Chabad Footage Shows Nikolas Cruz ‘Casually Walking By’ After Shooting
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A Chabad center in Coral Springs, Florida, may have evidence that can help police bring the Parkland high school shooter to justice.
When Rabbi Hershy Bronstein of the Chai Center Chabad saw in a report from the local sheriff’s office that a suspect had been arrested at a McDonald’s across the street from his building, he checked security camera footage to see if it contained any evidence that could help police, Chabad.org reported.
The camera footage showed suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, walking down the street and into McDonalds after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Cruz reportedly had purchased a drink at a Subway located in a Walmart along the route before going entering the McDonalds.
“My heart skipped a beat when I saw it,” Bronstein told the Jewish news website Vos Iz Neias of reviewing the security camera footage. “You see him in our parking lot, casually walking by, looking over his shoulder.”
Bronstein shared the footage with the FBI, as well as news media outlets.
“They told me it could be an important part of the case,” Bronstein told VIN. “If he takes an insanity plea, the confident way he is walking could prove otherwise.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
