Florida school shooter's obsession with violence

Murderer allegedly "dream[t] of killing others."

Published: August 25, 2022 3:04pm

Updated: August 25, 2022 4:03pm

A psychiatrist who treated Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz in the years leading up to his deadly massacre claimed this week that he never received a letter from school counselors describing the eventual killer's obsession with violence. 

Florida doctor Brett Negin said under oath on Thursday that he had never received a June 2014 letter from counselors at a Broward County, Fla., specialty school describing Cruz's "aggressive and destructive" tendencies and his fixation on violent fantasies. 

Negin was testifying as part of trial procedures to determine whether or not Cruz—who has already plead guilty to killing 17 members of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in in 2018—will receive either life in prison or the death penalty. 

The doctor "testified Thursday he never received the letter and no one followed up with him when he didn’t respond," the Associated Press reported on Thursday

As the AP noted, in the eventual jury trial to decide Cruz's fate, the jurors most vote unanimously in favor of the death penalty, while "if one juror votes for life, that will be his sentence."

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