Nikolas Cruz, the ex-student accused of killing more than a dozen students and teachers at his Florida high school in February, is now accused of attacking a jail guard.
Cruz, 20, is charged with aggravated assault on an officer, battery on an officer and the use of an electric or chemical weapon against an officer, Broward County Jail records show. The newly added charges bring the total number of charges Cruz faces to 37.
The former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student already faced 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder in the Valentine’s Day massacre at the Parkland school. Cruz has been in the jail, located in Fort Lauderdale, since the mass shooting.
Court records show that Broward County Sgt. Raymond Beltran was monitoring Cruz while he used the dayroom alone just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, at which time Beltran asked the inmate not to drag his sandals as he walked around the room.
“Cruz responded by displaying his middle finger to Beltran,” the affidavit said. “Beltran advised that as he began to stand up, Cruz rushed him and struck him in the face.”
The pair started scuffling, which resulted in Beltran being knocked to the ground. Cruz managed to grab the deputy’s stun gun, which discharged during the struggle.
Read the four-age booking report and arrest affidavit below.
The entire exchange was caught by a surveillance camera, the affidavit said. In the footage, Cruz could be seen rushing at the guard and striking him with his left fist.
Cruz took Beltran to the ground and, while on top of him, struck him several more times in the head as the guard tried to regain control of the inmate. It was after Beltran got on top of Cruz that Cruz momentarily grabbed the stun gun from the deputy’s holster.
Cruz kept striking Beltran until the deputy used his right hand, which now held the stun gun, to hit Cruz in the face.
“After being struck by Beltran, Cruz retreated to one of the seats located in the dayroom area, at which point Beltran was able to take him into custody,” the affidavit said.
Broward County Sheriff's Sgt. Anthony Marciano, a union representative for the county's jail guards, told NBC News that no one was injured by the stun gun. He told the news agency that Cruz was separated from the rest of the inmates, but was allowed a few hours in the dayroom, alone, each day.
After the latest incident, Cruz will now spend 23 hours a day in his cell, Marciano said.
Cruz is facing the death penalty for the Feb. 14 massacre at Stoneman Douglas.
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